Greg Dunlap is on a mission to help people create better content for the web. As Director of Strategy for Lullabot - a well-known consultancy that is best known for its work with the Drupal content management system - Greg helps clients develop good websites. As the author of a forthcoming book on web content authoring, Greg is taking his next step toward helping people create better content for the modern web. https://ellessmedia.com/csi/greg-dunlap/
Sep 28, 2022•31 min•Season 5Ep. 125
Artificial intelligence is driving a wave of change in content strategy practice. AI is here now and will soon touch virtually every aspect of content work, from ideation and creation to management and analytics. Jeff Coyle can help you understand and navigate how these new AI-driven practices will affect your content career. https://ellessmedia.com/csi/jeff-coyle/
Sep 01, 2022•32 min•Season 124Ep. 5
In the late 1990s, as digital practices like web design and development emerged, experiences were being created and users were getting attention, but the practices that guided that work had not yet been articulated. That's when Jesse James Garrett wrote his book, The Elements of User Experience . After sharing his ideas in numerous client pitches and sketching them on whiteboards for his co-workers, Jesse collected his discoveries into a manuscript that would become the first textbook for the ne...
Aug 14, 2022•31 min•Season 5Ep. 123
As content strategists and designers we do our best to create experiences that inform and empower our users. Unfortunately, we sometimes fall short of perfect, human-centered, user-focused design practice. Two of our most common failings occur when we bombard our users with excessive cognitive load and impose on them unnecessary emotional labor. David Dylan Thomas and Dayana Kibilds are having an ongoing dialog about these important topics and let me eavesdrop on their conversation. https://elle...
Jul 27, 2022•39 min•Season 5Ep. 122
Knowledge graph technology can help content programs in many ways: to aid content discoverability, to discover valuable insights in existing content, and to build transparent personalization programs that build brand loyalty and foster customer trust. Ashleigh Faith has worked with content and knowledge graphs for more than 15 years and has a knack for explaining the benefits of the technology, most notably via her very popular YouTube channel. Ashleigh Faith works with content knowledge graphs ...
Jul 13, 2022•35 min•Season 5Ep. 121
The use of artificial intelligence in content design and content operations is emerging and evolving quickly. As is the case with many new technologies, it might at first look like robots are coming to steal jobs from humans. But, according to May Habib, AI is more likely to create more, and more interesting, work for people. May and her team at Writer are developing an AI platform that's designed to support human creativity and improve content operations. https://ellessmedia.com/csi/may-habib/...
Jun 28, 2022•32 min•Season 5Ep. 120
Modern communication on the web is best when it's semantic and meaningful, networked and conversational. Creating web conversations starts with collaborative internal communication and then invites the marketplace to join in. Teodora Petkova is a semantic web explorer with a PhD in digital marketing and communication. She loves to share her fascination with the evolution of web content and her expertise in cultivating marketing conversations. https://ellessmedia.com/csi/teodora-petkova/...
Jun 01, 2022•34 min•Season 5Ep. 119
Natalie Dunbar can help you build your content strategy practice, whether you're running a one-person content show, building a content department, or incorporating a content team into a design operation. Drawing on experiences from her long and eclectic content strategy career and adding the insights of several other industry veterans, Natalie's new book is a must-read for anyone building or managing a content strategy program. https://ellessmedia.com/csi/natalie-dunbar/
May 11, 2022•34 min•Season 5Ep. 118
Kate Thomas is leading the transformation of marketing content at PayPal from hand-crafted web pages to structured content stored in a headless CMS. Like many organizational-transformation projects, this one has highlighted both the benefits of structuring content and the challenges of getting content authors to work in new ways. https://ellessmedia.com/csi/kate-thomas/
Apr 20, 2022•30 min•Season 5Ep. 117
Seth Earley helps enterprises use ontologies to power the intelligent content experiences that create personalized content interactions and that run chatbots, voice assistants, and other new technologies. An ontology is a business practice that helps you understand the knowledge in your business and connect and share it in new and powerful ways. https://ellessmedia.com/csi/seth-earley/
Apr 06, 2022•33 min•Season 5Ep. 116
Katrin Suetterlin is a content architect, a content designer, and an expert on designing for neurodivergent populations. You hear jokes about ADHD, dyslexia, and similar neurological conditions all the time, but as designers we need to take neurodivergence seriously. Research shows that at least 20% of the population exhibits one or more types of neurodiversity. If you're a human-centered design practitioner, you don't want to overlook this important group of humans. https://ellessmedia.com/csi/...
