Given at UXPA-DC's User Focus Conference, Oct. 19, 2012

1. Purposes, Personas, Conversations
Janice (Ginny) Redish, Ph.D.
Redish & Associates, Inc.
Bethesda, Maryland Chapter 2
301−229−3039
ginny@redish.net
www.redish.net October 19, 2012

2. Redish & Associates, Inc.
Develop and follow a content strategy
Content strategy =
 Thinking strategically about your content
 Aligning content with business goals
Ahava Leibtag who blogs at
http://onlineitallmatters.blogspot.com
Halvorson and
Rach, 2012
© 2012, Janice (Ginny) Redish User Focus 12 Slide 2

3. Redish & Associates, Inc.
Content strategy = governance
Content must be
 planned
 coordinated
 reviewed
 managed and maintained
 removed
Break down those silos!
© 2012, Janice (Ginny) Redish User Focus 12 Slide 3

4. Redish & Associates, Inc.
Content strategy = resources
People
 Who will write? edit?
illustrate? produce?
 What skills do these
people need?
Technology
 What systems and
Flickr cc photo by Rowens27
templates will you use?
 How will people be
trained to do what they
must do?
© 2012, Janice (Ginny) Redish User Focus 12 Slide 4

5. Redish & Associates, Inc.
Content is everything
you have on the web site
− and in all your other communication channels
 text  pdfs
 illustrations  videos
 charts  podcasts
 graphs  blogs
 tables  forums
 forms  other social media
© 2012, Janice (Ginny) Redish User Focus 12 Slide 5

6. Redish & Associates, Inc.
Content strategy = messages and more
Messages Right content
in the right amount
to the right person
Media at the right time
in the right medium
Tones
Styles
© 2012, Janice (Ginny) Redish User Focus 12 Slide 6

7. Redish & Associates, Inc.
Plan at every level
Of course, content strategy = planning.
Every piece of content also needs a plan.
Answer these 3 questions:
 Why? (your purposes)
 Who? (your site visitors)
 When, why, and how?
(your site visitors' conversations)
© 2012, Janice (Ginny) Redish User Focus 12 Slide 7

8. Redish & Associates, Inc.
Why? (Purposes)
 Align with the agency's overall strategy and goals
 Be measurable
 Focus on what you want
your site visitors / readers to do
 Be specific
$
© 2012, Janice (Ginny) Redish User Focus 12 Slide 8

9. Redish & Associates, Inc.
Focus on what you want your site visitors to do
We want
to sell lots of shoes
site visitors to buy lots of shoes from us
to inform doctors about the new network
doctors to join our network
to tell people about this topic
answer site visitors questions about this topic
© 2012, Janice (Ginny) Redish User Focus 12 Slide 9

10. Redish & Associates, Inc.
Be specific
Kenneth W. Davis
http://www.
manageyourwriting.com/
© 2012, Janice (Ginny) Redish User Focus 12 Slide 10

11. Redish & Associates, Inc.
Who? Personas
 Who are your site visitors?
Name the different groups.
 What should you keep in mind about these people?
Write down adjectives or phrases.
 attitudes
 knowledge
 context of use
not what content they are looking for
− that's the question after this one.
© 2012, Janice (Ginny) Redish User Focus 12 Slide 11

12. Redish & Associates, Inc.
What is a persona?
User profile:
 a fictional person • system administrators
who realistically represents • guys, 25 – 40 years old
a major group of site visitors • know terminology
• on the computer all day
 composite Art
Words like
 based on data about "people"
 demographics "users"
 goals and tasks "site visitors"
 contexts of use (environments) "readers"
 values are all too vague for
good conversations.
© 2012, Janice (Ginny) Redish User Focus 12 Slide 12

13. Redish & Associates, Inc.
Persona from Epcor Utilities, Edmonton,
Alberta, Canada, used with permission
© 2012, Janice (Ginny) Redish User Focus 12 Slide 13

14. Redish & Associates, Inc.
When? Why? How? Conversations
 Site visitors come with their own goals, tasks, scenarios,
= conversations.
 Visualize the persona coming to your content.
© 2012, Janice (Ginny) Redish User Focus 12 Slide 14

15. Redish & Associates, Inc.
Let's apply this planning to a real example
© 2012, Janice (Ginny) Redish User Focus 12 Slide 15

16. Redish & Associates, Inc.
My current draft revision
© 2012, Janice (Ginny) Redish User Focus 12 Slide 16

17. Redish & Associates, Inc.
Thank you
Purposes,
Questions?
Personas, Comments?
Conversations
Ginny Redish
ginny@redish.net
www.redish.net
@GinnyRedish
2nd edition
Ginny Redish August 2012
© 2012, Janice (Ginny) Redish User Focus 12 Slide 17