Presented at the Web Builder 2.0 conference in 2006. Understanding your website content by doing a content analysis.

1. Understanding Your Content
By Chiara Fox
Web Builder 2.0, December 4, 2006
1

2. What Is “Content Analysis”?
The process of assessing the nature of the content on
a given web site.
Web Builder 2.0 2
2

3. What is content?
• Words • Services
• Images • Physical items
• Video • Signage
• Tools or applications
Web Builder 2.0 3
3

4. Content Analysis Is About Patterns
Web Builder 2.0 4
4

5. And Relationships
5

6. Why Do a Content Analysis?
• You have to know what you have before you start
doing something with it.
• Often done at the beginning of:
• A site migration to a new platform or content management
system (CMS)
• A re-architecture project
• The task analysis and mental model process.
Web Builder 2.0 6
6

7. Who Should Do the Content Analysis?
Web Builder 2.0 7
7

8. Context Users
IA
Content
Web Builder 2.0 8
2
8

9. What Are the Parts?
• Content analysis involves a series of deliverables.
• Content Inventory
• Content Audit
• Content Map
Web Builder 2.0 9
9

10. The Content Inventory
Web Builder 2.0 10
10

11. The Content Inventory
A content inventory is a detailed, meticulous
accounting of all items on the site.
Web Builder 2.0 11
11

12. Data to Capture in a Content Inventory
• Content owner
• Person responsible for migration/updating page
• Freeze status
• ROT status
• Current location in site
• New location in site
• New file names/URL changes
Web Builder 2.0 12
12

13. An Example of a Content Inventory
Web Builder 2.0 13
13

14. Another Example of a Content Inventory
Web Builder 2.0 14
14

15. ent genres
Cont
Web Builder 2.0 15
15

16. What’s the interesting difference?
Web Builder 2.0 16
16

17. Ask yourself...
• How is the document used?
• What is its purpose?
• What expectations will people bring to it?
• What can someone do with it?
Web Builder 2.0 17
17

18. You know what you’ll get when you see links to...
• Press releases
• Product overview
• Contact information
• Video tutorial
• Case studies
• Shopping cart
Web Builder 2.0 18
18

19. The Content Audit
Web Builder 2.0 19
19

20. 20

21. How Big of a Sample To Take?
Total Minutes for Sampling / 1080 minutes /
3 minutes per item / 3 minutes per item /
2 passes over item / 2 passes over item /
total documents = 5200 documents =
% of site sampled 3.5% of site
It doesn’t take a lot of content to get a feel for what is
on the site.
Web Builder 2.0 21
21

22. How to Record Sampled Items
• Two methods for capturing the sampled content.
Web Builder 2.0 22
22

23. 23

24. 24

25. Example of a Content Audit
Web Builder 2.0
25

26. 26

27. Example of a Content Audit, II
Web Builder 2.0
27

28. The Content Map
Web Builder 2.0 28
28

29. Map Your Content Audit
Web Builder 2.0 29
29

30. So What Gets Mapped?
• Start with the spreadsheet
• Not formats (e.g., html, pdf, jpg)
• Generalize the pages by identifying the content types
(content genres) that you have
Web Builder 2.0 30
30

31. Content Map for Task Analysis
Web Builder 2.0 31
31

32. 32

33. 33

34. So, Where Does the Analysis Happen?
• We’ve talked a lot about capturing data about a site,
and how to record what we’ve found.
Web Builder 2.0 34
34

35. What to Look for During Analysis
• Remember, it’s about:
Patterns Relationships
Web Builder 2.0 35
35

36. Groupings and Connections
• The patterns and relationships will suggest groupings
for the different content types.
• Broad groupings probably already exist in the current
site structure.
• Look for a finer level of groupings and connections.
Web Builder 2.0 36
36

37. Web Builder 2.0 37
37

38. Thank You!
Questions? Comments?
Chiara Fox: chiara@adaptivepath.com
Web Builder 2.0 38
38