Core models: a surprisingly simple solution to content-driven design
A growing number of organizations are coming around to the idea of content-first design. After all, even the most badass visual design means little if the content — what the user came for — is merely an afterthought. Some well-heeled companies hire dedicated UX copywriters or content designers (the hot content strategist variants of-the-moment), but the content-first approach can easily elude any team without the right process in place.
At Phuse, we’ve seen both sides of the content/design “chicken and egg” conundrum play out. In one scenario, UXers and designers bring in a content strategist at the last minute to presumably spin all that lorem ipsum into gold (spoiler alert: the content person forgot to bring their magic wand.)
The other scenario — where the team tries to nail down the copy or story before jumping into design — isn’t exactly ideal, either. Good content development takes time, and what team has that kind of luxury? Client timelines almost always require UX, design and content teams to plow forward at full speed.
It’s a complex challenge, but we’ve found a powerful method to design more purposeful, content-driven design: core models.
Core models: designing “from the inside out”
At a high level, core models are a design framework (first introduced by IAs Are and Mona Halland, and later featured in A List Apart) that aligns user needs (how did they get here, and why did they come here) with business goals (what we want to communicate, and what we want them to do next.)
For us, the core models exercise comes after discovery and site map completion, and before design. For each page of the website (as outlined in the sitemap), we work with clients to define goals, user needs, inward paths, and forward paths. Here’s what one might look like, using our own homepage as an example.
Business goals. What are we, as a company, trying to achieve? In other words, what are the KPIs for this page? While some goals will naturally be around things you want to communicate, try to make some of your goals specific and measurable (e.g., “gain email subscribers.”)
Examples: Attract our ideal clients, Explain who Phuse is, Differentiate our company from competitors, Communicate the types of work we do, Gain social media followers, Connect with potential clients/recruits.
User tasks. What tasks does the user want to complete? Here, it helps to have already defined your user personas (we do this during discovery.) In this example, our two personas are potential clients and potential recruits.
Examples: Learn “who the heck is Phuse?”, See what types of work Phuse does, Get a sense of Phuse’s culture/learn if they’re a good career fit for me, Get in touch with someone at Phuse.
Inward paths. How might people find this page? How did they get here? You’ll want to think about all possible channels — paid, earned, and owned — and any campaigns you’re planning on running in the near future.
Examples: Direct traffic/ word of mouth, Organic search, Medium articles, Twitter, LinkedIn, Team members’ speaking engagements, RFPs
Forward paths. After visitors have gotten the answers to their questions, where do we want them to go next? Think about how you’ll use this page to drive “conversion” (see: goals.)
Examples: Contact page, Individual case study page, “Services” page, Medium, Dribble, Twitter, LinkedIn, Git Hub, Facebook
Core content. After we’ve answered the above, we outline the core content for each page: what content needs to be included, to address both business and end user needs?
Examples: Statement summarizing who Phuse is/what we do, Examples of our past clients/work, High-level overview of our process (and how it’s different), Link to contact form
Note that while it can be tempting to include things like “Explainer Video” or “Hero Carousel” in the core content section, this approach can quickly devolve into client conversations around assets, resources, timing, etc. I’ve found that it’s best to keep core models format-neutral and instead, focus on what needs to be communicated. You can explore different approaches during the UX/design phase.
Using core models as a client collaboration tool
Core models can ease nerves on both sides of the design process. Completing the exercise with clients can help agencies keep client feedback more focused (and easier to address) later in the design process, since the core content for each page has already been determined.
Clients can also rest easier, knowing that the team has an understanding of the goals and content requirements for each page. Establishing all of this upfront frees the UX, design, and content folks to focus on what they’re best at: nailing the user experience.
Core models help with internal collaboration, too
Despite being a distributed team, we manage to keep content and design in lock-step using core models. We make sure that all key players on the project have input, and make the core model worksheet readily available on Trello and Slack.
The UX team can move forward with wireframes, knowing the content requirements for each page. Core models help our designers do their jobs, serving as briefs and providing context for each page they’re tasked with creating.
Content strategists and writers are also able to start brainstorming messaging for each page, even without the wires. Sure, reconciling and tweaking will have to be done later, but the core content will be accounted for.
Core models are so effective, some of the world’s largest companies have worked them into their internal processes. Joel Solomon, a global content strategist at Amazon, says his team uses core models “to engage with leadership to determine how to best communicate our policies to difficult customer issues by aligning the context of the customer experience with business, legal, and PR considerations.”
“We have been able to improve some of our highest-used, challenging content to be more customer-friendly and actionable by customers.”
The framework has also helped Amazon refine customer-facing content. Solomon says, “We have been able to improve some of our highest-used, challenging content to be more customer-friendly and actionable by customers.”
At Phuse, core models have been such a game changer, we’ve built them into our process. It’s even helped us during internal projects, like our recent website redesign.
Tell us: what are your tips for achieving a “content first” design, and keeping teams aligned?
