Complications with Content | UX Booth.

Any good online user experience is not just about well-planned design—it is also about the actual “meat of the matter”—content. Unless web content is usable, targeted, and relevant, websites will not communicate the correct messages to their purported user bases.

In general, content isn’t associated with user experience discussions. It’s “copy” and is considered a simple, last minute thing. However, in reality, content is difficult and time consuming and has a life cycle of its own. Unless this fact is recognized in every usability project, websites may continue to face failures.

Let’s consider a hypothetical conversation between a client and content strategist:

Here is a successful website. It’s doing well but there is a problem. The feedback form is lately filled with negatives.

I think I know where this is going.

The negatives mostly relate to how the photos are wrong or the data is irrelevant or the details are outdated or the copy is boring. Looks like there is something you can do here.

You mean, re-strategize the content in the website, right?

Oh no—it’s very simple. Just make a few tweaks here and there—make copy look better, add some zany language.

Yeah, so we need to look into all content areas and ensure they reflect brand voice, have appealing formatting, are complete and updated, are easy to find…

Err something like that. Shouldn’t be complicated.

Yeah—not complicated at all (sigh).

In reality, content can be very complicated. The following are cures for common issues that may arise when developing content, elucidating why content needs far more attention than it normally gets.

Continues @http://www.uxbooth.com

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