How to Integrate UX and Content Strategy

October 6, 2015

Content marketing has breathed new life into brands and their digital marketing efforts however this influx of published content has also produced poor user experiences that don’t allow for the content to be consumed effectively.

What is the solution? Content strategy and user experience integration that create content experiences. This blog investigates the new appreciation for content online and how businesses can successfully combine user experience content strategy to support not only their brand objectives but their customers’ enjoyment too.

The Problem

Brands have a new appreciation for the benefits that content can offer in terms of brand awareness and their brand objectives. Unfortunately, this new found appreciation has led brands to produce more and more content without thought of strategy meaning there is poor user experiences and inconsumable content covering the internet. Brands are struggling to balance business goals against user experience. Here are some potential solutions that businesses can use to avoid wasting time and money on useless content:

Collaborative Work Environment

The problem with integrating UX content strategy is that it requires the work of more than one person. It requires that designers and content creators work together to integrate content and design together. Ideally designers and content creators will work together at every stage of the content creation, from an initial planning meeting all the way through to posting it live. This helped to avoid disconnect, duplicate effort and opposing recommendations.

How to build a collaborative workspace?

It is up to each individual organisation to promote a collaborative space and break down the silos employees feel comfortable working within. It is about building a culture around conversation, innovation and teamwork.

Some ways you can do this is via:

  • Regular team building activities once a month that encourage teamwork outside of a specific project. This helps to inspire behaviour within the workplace projects.
  • Use tools that each department can understand. By training each department to use the same common-ground tools it makes it easier to escape silos and work together.
  • Create processes that require collaboration. Whether it is a motto your turn into a poster and put all around your offices or a page in your employee handbook, communicating that your culture is build on collaboration is important to break down the walls between departments.

Strategic Direction

It is important to assign strategic leaders to each project that can give strategic direction at the beginning to guide both content and design in a suitable direction. This person ideally has knowledge of all disciplines and can identify ways to encourage collaboration on each project:

Whiteboard ideas to answer some major questions on the project

  • What is the role of this content?
  • What is the conversion you wish to gain from this content?
  • Which platforms will best portray the information in this project?
  • How can we make this content engaging for our audience?
  • How much time do you have to complete this project and what is the deadline?
  • What tools does each team need to create this content?

Ideally, the strategic leader will keep the project leading towards the goal. Many a time content can take a detour and wind up not focusing on the business goal at hand. Keeping content going in the required direction could be as simple as a check in email and meeting throughout the creation of the content.

Final review. Each team member should meet at the end to review the content considering whether it has met its goal. If the content has, publish it. If not, do not publish it and add it to the sea of other failed pieces of content online. Review changes and get back to work until it is exactly what it needs to be.

Case Study

Uber is going from strength to strength and popping up as an alternative way to catch a cab in cities all over the world. It is no surprise then that this revolutionary brand is also producing fantastic content. Their blog features categories like Uber Data, city specific blogs and product updates where they use the data they collect on thousand of travellers everyday, and turn it into interesting, smartphone-centric content. Check their blog out here.

How do you ensure your content offers the right balance between user experience and content strategy?

Written by
Alexander Rauser
Alexander Rauser

CEO

Alexander Rauser is the author of Boardroom Guide to Digital Accountability and Digital Strategy: A Guide to Digital Business Transformation, and creator of the DSX Program, a digital strategy and transformation program for Enterprises.

Related Articles

Subscribe to our blog

Subscribe to our blog to receive relevant news and tips about digital transformation, app development, website development, UX, and UI design. Promise we won't spam you.

Thank you! Your submission has been received!
Oops! Something went wrong while submitting the form.