The article Request For Proposal: Discovery recommended a way to identify your user profile(s).
Resources
Resources
This article from copyblogger.com outlines thirteen questions you can use to help you draft your content strategy.
A template with explanations for creating buyer or audience personas from Content Marketing Institute.
Prototyping is a quick way to incorporate direct feedback from real users into a design. Paper-based prototyping bypasses the time and effort required to create a working, coded user interface.
This article from the Buffer.com social media blog reviews the results of the content audit that they conducted on their site. The article provides a number of tips and takeaways on how to conduct a content audit.
A detailed article from Smashing Magazine on a five-step user research process, including defining objectives, defining a hypotheses, identifying methods, actually conducting the research, and synthesizing the results
A visual diagram from Richard Ingram showing three main content management roles and their areas of responsibility.
Brief article from a consulting firm outlining how to gather business requirements for a content strategy project.
Card sorting helps you to understand how your users think you should organize your content. From this information you can create a site structure that enables your users to find what they are looking for.
An in-depth article from Boxes and Arrows on how to conduct a card sort activity to help define the structure of a site or product.
A detailed article from UX Booth identifying a five-step process for design research, including planning, observing, designing, prototyping, and testing.
This article from MeetContent.com, they have compiled some of the content types commonly encountered in higher ed and some special considerations for managing them effectively.
This short article and template from Kendall Copywriting goes over the basics of creating page tables for content strategy.
In this video Karen McGrane will discuss why you need to deliver content wherever your customer wants to consume it — and what the risks are when you don’t make content accessible to mobile users.
The University of Minnesota Library's webpage on copyright issues, including the fair use evaluation tool.
Libraries staff experts consult throughout the University and provide training on topics related to copyright and intellectual property in research, teaching, publishing, and other creative contexts.
A short article and checklist from Content Marketing Institute for confirming your content is useful and valuable to your audience.
A short article from Content Strategy 101 defining some commonly used content management roles and associated responsibilities.
Focus groups help you generate ideas by listening to your current and prospective users discuss their experiences and expectations with one another. Focus groups can provide:
Focus groups provide rich and detailed information about feelings, thoughts and underlying emotional motivation from people in their own words. In short, focus groups focus on attitude and affect.
Use this currated list of resources to find free web asseccibility tools.
A detailed article defining the process of Content Governance, and how to implement this strategy in your workplace.
This article from uxmastery.com review the process of conducting a content audit including what to include and where to begin.
This article from Moz.com illustrates the "long tail" of search demands. This helps people decide what to keep, what to expand on, and stuf
A template for creating page tables.
Personas help you get out of your own head when you are writing content and designing your product. Personas are:
Personas are fictional characters based on actual observed behaviors of real users that a UX professional experiences in the field, talking one-on-one with users.
A guide for creating personas.
Use this RACI chart template for your project
Rapid prototyping is a helpful approach when you want feedback on an early design. At this stage, the design can be on paper or screen.
A definition of what "soft launch" entails.
Task-based Usability Evaluations are useful when your design is getting close to being fully functional but you still have some ability to change the interface or content.
In academia, we’re notorious for using older, “fancy”, ten-dollar words, when plain language would be clearer and more effective.
There is a price to asking the wrong questions. When conducting user research, the most valuable moments are limited times that the team spends with each participant. It's important to make every second count.
Provides information on US Copyright Laws.
Summary of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) of 1998.
"User research focuses on understanding user behaviors, needs, and motivations through observation techniques, task analysis, and other feedback methodologies." This article from usability.gov reviews the variou
Examples of simple, precise words and phrases you might substitute in your writing
Your content is the most important part of your site.
Part of a research-based guide that covers writing actionable content