Creating Value to Your Website: Practicing Content Inventory and Auditing
-
lydiabazan
- 2 minutes reading time
As the class transitions to applying our knowledge to real-world clients, the materials from Modules 2 and 3 have been invaluable in helping me understand the requirements for analyzing content inventories and conducting content audits. Fortunately, much of the material and methods used in content audits and inventories are familiar to me, as they are shared within UX research, such as surveying, user interviews, personas, and customer journey mapping. However, applying these methods to a content audit was a new and exciting challenge for me.
Q1: What did you read or watch that surprised, delighted or disappointed you? Why?
One of the most helpful aspects of understanding what is needed for a content audit was visualizing the Excel sheet examples provided by the Nielson Norman Group and Erin Schroeder in his article Content Audits: A Heavy Lift for a Huge Payoff. This not only aided in comprehending how an audit deliverable might look but also shed light on how content is analyzed and recorded for businesses.
A surprising revelation for me came during Module 2’s lecture by Dr. Kim on the difference between Agile and Waterfall project management methods. Although not a central topic in the course, I hadn’t realized the potential for higher risk with the waterfall method, especially considering my current company’s utilization of this project management type. This newfound awareness has sparked my curiosity about my company’s internal management preferences and what it might be like to work in a more Agile-based environment.
While quantitative data is crucial for digital content, a significant challenge for me lies in translating these digital-based auditing methods into physical materials, such as pamphlets and brochures, particularly for our client project. I am hopeful that later modules will address how to approach such an audit, especially given its more qualitative nature.
Q2: What was most meaningful for your own career goals? Why?
This module has provided me with better insight into how web content ideation should be approached within my position in the company. Unfortunately, due to our workload and quick-turn requests, most designers on my team are not aware of how content strategy should be implemented across multiple channels, nor is it a priority in our training. Although creative leads are assigned to each project request to ensure consistency in our brand guidelines, inconsistencies persist across multiple high-traffic pages on our customer website. It’s crucial to consider various factors contributing to these flaws, including longer content than ideal due to legal requirements, a gradual transition to a new version of our CMS, and regulations governing our multiple lines of business.
Through the examples and tutorials provided, I am curious whether I can facilitate conversations with our internal content strategists and prioritize pages that need improvement. I found Dr. Kim’s lectures and resources explaining MadCap software and Screaming Frog’s website crawler particularly helpful. Thanks to these insights, I feel more confident and capable of requesting these types of resources from our internal content strategists and analyzing inventories to better inform my team about necessary fixes. Who knows, maybe I can contribute to creating a roadmap on how to address these issues!