CONTENT STRATEGY FOR ACADEMIC LIBRARY USERS

www.linkedin.com/pub/deirdre-costello/12/440/593/ http://www.slideshare.net/DeirdreCostello

@deirdre_lyon

dcostello@ebsco.com

ABOUT ME

Experience:

Currently at EBSCO Information Services

5+ years experience in Library & Information Science

Education:

MSLIS from Simmons College

MA in English from Boston College

BA in English and Psychology from Lewis & Clark College

Deirdre Costello, Sr. UX Researcher

CONTENT STRATEGY AN OVERVIEW

Agenda:

• Project Review

• Audience

• Style

• Organization

• Voice & Tone

• Examples

Deliverables:

• This presentation

• Useful resources for

further exploration

Also, feel free to connect

via email or LinkedIn!

Email: dcostello@ebsco.com

LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/pub/

deirdre-costello/12/440/593/

THE PROJECT • User Research Team + Academic & EDS teams • 23 sessions with students – Boston, Houston & San Francisco

– High school, college & graduate students – Humanities & Sciences majors

• 1 ½ hour sessions: “Show me the last search you did for research.”

AUDIENCE

AUDIENCE

Key to know: –What they’re looking for – How they feel – How they read

AUDIENCE WHAT THEY WANT

Why students search:

•To find an overview of their topic •To narrow down their topic •To find citable, scholarly sources

Content should facilitate goals &

make the path as short and

easy as possible.

AUDIENCE HOW THEY FEEL

AUDIENCE READING LEVEL

The average American adult reads at a 7th-8th grade level and is an Intermediate reader.

From the 2003 National Assessment of Adult Literacy: http://nces.ed.gov/NAAL/

AUDIENCE READING LEVEL

• Most blockbusters are written at the 7th grade level.

From Impact Information Plain Language Services: http://www.impact-information.com/impactinfo/literacy.htm

• The average newspaper is written at the 11th grade level.

• People prefer to read recreationally at 2 reading levels lower than their actual reading level, but can tolerate up to 2 levels higher.

AUDIENCE KEY ABILITIES

•Locating information in dense, complex documents.* •Examples:

•Finding a location on a map •Finding library hours on a website •Finding a relevant fact or quotation in an article

*This is the primary use case we heard about in our research.

AUDIENCE EXAMPLE

Before:

After:

From plainlanguage.gov: http://www.plainlanguage.gov/testExamples/images/overctrdrug.pdf

AUDIENCE KEY ABILITIES

•Comprehending and acting on information in moderately dense texts. •Examples:

•Consulting packaging to see which foods have a specific ingredient •Finding an alternative word in a thesaurus

AUDIENCE EXAMPLE

Before:

Mitigation is the cornerstone of emergency management. It's the ongoing effort to lessen the impact disasters have on people's lives and property through damage prevention and flood insurance. Through measures such as, building safely within the floodplain or removing homes altogether; engineering buildings and infrastructures to withstand earthquakes: and creating and enforcing effective building codes to protect property from floods, hurricanes and other natural hazards, the impact on lives and communities is lessened.

After:

Protect your community from natural disasters!

• Build safely in the flood zone, or remove buildings altogether

• Engineer buildings and infrastructure to withstand earthquakes

• Create and enforce effective building codes

From plainlanguage.gov: http://www.plainlanguage.gov/testExamples/indexBA.cfm?record=121&CFID=2402283

AUDIENCE KEY ABILITIES

•Making simple, on-the-fly calculations using available data. •Examples:

•Splitting a check •Calculating the acceptable number of sources

AUDIENCE EXAMPLE

Before:

After:

From plainlanguage.gov: http://www.plainlanguage.gov/testExamples/indexBA.cfm?record=181&CFID=2402283

AUDIENCE TAKEAWAY

There is an inverse relationship between density of text and users’ ability to act.

AUDIENCE TAKEAWAY

Content needs to be readable at an intermediate, 7th grade level to be accessible to student users.

QUESTIONS?

STYLE

STYLE GUIDELINES

• Short. • Simple. • Sweet.

It always needs to be shorter and simpler than you think. How much shorter and simpler? https://readability-score.com/

STYLE GUIDELINES

ORGANIZATION

• Overviews • Bulleted content • Highlighted terms • TOC • Clear headings & subheadings

Anything that makes content easier to scan so they can get to the key piece of information they need.

ORGANIZATION USERS LIKE ...

ORGANIZATION EXAMPLE

1. Overview in “plain English”

ORGANIZATION EXAMPLE

2. TOC + Easily Scannable Headings

ORGANIZATION EXAMPLE

3. Links to More

ORGANIZATION EXAMPLE

ORGANIZATION EXAMPLE

• Easy access to important functionality • Break up long sections of content • Use a list where it makes sense • Organize content consistently • Highlight key terms and figures

ORGANIZATION GUIDELINES

There are conventions out there – already familiar to students – that make content accessible to them.

ORGANIZATION TAKEAWAY

QUESTIONS?

VOICE & TONE

Voice and tone should be tailored to users’ emotional state.

Example: http://voiceandtone.com/

VOICE & TONE USERS’ FEELINGS

We know a little about what college students are feeling during the research process:

VOICE & TONE USERS’ FEELINGS

• Frustrated • Overwhelmed • Stressed • Bored • Anxious • Tired

• Productive • Curious • Motivated • Excited • Smart

The ideal tone is one that soothes the frustrated, overwhelmed user but encourages the one who feels smart and excited.

VOICE & TONE IDEAL TONE

• Simple • Clear • Respectful

• Positive • Optimistic • Permissive

VOICE & TONE EXAMPLE

VOICE & TONE EXAMPLE

Tone helps develop a positive relationship with users that will keep them coming back to your content.

VOICE & TONE TAKEAWAY

QUESTIONS? THANK YOU

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES

• Plain language

– PlainLanguage.gov: http://www.plainlanguage.gov/

– Center for Plain Language: http://centerforplainlanguage.org

• Style

– Writing level: https://readability-score.com/

–Wikipedia’s Guide to Writing Better Articles: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Writing_better_articles

• Tone: http://voiceandtone.com/

•General library UX (including Content Strategy): http://www.walkingpaper.org/

•Reading on the Web: http://www.nngroup.com/articles/f-shaped-pattern-reading-web-content/