ConStrat 110,
Strategic Content:
Designing for the
User Experience

I develop and deliver instructional material for adult learners enrolled in these programs at the University of Washington, Professional and Continuing Education (PCE):

• Professional Technical Writing certificate: I teach all three courses. Learn more

• Storytelling and Content Strategy certificate: I teach "Strategic Content: Designing for the User Experience," described below.

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ConStrat 110,Strategic Content: Designing for the User Experience

Following are excepts from the course syllabus.

 

Course description

Content strategy and user experience (UX) have a lot in common. For starters, people were doing both long before anyone really knew what to call those jobs. Today, they’re still both amorphous, ill-defined, and constantly evolving practice areas. They’re also both absolutely necessary for any website or product hoping to make a meaningful connection with the human on the other end of the interface.

 

This class will instruct you in the field and practice of user-centered content strategy. You’ll learn the how and why behind some of the most common and important content strategy deliverables. More importantly, you’ll start to see how user-centric thinking is embedded in content strategy, and start to view ecosystems of content through the eyes of another: the user.

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This class aims to introduce you to the user inside your own mind. You meet them through empathy as much as through research, observation, data, or exercises. This user in your mind will become your greatest friend, ally, and foil in terms of crafting content strategy.

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Learning objectives

By the end of this course, you will be able to:

• Understand content strategy principles and explain why content strategy matters.

• Create a content strategy for a client-based project.

• Understand the user experience of content and identify content usability issues.

• Understand the relationship between content, SEO, and UX.

• Conduct user interviews and create personas for content consumption.

• Create content journey maps and apply them to personas and content planning.

• Write and edit clear, engaging copy for digital products including content marketing, product interfaces, or navigation.

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Course materials

Textbook: Content Strategy for the Web, by Kristina Halvorson

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Recommended reading:

• Strategic Writing for UX, by Torrey Podmajersky
  Writing is Designing, by Michael J. Metts and Andy Welfle
  Universal Methods of Design, by Bella Martin and Bruce Hanington

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Weekly schedule

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Week 1: Defining content strategy
Learning objectives:

• Define content strategy and why it matters.

• Explain how content aligns with business and organizational goals.

• Articulate what “user experience” means and what role content plays.

• Understand the difference between various types of content strategy and the potential career pathways.

 

Week 2: Foundations of strategy
Learning objectives:

• Recognize a content framework and apply it to your strategy.

• Differentiate between mission, vision, and values.

• Craft statements for a client’s mission, vision, and values.

• Create a content strategy statement for a client.

 

Week 3: Voice, tone, and style guides
Learning objectives

• Differentiate between voice and tone.

• Identify elements of voice and tone in content.

• Understand the impact and value of consistent and appropriate voice and tone for a brand or organization.

• Understand how style choices impact voice and tone.

• Conduct a simple voice and tone exercise.

• Construct brand guidelines for voice, tone, and style.

 

Week 4: Interviewing users
Learning objectives:

• Craft user interview questions that target content goals.

• Follow best practices for conducting user interviews (remotely and in person).

• Practice active listening techniques.

• Aggregate and process qualitative interview information through affinity diagramming.

• Find key insights through qualitative data.

 

Week 5: Creating personas
Learning objectives:

• Articulate the value and use of personas for content strategy and business planning.

• Create a user research-driven persona.

• Apply the best practices of persona design.

• Employ empathy mapping to better understand your users.

• Define content governance and its role in content strategy.

 

Week 6: User journeys and content mapping
Learning objectives:

• Apply the concepts of customer lifecycles and funnels.

• Identify user goals across multiple platforms and devices.

• Align content based on user goals along the journey.

• Map user goals to topics and content elements.

• Understand the application and creation of journey maps.

 

Week 7: Writing for everyone
Learning objectives:

• Define accessibility, internationalization/globalization, localization, personalization, and customization.

• Explain the difference between internationalization/globalization and localization.

• Evaluate the accessibility of content.

• Articulate techniques for improving content to be more accessible and available to a variety of audiences.

• Describe ethical considerations for personalization.

 

Week 8: IA, navigation, and SEO
Learning objectives:

• Describe the five ways to organize content.

• Explain the difference between information architecture, navigation, and a site map.

• Apply IA and navigation best practices.

• Understand what SEO is and recognize best practices for optimizing content for ranking with search engines.

• Choose the right key performance indicators (KPIs) for your content.

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Week 9: UX writing
Learning objectives:

• Distinguish between marketing content and product content.

• Apply best practices to writing for the web and product interfaces.

• Apply best practices to editing and revising content.

• Use the principles of UX writing to improve microcopy experiences.

• Identify and address common usability issues with content.

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Week 10: Final presentations and content strategy plan.

Learning objectives:

• Develop experience with presentation skills.