Mar 22, 2022•35 min•Season 5Ep. 115
Dan Brown has focused his design work on information architecture for the past 25 years. Along the way, he has written three books, designed a design game, and created one of the the most-used tools in the profession, the Information Architecture Lenses card deck. Dan is very thoughtful about the practice of IA and has a lot to say about how the field has evolved. https://ellessmedia.com/csi/dan-brown/
Mar 10, 2022•31 min•Season 5Ep. 114
Design systems are quickly being adopted across companies of all sizes and types, from big enterprises to burgeoning startups. As in all digital practices, content is a crucial element in these systems. Nicole Michaelis has worked with content in design systems for several years and has learned a lot about how to create and manage the content that goes into, and comes out of, design systems. https://ellessmedia.com/csi/nicole-michaelis/
Feb 02, 2022•32 min•Season 5Ep. 113
Donna Spencer has practiced information architecture at the highest levels for more than two decades. She has taught innumerable workshops and courses, and she wrote an entire book on the subject. Still, to this day, when she teaches IA, she feels inadequate. This speaks in no way to her professional knowledge or her skills as a teacher. Donna knows this field as well as anyone and speaks eloquently about it. Rather, it gets at the "jigsaw mess" of the practice of information architecture and th...
Jan 20, 2022•33 min•Season 5Ep. 112
Content programs need to be guided by a sound model and built on a strong foundation. They need to put people first but to also account for the technical systems that handle the details of turning abstract concepts into tangible and useful content artifacts. Deane Barker has been modeling and building content management systems for more than 25 years. In this conversation, he shares some of the insights gleaned during his career. https://ellessmedia.com/csi/deane-barker/
Jan 04, 2022•33 min•Season 5Ep. 111
In just a few short years, design systems have been adopted by most digital organizations. These systems free designers from many mundane design-production details, letting them focus on the creative aspects of their work. To this point, content has been an afterthought in many of these systems. Chris Strahl sees that changing in the next few years and predicts that content concerns will assume an important place in design systems. https://ellessmedia.com/csi/chris-strahl/...
Dec 02, 2021•31 min•Season 4Ep. 110
Many content professionals were first introduced to the practice of content modeling by Rachel Lovinger's 2012 A List Apart article on the subject. Content modeling gives teams of authors, managers, designers, and programmers a shared understanding of a content ecosystem. Before they write a single sentence or line of code, teams align on a common language that keeps their work in sync. Content modeling accounts for everything from the authoring experience to metadata strategy to the end-user ex...
Nov 17, 2021•30 min•Season 4Ep. 109
Are Halland's "Core Model" has guided the work of content strategists, information architects, web marketers, and other digital professionals for more than 15 years. The model grew out of the need to align stakeholders around a practice that could balance user needs, business concerns, and content creation for websites. It has evolved into a versatile tool that can improve the content experience in any digital product. https://ellessmedia.com/csi/are-halland/
Nov 03, 2021•31 min•Season 4Ep. 108
Finding the right job in the content strategy field has always been a challenge, and it's getting harder as computers take over more of the applicant screening process. Changes in the industry - especially the convergence of technical and marketing communication duties - also mean that you you have to be proactive about managing your career, even if you aren't job hunting. Jack Molisani knows how to navigate this challenging landscape. He is both the principal of a staffing agency that focuses o...
Oct 19, 2021•29 min•Season 4Ep. 107
John Collins is a content engineer at Atlassian, where they are well along in their transition from old-fashioned bespoke content models to modern connected content. Creating and managing content for intelligent content ecosystems requires a fresh approach and a new set of skills. This new content engineering discipline helps enterprises address some of the biggest challenges of the digital era: personalization, omnichannel strategy, and localization. https://ellessmedia.com/csi/john-collins/...
