Content Design for Content Authoring

In my experience, the number one complaint of organizations looking to replace their CMS is, simply, “our editors hate it.”
—Deane Barker, Real World Content Modeling

In most content management projects, the needs of authors are barely taken into consideration. This is incredibly frustrating. You would think that when you sell a content management system for thousands to millions of dollars, you would prioritize creating a system that people actually want to enter content into as opposed to one that fills them with dread from the moment they log in.

In this talk, Greg will show how the authoring experience is a different take on user experience, and explore the skills content designers and content strategists can bring to the table to improve content authoring for everyone (including themselves.)

Takeaways

• The complexity of modern CMS products reflects the increasing demands on content for the modern web.
• CMS implementation projects, largely driven by technology and front end requirements, have not kept up with this complexity on the authoring side.
• Content and visual design professionals are uniquely suited to improve the authoring experience, using the same skills they use when designing for the external users of their websites.
• Doing this work is good for business and the bottom line.
• Advocating for authors and getting involved in the process as early as possible is crucial to affect change.

About the speaker
Greg Dunlap has been involved in building custom software for 30 years, with the last 15 focused on building custom CMS projects primarily with Drupal. He lives in Monterey, CA with his wife and a small menagerie of animals, spending his spare time checking tide pools at the beach, playing pinball tournaments, and getting crushed in the pit at punk rock shows.