Adaptive content is one of the most powerful and critical concepts of this decade. It is an attempt to address a never-before-seen diversity of content contexts and platforms, as well as sky-high user expectations. We are in an age where our smartphones are already starting to bore us. What were head-spinning miracles of science and technology less than three years ago “lack innovation” today. With customers assimilating new technologies into their lives and resetting expectations at this speed, the pressure to provide innovative, differentiating and strategically significant content experience is higher than ever. New platforms and interface paradigms are just around the corner. Adaptive content promises to help us address these challenges, but it still takes organisations years to adapt themselves. Noz Urbina focuses on how content architecture and process need to be altered for adaptive content, and what to do when reality sets in.

1. @nozurbina @LavaCon
Adaptive Content:
Architecture Plus Process
Minus a Healthy Dose of Reality
Noz Urbina
noz.urbina@urbinaconsulting.com
@nozurbina
urbinaconsulting.com/blog
Julian Murfitt
julian.murfitt@mekon.com

2. @nozurbina
Me (Noz Urbina, Urbina
Consulting)
Newly independent founder
of Urbina Consulting
Content strategist & modeller
Consultant/trainer
Author
urbinaconsulting.com/events
89 3929 31 x88
24g
UC.com 2015

3. @nozurbinaJulian Murfitt
• CEO & Founder, Mekon Ltd.
– Experience with publishing, high/tech,
manufacturing and aerospace defence
businesses
– Small-to-medium-to-very-large enterprises
– More understanding = better solutions
89 3929 31 x88
24g
UC.com 2015

4. @nozurbinaIn a nutshell
• We’re all talking about multi-device, multi-
channel delivery
• Adaptive content is a great answer
• But it’s really hard and expensive to do
• Here’s how to do it in a feasible, progressive way

5. @nozurbinaSteps to adaptive content
1) Audience
2) Modularity
3) Taxonomy
4) Semantic Content Modelling

6. @nozurbinaThe challenge - The Right List
• Right content
• Right format
• Right language
• Right time

7. @nozurbinaHealthy dose of reality
• Achieving multichannel delivery is time
consuming and complex
• It can be a long, multiphase journey
• Some authors struggle (badly) to adapt
• It affects all of your editorial and
publishing processes directly or indirectly

8. DEFINING OUR TERMS
Responsive Design
Adaptive Design
Embedded UA
Adaptive Content

9. Responsive design
All content is delivered. Appearance,
layouts and features are adjusted for
device client-side

10. Adaptive design
Device and other context is detected,
then server-side logic sends only
appropriate layouts & features
LinkedIn

11. App
Mobile Site
LinkedIn

12. BUT WHAT ABOUT THE
CONTENT?
The stuff that the people are actually looking for?

13. @nozurbinaContent and User Experience
• The more diverse the
interaction contexts, the
more stretched content will
become
• Square peg + round hole =
bad experience

14. @nozurbinaAdaptive Content
• Content designed to adapt
to multi-channel, multi-
format, multi-audience,
multi-context
• Can be:
– Transformed
– Filtered
• Because it’s got:
– No presentation
information!
– Structure
– Rich metadata
– Built-in, in-line
semantics

15. @nozurbinaAdaptive Content
• Adaptive Content Enables
Contextually-Appropriate
Experiences

16. @nozurbinaSteps
1) Audience
2) Modularity
3) Taxonomy
4) Semantic Content Modelling

17. WHO ARE YOUR USERS?
Audience analysis to persona and user stories
Audience Modularity Taxonomy Content Modelling

18. @nozurbinaExample Customers
• Future customer
• Existing customers
– End users
– Developers
• Registered user
• General public
• Authors
• SMEs
• Sales
• Trainer
• Marketing
• Engineers - Service/Field/Support
• Consultants
• Developers
External Internal
Audience Modularity Taxonomy Content Modelling

19. @nozurbinaCurrent Situation?
• Who are you?
• What URL referred you?
• What device are you on?
• What is your experience
level?
• What are the
physical/environmental
conditions
• What content
consumption format are
you using?
• What social media do
you use/like?
• What are you doing?
• Where are you?
• What did you do?
• What version are you
using?
• What language do you
prefer?
Audience Modularity Taxonomy Content Modelling

20. @nozurbinaUser Stories
I’m a millennial French girl who is into pop music and
Game ofThrones, what videos do you have that I’d like?
I’m an end user. How do I install the PrintJet2050 on
Windows 8?
I’m a service engineer onsite at St. Heliers Hospital
trying to repair an MRI scanner but can’t find the answer
I need in my iPad documentation. I’ve called into a
support technician to help.
Audience Modularity Taxonomy Content Modelling

21. @nozurbina
One user + multiple stories =
user journey
21

22. @nozurbina
One user + multiple stories =
user journey
22
Map stories to journeys
Map journeys to lifecycle
phases
(aware, researching, buying,
using, advocating, etc….)

