Content Strategy
Episode 111 Going Responsive with Karen McGrane
December 17, 2015
It’s clear. Responsive is the way to go. One website for all screen sizes, for all devices. But what does it take for a company with an pre-existing site or pre-existing way of working together to make the needed changes to go responsive? It's not about the media queries. It's about everything else. Karen McGrane joins Jen Simmons to talk about her new book, and to imagine an amazing future.
In This Episode
- What does it take to revise an existing site to be responsive? What are the biggest challenges?
- How can you get the whole team on the same page, understanding the complexity of modern web design?
- What about responsive web design is so hard?
- Why using PDFs generated in Photoshop to make final decisions is a lousy way to design. How a process that includes prototypes is much better.
- How to make big changes to the work flow inside a team.
- What we can learn from the past, the transition from analog to digital.
- The possibilities in design that open up once we modernize our content systems and workflows.
- The dangers of using a front-end framework.
- What’s wrong with the industry’s current focus on style guides?
- What does it take to design a true system of content and layout options?
- How might we start empowering content creators with tools for true editorial design?
Episode 101 Structuring Content with Eileen Webb
April 7, 2015
For years, we've put content on websites by dumping text, images and video onto a page like it's one big blob. In the age of mobile, it's become painfully clear that really doesn't work anymore. Planning a content system of types and fields yields much better results. Why? How? Eileen Webb joins Jen Simmons to explain exactly what this means.
In This Episode
- We answer a listener question about which technologies are the best ones to learn — how does a new developer manage to learn them all?
- Architecting content structure vs. strategizing about content quality, messaging, voice and tone
- Why content should have a rigid structure
- Using a content audit to find patterns
- How content structure should fits the needs of, and reflect the organizational structure of the end client
- Collaborating with the folks who will be adding content to the website
- Where to start
- How to do some of this, even if the people in charge of your project aren't on board
Episode 95 Making The Web Ahead Website with Jen Simmons
February 11, 2015
After months of work, I've launched a new website for The Web Ahead, at thewebahead.net. Hear a saga of the agony, the ecstasy, the design and the build. How? Why? On what? A lot of geeking out about tech and design and some talk about future plans, too. The inimitable Jeff Eaton switches seats and interviews me, Jen Simmons, all about it.
In This Episode
- Reasons behind creating this website
- Jen's design process, designing in Drupal
- Designing the audio player
- Transcripts and Team Web Ahead
- The server stack and deployment process
- Figuring out branding and typography
- Future plans for the show
- Growing The Web Ahead into a business
- How you can get more involved
Episode 92 Making Sense of A Mess with Abby Covert
January 15, 2015
Sadly, a lot of websites are a mess. They're rife with inconsistencies, broken links, mangled meaning, confusion and frustration. How does this happen? How do we get out of these messes? Information architecture can help. Abby Covert joins Jen Simmons to explain.
In This Episode
- What is Information Architecture?
- How to face a mess
- How words are weird
- How different people think different things about the same stuff
- The costs of living with a mess
Episode 61 Making Your Stuff Make Sense with Jeff Eaton
March 5, 2014
Architecting how content is structured, collected, and presented are three distinct aspects of designing a web project. Jeff Eaton joins Jen Simmons to talk about how to think through it all.
Episode 57 Content Structure with Steve Fisher
October 15, 2013
Web designer Steve Fisher joins Jen Simmons to talk about designing content structure, and his process for working with clients to best define the essence of a site's message.
Episode 27 Content with Kristina Halvorson
July 27, 2012
How do we get good content on the web? Kristina Halvorson joins Jen Simmons to talk about the discipline of content strategy, where it came from and where it's going. We also get into fear and life and how to make change in an environment that needs it.
Episode 20 Content Everywhere with Lyza Gardner
March 16, 2012
Author, speaker and developer Lyza Danger Gardner joins Jen Simmons to talk about how CMSes provide — or fail to provide — a platform for publishing content everywhere. How can we design & build a website that will publish everywhere and last long term?
Episode 6 Web Strategy with Karen McGrane
October 19, 2011
Karen McGrane talks about planning systems of flexible web content that can be used in a variety of places. And about the need for better content entry workflows.
Episode 4 Fair Use & Copyright with Pat Aufderheide
October 7, 2011
Fair Use expert Pat Aufderheide joins Jen Simmons to explain when you can use other people's copyrighted material in your work.
