From MinneWebCon 2017 in Minneapolis, Minnesota - May 1, 2017 Everyone has a plan. Until reality sets in. You've done the interviews, and you've rallied the team, and now you have a dream. Here's the thing: Your dream isn't going to work. No dream ever does. Instead, your dream is going to cause disappointment and frustration, because it hasn't been paired with the content management robots that will eventually serve and store your future website. How do we prepare our dreams so they can function within the cold world of web programming? How do we take what we want and translate it into something usable? How do we take someone's ideas and turn them into a usable web implementation, navigating the constraints and pitfalls of project dreams, organizational bias, and unrealistic expectations? It's called "reification," and it's the act of making something real. We're not talking code. We're not talking CMS selection. We're simply talking about helping those we work with understand the content management landscape though a common language and practical questions. Let's take the best case scenario and get it closer to a real life scenario. Let's make things real.

1. MAKING
THINGS
REAL
A very professional presentation by
Corey Vilhauer
about content strategy and content management systems

2. THIS IS ME
@mrvilhauer

4. MY STORYMY STORY

5. MY STORY

6. “Holy shit, I’m going to
quit teaching and start
writing for websites!”
- Corey Vilhauer
user experience architect, Blend Interactive

7. CONTENT
MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS

8. CONTENT
MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS
ARE NOT THE PROBLEM
WE ARE

9. TEACHING
BUT FOR ROBOTS

10. 1 2
MESSAGE & FUNCTION
1 2

11. LET’S JAM ECONO

12. EXPECTATIONS
COMMUNICATION
REIFICATION

13. EXPECTATIONS:
OR, OUR DREAMS
ARE ALREADY DEAD
How do we prepare our dreams so
they can function within the cold
world of web programming?

15. IT’S UP TO US
TO MAKE
REALISTIC
EXPECTATIONS

16. GET REAL, DUDE
Communicate the Purpose
The Balance of Message and Structure
The Priority of the Machine
Permanence vs. Flexibility

17. Article Category
Ad Banner
Title Short Title
Meta Title
Preview Title
Header Image
Preview Image
Image Caption
Image Maintenance
Body Copy
Category Feed
Content Break Points
Alternate Tags
Opengraph
Another Ad Banner
Editorial Categories
Byline Name
Date

18. WE STILL KIND OF
SUCK AT MAKING
OUR WORK SOUND
HUMAN

19. “…developers should
watch for ambiguity or
inconsistency that will
trip up design.”
- Eric Evans
author, Domain-Driven Design

20. EXAMPLE:
Newsroom
News Listing
News Feed
News

21. When we say:
Content Model
We mean:
A conceptual term for the collection of content types,
attributes, relationships and datatypes in place to
accurate describe a logical domain of content.
In other words:
How templates, blocks, and content are shaped and work
together within the CMS.

22. COMMUNICATION:
OR, MAKING SURE
THE ROBOTS DON’T
BEGIN REVOLTING
How do we take what we
want and translate it into
something usable?

23. its ur web

24. WHAT
CAN
BE
DONE
SHOULD

25. YOUR NEW CMS
CAN’T READ
OR REASON

26. PAGES

27. PAGES COMPONENTS

28. PAGES COMPONENTS
AGGREGATIONS

29. PAGES COMPONENTS
AGGREGATIONSINTEGRATIONS
DATA!

30. HIGHLY-STRUCTURED
PAGE
MORE GENERIC PAGE
WITH COMPONENTS

31. PAGE
COMPONENTS
AGGREGATION
INTEGRATION

32. Pages
Home Page
Section Home Page
Components
General Text Page
Program Search
Undergraduate
Graduate
School
Program
Major
Directory
Directory Bio
Faculty Listing
Story
Stories
Student Media
Map Home
Calendar
Event
Image Block
Video Block
Link List Block
Program Block
Directory Listing
Story
Media Type
Event
Accordion
Table
Carousel
Promo Block
Academics Block
School Listing
Faculty Listing
Major List
Course Catalog
Search Results

33. STRUCTURED OR OPEN?
How similar is this from page to page?
What integrations do I need to use?
How often does this content change?
How many will we create?

34. WE NEED BETTER
DOCUMENTATION

35. THE SITE MAP
PRACTICALVISUAL
1.0 - About USD
1.1 - Why USD?
1.2 - Quick Facts
1.3 - Campus
1.4 - Office of
the President
1.5 - Mission and
History
1.6 - Art and
Culture
1.7- Campus
Policies
1.8 - Consumer
Information
1.9 - Emergency
Information
1.3.1 - Visit
1.3.2 - Map and
Directions
1.3.3 - About
Vermillion
1.3.4 - The
Future Campus
1.3.5 - University
Police
1.4.1 - Executive
Leadership
1.4.2 - Strategic
Plan
1.4.3 -
Accreditation
1.5.1 - Past
Presidents
1.7.1 - Policies
1.7.2 - New
Policies & Rev.
1.7.3 - Student
Rights/Respons.
1.7.4 - Student
Handbook
1.6.1 - Museums
and Galleries

37. THE WIREFRAMES
HELPFUL NOISY

38. THE WIREFRAMES
EditorialStructural instead of
AssumptionsClarity instead of
ExhaustiveConsolidation instead of
ContentContent Types instead of
HELPFUL NOISY

40. FUNCTIONAL AND TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS

41. FUNCTIONAL AND TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS
Publishing Guidelines - Page listing orders,
category handling, archiving, news feeds,
workflow, “unpublishing”
Navigation Models - Navigation anchors,
landing pages, hiding from navigation, page-
tree based or curated
Categories/Aggregations - Categorical
hierarchy, rules of news feeds and calendars

42. REIFICATION:
OR, A BIG
COMPLICATED
WORD FOR “REAL”
How do we take our ideas
and turn them into a usable
web implementation?

43. BUT WHYYYY????

44. “There’s no API call for
makeShitUpHere()”
- Deane Barker
author, Web Content Management

45. DO THE IMPOSSIBLE
AND
MAKE IT PERFECT
FOR EVERYONE

46. STEP ONE:

47. STEP TWO:

48. BAD COP

49. STEP THREE:

50. DO THE IMPOSSIBLE
AND
MAKE IT PERFECT
FOR EVERYONE

51. BUILD YOUR
WORK
INTO THE CMS

52. BUILD YOUR
ACCESSIBILITY
INTO THE CMS

53. FORCE A11Y CLARITY
Force editors to add alt tags
Automatically assign blank alt tags
Raise flags for improper headings

54. BUILD YOUR
SEO/SOCIAL
INTO THE CMS

55. Meta Title
Page Title
Menu Title
Content Title

56. BUILD YOUR
AUTHOR EXPERIENCE
INTO THE CMS

57. Meta Title
Page Title
Menu Title
Content Title
URL Slug

58. AUTHOR EXPERIENCE
Add help text to uncommon fields
Confirm common nomenclature
Add asset guidelines to fields
Make APIs and URLs easy to add
Get rid of unused content types
Handle editor documentation

59. LET’S JAM ECONO

60. THANK YOU
for making
things real
For notes and the slide deck, please visit
www.eatingelephant.com/makingthingsreal