23. @nozurbina
23
Healthy dose of reality
• Mapping it all out takes time and resource
• People can get insulted when you imply they
need to know their customers better
Audience Modularity Taxonomy Content Modelling

24. MODULARITY & TYPED
CONTENT
Audience Modularity Taxonomy Content Modelling

25. @nozurbinaModularity
Original Flow New
Scenario
New
Audience
New
Platform
Audience Modularity Taxonomy Content Modelling

26. @nozurbinaModule Types
Just to get you started...
• Product overview
• Process
• Concept
• Task
• Reference
• Glossary
Audience Modularity Taxonomy Content Modelling
Each module type has
an associated
content model
that defines all its
structural
components
with
semantic
labels

27. @nozurbinaBenefits
• Reuse across deliverables
• Focus on minimalism increases consumption
• Easier to manage content for translation
• Send only changed blocks for review
• Clear guidelines about what should go in
certain types of module
Audience Modularity Taxonomy Content Modelling

28. @nozurbinaHealthy dose of reality
• Writing for reuse is not easy
• Writers must collaborate more
• “Ownership” is changed
Audience Modularity Taxonomy Content Modelling

29. TAXONOMY

30. @nozurbinaTaxonomy
• Extend labelling systems for modules
– Document naming conventions
– Module naming conventions
– Keyword labels to improve SEO
• Facetted search
• Basis for content exchange with other
departments/system
Audience Modularity Taxonomy Content Modelling

31. Each category value =
a taxonomy facet

32. @nozurbinaFacetted Search
Audience Modularity Taxonomy Content Modelling
Facets for filtering

33. @nozurbinaContent can have facets too

34. @nozurbina
Map Personas & Stories >
Taxonomy
I’m a potential customer researching what options
a Mercedes could take that are street legal in
Dubai?
– Stages in customer journey
– Regional product options
– Technical specifications
I’m a diabetic.What is the meaning of error code 7
on my OneTouch blood glucose meter?
– Error codes or post-sale documentation
Audience Modularity Taxonomy Content Modelling

35. @nozurbinaBenefits
• Speak with a common language across silos
• Improve online search-ability
• Integrate more easily across systems (common
metadata = easier content import/export)
Audience Modularity Taxonomy Content Modelling

36. @nozurbinaHealthy dose of reality
• Politically difficult to establish
– People love their terms and their labels
• Management often don’t “get it”
Audience Modularity Taxonomy Content Modelling

37. SEMANTIC CONTENT
MODELLING
Content model = “Information architecture of a single module of content”

38. @nozurbinaMetadata & Semantics
Metadata
• Defined as – data about other data
• A way of further describing something
Semantics
• Gives meaning to content
<li>Press the <b>Print</b> button</li>
<step>Press the <uicontrol>Print</uicontrol> button</step>
Old-fashioned HTML
New-improved semantic mark-up!
The basis for
Adaptive
Content
bit.ly/ac-nozu
Audience Modularity Taxonomy Content Modelling

39. http://www.canon.com.vn/business/products/all-in-ones/laser-all-in-ones/imageclass-mf8010cn?languageCode=VN
Familiar
content
Example
Audience Modularity Taxonomy Content Modelling

40. Main image
Product Name
Supplementary
Product Images
Product
Overview
Feature List
Tagline
Feature Details
Model
http://www.canon.com.vn/business/products/all-in-ones/laser-all-in-ones/imageclass-mf8010cn?languageCode=VN
Reverse
engineered
Audience Modularity Taxonomy Content Modelling

41. Your content
creators &
customers will
internalise your
models
http://www.canon.com.vn/business/products/all-in-ones/laser-all-in-ones/imageclass-mf8010cn?languageCode=VN
@class=“main”
Audience Modularity Taxonomy Content Modelling

42. SEMANTIC (VS
STRUCTURE)
Audience Modularity Taxonomy Content Modelling

43. @nozurbinaSemantic vs. Structure
• Structure can be applied to content by a
template, or a spreadsheet, or a database
– Anything the prescribes and restricts the values,
types and arrangement of blocks of information
• Semantics are applied when meaning is
explicit in the metadata
Audience Modularity Taxonomy Content Modelling

44. http://www.canon.com.vn/business/products/all-in-ones/laser-all-in-ones/imageclass-mf8010cn?languageCode=VN
Audience Modularity Taxonomy Content Modelling

45. Audience Modularity Taxonomy Content Modelling
http://www.canon.com.vn/business/products/all-in-ones/laser-all-in-ones/imageclass-mf8010cn?languageCode=VN
Structural Semantic This is how we naturally
think about content
(see http://j.mp/bio-con)
When your semantics are
explicit in your content,
machines can help you
reuse, transform, translate
or format it

46. Content Models OutputsUsers
Him
Her
USB
gadget
buyers
Putting it together
Scenarios
12
3
6
9
Audience Modularity Taxonomy Content Modelling

47. @nozurbinaProduct Family (desktop) Product
(mobile)
Product (desktop)
Product leaflet
(Print)
The content model is the
backbone of adaptive,
cross-media, omnichannel
content strategies
Google
Glass
Audience Modularity Taxonomy Content Modelling

48. @nozurbinaRemember facets?
Facets
aren’t just
for filtering
pages!
Audience Modularity Taxonomy Content Modelling

49. @nozurbina
Content
12
3
6
9
Product layout
Model Output
@audience=“usb”
@audience=“him”
Content models with
facets make your
content programmable
for maximum relevance
Filter components
Audience Modularity Taxonomy Content Modelling

50. @nozurbinaHealthy dose of reality
• Letting go of formatting is hard for some
authors
– Team roles become more specialised
• Legacy migration needs careful consideration
• Project scoping and roll-out is essential
• Going without a real CCMS (as opposed to
CMS) is risky for larger or complex projects
• Tools issues still. Lots of room for
improvement
Audience Modularity Taxonomy Content Modelling

51. IT’S WORTH IT!
Adaptive content is the most scalable future-proof approach
to content

52. @nozurbina
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