SLA NWRC session notes, cont.
“Content Analysis: Methods and Mentoring” was a session by Chiara Fox, an information architect at Adaptive Path. Fox’s presentation was definitely the most engaging and practical of all the sessions I attended. Content analysis is the process of assessing the nature of content on a given web site, but can also be extended to other types of content, say, the signage in your library. It is the study of patterns and relationships. You perform content analysis so that you know what you are working with before you rip it apart.
The three main parts of CA are:
- Content inventory
- Content audit
- Content map
The first two parts can be done using a spreadsheet, but the third is more of a visual representation. It’s what you want to show to the higher level people within the organization because it gives the overall picture.
Other noteworthy points:
- In content analysis, you want to watch for ROT: content that is redundant, outdated, or trivial.
- Generally, do don’t want to mess with the format or function of certain types of self-explanatory content, like press releases, shopping carts, contact info, etc. People already have an expectation of how those types of content work.
- A great resource for this topic is the “polar bear book” (Information Architecture for the World Wide Web)
Lastly, I can’t remember in what context it arose, but Fox said something about Google Maps being full of “Ajax-y goodness”. Nice!