This comes via NTEN- The Non-profit Technology Network. The post, “25 Ways to Increase Your Organization’s Communication Capacity” has some great ideas for making communication easier no matter what kind of organization you have – sole proprietorship, big business, government, non-profit, education, association or club.

Here’s the highlights.

Clarify Your Strategy

Automation

Get Everyone Participating

I have been reading A List Apart since it was an actual listserv. It is a great resource, nay, one of the best resources, for user experience, user centered design, information architecture and web standard coding information.

In mid-December 2008 they ran a couple of articles/posts on what they referred to as “content strategy.” I wrote a couple of lengthy comments on both.

Step 1, Step 2…

The gist of  “The Discipline of Content Strategy” was that content always seems to go last in a website project and often the wrong person does it. And that the role of content strategist needs a clearer and more respected definition. I don’t disagree with any of that really. People involved in content “strategy” and creation deserve respect for their skills. But the post seemed to continue the current website creation practice of placing content after IA and design.

That I have a problem with. Website creation starts with the audience — who is the site for? Next is objective and goals — what defines success and what do you want the audience to know, do or feel after they visit the site. Next is the content that will carry the message to achieve the objective and goals. Only then can you execute a design. Otherwise you just have a bunch of shapes and colors arranged in a pleasing manner.

Another point made was that one person can’t know it all. I’d contend that if you don’t know enough about the different roles in the process then you can’t be effective. And that the Renaissance person is possible.

Hello, I am a Content Strategist

In the  “Content-ious Strategy” post the author described where content occurred in the process of a website execution. He even included a link to a cocktail napkin drawing showing where content strategy fit in the website design process. His main point I think was to describe who should be doing content strategy. He (rightly) determined that information architects, content analysts (library science specialists) and subject matter experts were not appropriate content strategists. And especially not project managers. So he created  a new role, content strategist.

Enough with the new roles already! Website creation professionals seem to think that nothing else is like website creation. And it often seems that IA, UX, UCD and now content strategy professionals have a kind of duality complex. They feel inferior because they never seem to get their due respect for the expertise they have. And they feel superior because their role in the creation process is most important. And they are all missing the point. It is a team effort. And every team member has a role that is vital to the success of the project.

Wheel Reinvention

Most of my comment referred to the successful model of film and video production. Nearly a century in the making, the model of producer, director, writer, cameraman, etc. has worked. But the website creation business, like the multimedia business before it, seems to feel that their business has no equivalent. I think that must be because of the roots in software development. The role that is really missing is that of producer. Project managers are not producers. They manage projects. Producers lead the creative team. They do the upfront analysis, define the initial content and creative vision, and then assemble the team of experts to execute it. I think the contention about content strategy is that so many people claim all or a piece of that producer-type role: account execs, PMs, IAs, user experience people, coders and now content strategists. Why not just create the role of Producer and be done with it? The ideal team for a website project, in my opinion, would be, in order of hierarchy: producer; creative director and writer; technical director; project manager, graphic artist; and coder.

I have always liked the Boxes and Arrows site for the latest on information architecture and interaction design. This post, Information Architecture for Audio: Doing It Right, caught my eye. I had never consciously considered information architecture principals while creating audio.

Here’s the key points:

• Write with your audience in mind
• Structure your content by providing an overview at the beginning…include a summary at the end
• Follow the rules of radio journalism
• Rely on a familiar interface.

I’ve written about similar concepts here at DoingMedia. I think this will be great information for podcasters.

If you like what you read why not subscribe? And if you have already, thanks and tell a friend!

What matters most about your audience is “Who do you think they are?” Your audience knows who they are. You have to get to know them if you expect your media communication to be successful. So, how do you know who your audience is? You can start with the purpose of your project. What are you trying to achieve? Then, who do you need to “speak to” so you can achieve that. Simple enough. Well, maybe.

Really drilling down into your purpose to find the audience can be difficult. You may be too close to the project. Or your customer is too close to the project. You have an advantage there because you can use your outside viewpoint to ask your customer some challenging questions.

Something for Everyone

I’ve had many customers who have said their project is for “everyone” But, who is everyone? “People who would buy our product.” What kind of person is that? “They’re people who need to [insert your verb here.]” So kids wouldn’t buy your product? “Oh no; people who own a home.” How much does your product cost? “Quality is really important to us so our product costs more than our competitors. About 20% more. Every part of it is made in the USA!” Do you sell the product overseas? “No, mostly to people in the Upper Midwest and Northeast.”

So that wouldn’t really be everyone, would it? Looks like the customer for their product, and the audience for your project, is a Northeastern or Midwestern US homeowner. They value quality over price, which translates into well educated and/or a higher income bracket than most. Discovering the audience from your customer is more art than science, more conversation than interrogation.

Defining the audience shapes the language, the visuals and the media we’ll use in the project. So, if this is so simple why don’t many communicators do it more often? Because it takes time. And the fun stuff is the “creating” part, right? And it may be easier to listen to what your customer tells you (because they should know their customers) so you can turn the project around and get paid faster. But if the project fails or doesn’t hit the mark your customer will look at you and ask “What happened?”

Demographics is the name of the game. Basically, it’s how you describe a group of people.

• Age
• Gender
• Ethnicity
• Location
• Education
• Occupation
• Income
• Hobbies
• Family structure
• [Your Descriptor Here]

You may have multiple audiences, each described slightly differently. You could have a primary audience and then secondary or tertiary audience. You may need multiple vehicles in multiple media in multiple venues or locations to reach them all effectively.

What’s in a Name?

A popular concept today, especially in web design, is the persona. A persona can help you or your customer to visualize “who” your audience is. In the film business they call this a character’s “back story.” Some personas even use pictures to help with the visualization. Often, personas represent “users.” This is probably a carryover from the software development world who think of the people that use their “software applications” as “users”. And admittedly, many websites, or portions therof, are software applications. To some developers and web designers “users” make mistakes.”

“User” is an “inside looking out” view of an audience member. In communication its up to the sender (you) to make sure the message is received correctly. Receivers (audience members) don’t make mistakes they misunderstand. To make your media project successful you need make sure your audience doesn’t “misunderstand.” So you need to know who they are.
Users visit rehab, people visit websites.

If you think of a website as another media, an incredibly rich media, then the concept of “user” breaks down pretty quickly. If you can identify exactly who an audience member is that visits a website (through some sign up or registration process) then you have a “person.” But before that you have an audience member. In a group of audience members. Who can generally be described a particular way. And who, it could be argued, would behave relatively the same.

Discovering the audience sets out the roadmap for your project. If you haven’t discovered your audience then the question to ask is “What do you think you’re doing?!”

A very web design-centric but good post here on the Web Design Process. It’s so close I can almost taste it!

The list of process steps are:

1. Know what you’re doing
2. Know what the site needs to do (Is this “Goal”?)
3. Know what the site’s visitors want (When did we figure out who the “Audience” would be?)
4. Get a good picture of the personality and style of the web site
5. Sketch out highly successful scenarios
6. Organise views into a site map
7. Sketch the essential features & look
8. Map your visitors’ attention
9. Arrange the visual elements to work together

I suppose we can make the assumption that the author has already figured out the who, why and what.

Right?