Building Good Content Habits: One step closer to our MVP
Another full week wraps up and we are closer to launching the first roll-out of the content management system, our MVP- or minimal viable product.
Our MVP won’t have all of the features we originally tested and designed in paper prototypes, but that’s okay. I think of an MVP as a first draft and recall what my writing mentor has always said, “it doesn’t have to be perfect, but it has to be done.” The MVP is now something we can play with and improve upon. It’s a starting place and a platform that helps us train content authors at the City of Austin.
Content authors can also look forward to the training sessions we’re shaping up to support the use of the MVP. These Funshops (we’re calling them Funshops- instead of workshops- because we think this is really fun) help address some of the concerns we heard about during usability testing. The Funshops will help attendees build good habits and encourage content teams to think about their content in different ways.
Our goal is to start the conversation about why things like creating accessible and relevant content matter early on. In doing so, the content team won’t have to rely on technology to make decisions about content for them. We want to empower content team members to serve as resources for anyone with questions about service-oriented language.
Building Good Habits
The first habit we’re trying to build is an awareness of the importance of putting the needs of the public. An easy way to put those needs first is by using service-oriented language to address residents. We believe people should come first and have fondly labeled this approach as using people-oriented language.
Another habit we’re weaving into the workflow is to diligently refer to the Digital Services Style Guide on a regular basis. This can help content authors get used to writing for the public. The style guide helps build good habits like:
- Writing at a reading level that’s accessible to everyone,
- Stopping the use of vague acronyms,
- And choosing simple everyday words over jargon.
Plug-ins or websites like Grammarly and the Hemingway App can also help to build stronger content because they call-out complicated sentences and identify your content’s readability. Our hypothesis is that regular use of the style guide and plug-ins like the ones mentioned here can get content creators in the habit of writing for the public.
Utilize the Content Audit
Next, we’re inserting the content audit into the transition workflow.
At the very beginning of this project, we created a content audit- or content inventory- for Austin Resource Recovery, focusing on their residential service pages. It helped us determine:
- Which content the public accessed the most,
- What type of content- PDF, web page, video embed, or app plugins- was on the pages,
- When the content was last updated,
- Which content was redundant, obsolete, or trivial (ROT).
As departments start to transition their content to a new CMS, we are making strong recommendations that the content audit is not left to gather dust, but is instead used to create transition milestones.
Once milestones are set, and the content is created — or archived- on the new site, the content audit can be retired. We say retired and not deleted because retired content can still help form hypotheses about how future content may perform.
The content audit is not meant to be used to track how new content is performing. For that, I recommend starting a new spreadsheet or referring to your content management system’s dashboard.
Create A Manageable Amount of Content
City employees are busy and managing content is not the only thing on their plate. When new pages are created more work is also created. Creating a new page is only the beginning of a new set of tasks you will ultimately have to manage. Revisiting pages to make sure the content is still appropriate for residents is just as important as creating them. We’re starting to shift towards better habits by asking the question, “Do you have time to manage this?”
Archiving pages that are no longer relevant is important work content teams must be prepared to do. It may not be as glamorous or exciting as creating something “new,” but keeps your content up-to-date so it doesn’t become digital clutter. We heard this advice from several of the teams we talked to from around the world who have already undergone this transition. This finding led us to prioritize a content dashboard for authors, publishers, and managers to access.
Archiving content is just as valuable as creating new pages. Archived pages won’t appear in search results, allowing residents to find what they need. This brings me to my next point.
Making Search Possible
Usability testing taught our team that the majority of people who participated in our test used the search function to find information. They utilized this method instead of navigating through the website’s menu. This observation caught our attention because it was counterintuitive to how people think of a website’s navigation.
Traditionally, navigation starts on the homepage and moves through levels of information until the end-user reaches the webpage they’re looking for. This can be problematic if the website isn’t optimized for searching for information- or rather, for finding information. According to the City’s analytics, 61% of visitors who use Austintexas.gov access the website via Google.
Data shows us that people first use Google to find the hours for Deep Eddy Pool, a municipal pool in Austin. Although the information is somewhere within Austintexas.gov’s 10,000+ live web pages, the right content doesn’t always show up, or is so far down the search results that it’s never seen. We want to change that.
As we transition content, it’s easy to go through and decide what won’t be making the move to the new site, and explaining why it matters. Archiving content is just as important- and sometimes more so- than creating new pages. A website is not a filing cabinet. It’s as hard find a digital page within a website that has too much content as it is to find one particular piece of paper in an overstuffed filing cabinet.
Maintain Evergreen Content
Evergreen content is great because, like its name suggests, it doesn’t need to be maintained very much once it’s created and will continue to provide value to the public. A few examples of Evergreen content are:
- What items can be recycled in Austin
- How to request a new trash cart size
- Information about picking up dead animals on the side of the road
Evergreen content is somewhat timeless but that doesn’t mean you should ignore it. We recommend that members of the content team review Evergreen pages at least once a quarter to make sure the information is still accurate and relevant, or if it should be archived.
Getting Rid of Catch-All Pages
Catch-all pages are pages with multiple links that are misleading when they appear on search results. At first glance they seem helpful because they hold a lot of information a person might need. But don’t be fooled! Put through a service-oriented lens, these pages almost always fall short of answering many service-related questions. More often than not, landing on a catch-all page requires the public to take one more step in order find the answer to their question or access a service.
Another negative aspect about catch-all pages is that they can mess with a content audit because they often perform well. They have keywords that cause them to appear as a search result, but- again- don’t necessarily lead to an answer. To find out how your content is actually doing, the page author will need to find each page that links to the catch-all and look at its analytics separately. As we transition content, we recommend archiving catch-all pages and spending more time creating and maintaining individual service pages.
Saying good-bye to FAQs
As we’re decluttering, we’re also leading the charge to get rid of FAQ pages. To some people, this is a controversial choice but we’re sticking to it. My colleague is currently working on a post about this, so I’ll briefly tell you why FAQ pages have got to go.
- FAQs are rarely maintained. When information about a service or department is changed, it’s updated on the webpage but almost never updated on the FAQ page, creating misinformation and confusion for the resident.
- The information that lives on an FAQ page should be included on the actual service page. If it isn’t, then the service page is not helpful and should be edited.
- FAQ’s don’t always give a complete answer. For example, one FAQ page we encountered helped residents learn that they could change their trash cart size, but not how to do so. Causing them to continue their search.
We’re optimistic that building good content habits will allow for a solid content transition, make it easier for employees to create and manage their content, and help residents access the services they need from their City. Stay tuned as we test our Funshops and start building these habits!