Sep 30, 2021•32 min•Season 4Ep. 106
Preston So is an expert in both omnichannel strategy and voice design, as well as a number of other digital business and design practices. As communications channels proliferate and the variety of digital devices grows, we need strategies to give our customers and users a consistent experience, no matter where they are or how they are consuming our content. Preston weaves together elements of omnichannel strategy, voice usability, and other modern digital practices into an "immersive content str...
Sep 13, 2021•37 min•Season 4Ep. 105
Aaron Bradley uses knowledge graphs to create intelligent content experiences at Electronic Arts. Knowledge graphs are a relatively new technology that lets content engineers create more meaningful and versatile content experiences. https://ellessmedia.com/csi/aaron-bradley/
Aug 30, 2021•39 min•Season 4Ep. 104
After showing up in the content strategy world and generously sharing her expertise for more than 20 years, Margot Bloomstein has earned the trust of this community. Margot's new book, Trustworthy, shows you how to earn the trust of your customers and users. As reliance on experts fades and is replaced with crowd-sourced trust, the work of content strategists has to evolve to account for these new dynamics. https://ellessmedia.com/csi/margot-bloomstein/
Aug 11, 2021•30 min•Season 4Ep. 103
Lisa Welchman recognized early in her career that companies would need help managing the business challenges that come with new technologies. In the ensuing 20 years, she has become the leading expert in the new field of digital governance. Today, Lisa helps large enterprises, NGOs, and other companies develop frameworks, policies, and standards that let them collaborate effectively and operate responsibly. https://ellessmedia.com/csi/lisa-welchman/
Jul 28, 2021•32 min•Season 4Ep. 102
Kristina Halvorson is to many the face and the voice of the content strategy profession. She came to prominence a dozen years ago with the publication of her book Content Strategy for the Web, and she had been practicing content strategy for a dozen years before that. Since 2011 she has organized Confab, the leading content strategy conference, and founded in 2020 the Button conference, which focuses on digital product content. She hosts the Content Strategy podcast. And she leads Brain Traffic,...
Jul 09, 2021•34 min•Season 4Ep. 101
Jeff Eaton looks at content modeling two ways, both the traditional boxes-and-arrows way and the title-case Content Modeling way. Thinking about how you'll structure and organize your content will always be important. But the real power of content modeling emerges when it rises to a higher level and accounts for the shared understanding the people across your organization have of your content. Jeff calls this more sophisticated approach "The Content Model." https://ellessmedia.com/csi/jeff-eaton...
Jun 25, 2021•29 min•Season 4Ep. 100
Beth Dunn is the author of Cultivating Content Design, a book that shows content leaders how to create the kind of successful content design program she has built at HubSpot. The secret to Beth's approach is communication. First, she listens intently to her colleagues and stakeholders. Then she invites them to workshops and other activities where they co-discover content concerns and figure out together how to address them. The key to Beth's success is her pragmatic approach. She always focuses ...
Jun 11, 2021•30 min•Season 4Ep. 99
Patrick Bosek helps businesses author and manage content that is structured so that it can be used for many purposes, not just one-off publications. Structuring documentation this way creates intelligent content that both addresses current customer needs and anticipates future demands. The DITA standard underlies this approach to creating and managing the smart, adaptable content that modern businesses need to complete their digital transformation. https://ellessmedia.com/csi/patrick-bosek/...
May 26, 2021•33 min•Season 4Ep. 98
Patricia Gomez and Mario Ferrer lead the content design team at King Games, the makers of Candy Crush and other popular mobile games. They operate at a scale that might intimidate some people, designing experiences for nearly a quarter of a billion users. Serving that many customers forces them to be thoughtful about the tools they use and about how they work with their colleagues. They and their team have become the "glue" that connects designers, developers, product managers, support staff, an...
May 12, 2021•40 min•Season 4Ep. 97
Modern digital experiences meet humans where they are. Talking to a voice assistant. Typing on a keyboard. Reacting to a vibration delivered by your smart watch. Controlling a VR game character with a gesture controller. Wherever you want to be, there is now a device and an interaction modality to take you there. Cheryl Platz is the expert guide who can help you navigate the practice of multimodal design, the new UX approach that connects these many interactions to create one coherent human-cent...
Apr 28, 2021•31 min•Season 4Ep. 96
