Exploring content strategy, a Product Designer’s perspective
Content Strategy, week one
When I first decided to enroll in TECM 5200: Content Strategy at the University of North Texas as an elective for my Master of Arts (MA) in Interaction Design, I wasn’t exactly sure what to expect and mainly was following my intuition. I wanted to learn new skills that I could bring into my work as a Senior Product Designer—skills that would help me create better experiences for my users, add additional value to my organization, and, ideally, learn how to educate others on what I do within my role and why it’s integral to business success.
What did you read or watch that surprised, delighted, or disappointed you? Why?
One of the first tasks was to watch a video lecture by Professor Dr. Kim Sydow Campbell called "Introducing Digital Content Strategy." It surprised me to learn the connections between content and user experience strategies as I watched the video. Another task was to listen to a podcast called “Hannah Kirk: Connecting Technical Writing and Content Strategy | Episode 070”. After hearing Hannah Kirk’s conversation with Larry Swanson, I started connecting the dots more between content strategy and user experience design. This made me think,
“It seems like these two fields have many parallels”!
This became delightful as it felt like I had made the right choice in enrolling in the course. From both of these educational materials, I initially learned that Content Strategists focus on assessing, creating, managing, and distributing purposeful content that aligns with both business goals and audience needs. This can include many touchpoints like web content, marketing content, social content, email content, and more—essentially any content an organization produces for its end user. I then asked myself,
“How does this relate to the design field as a Product Designer”?
After reflecting on what I learned, I saw many connections between content strategy and user experience strategy, involving very similar responsibilities. A part of the role of the Product Designer is to define user goals, create and manage user requirements or content within the experience, and ensure consistency across all touchpoints in the product or service. These touchpoints, just like in content strategy, cover just about anything you can think of that a user interacts with; some examples of content include websites, native apps, digital products, design systems, technical documentation, and services.
Noticing this overlap between content and user experience strategy through a review of the beginning course materials highlighted to me just how important it is to align all types of content wherever content resides in the product or service. These are things that Product Designers need to focus on too when evaluating the user experience.
What was most meaningful for your own career goals? Why?
In the first week of the course, and only scratching at the surface, I realized that learning to integrate content strategy tools and methods into my user experience design process will help me approach user experience more holistically.
By learning how content strategists collect, assess, organize, and strategize content, I can begin to think about the user experience more strategically from the content strategizer's point of view, improving the effectiveness of my work.
My biggest takeaway from week one in the course is that the more integrated content strategy is across disciplines, the stronger products and services will become. Content, in all its forms, matters, and bringing that perspective to the table can make a huge impact. In the coming weeks, as I work through the class project, I’m excited to develop content strategy skills and see how they will influence our client’s objectives.