Developing a functional website means structuring content. Here is why the structure of that content is just as vital as the technical architecture, and a breakdown of low-fidelity prototyping:
A good website is secure, stable, looks modern, is accessible, mobile-friendly, future-proof, and so on. That is true, but a good website is also one that many people (users) actually use because it solves a problem.
We always start a web project with qualified requirements management. This means we talk to our clients about the actual goal of the new website. Defining these goals also involves understanding what the users should "experience" on the new website in the future. This user experience is closely linked to the website's content.
Content Modeling vs. Content Creation
When we talk about "content," we are talking about texts, photos, videos, audio files, and graphics. In most cases, we start with an existing website. Usually, there is already content there that is intended to be reused—at least in part—for the new website. This is the point where our consultancy begins.
We ask questions such as these:
- What content do we currently have (inventory), and what are we still missing?
- What questions are users asking, and what answers does our current content provide?
- Which business objectives need to be represented?
- Does the tone of the writing align with our communication strategy?
- ...and many more.
Through this content assessment, we gain a clear overview and can provide recommendations on how to categorize and structure the content. Our goal is to save our clients time and resources by following the "COPE" principle (Create Once - Publish Everywhere).
At this stage of the project, we do not just analyze and organize (model) the existing content; we also consider the need for supplementary content creation. This could include, for example, drafting new copy or commissioning photo and video productions.
By the end of this process, we have a sitemap that maps out and prioritizes all the content for the new website. This often serves as the foundation for the navigation structure. Our technology is based almost exclusively on open-source systems (primarily Drupal) because they are independent, stable, and scalable. However, the method of content modeling works in combination with any CMS.
Content modeling is one of ten steps in our process for building a future-proof website.
Why is Data Structure Important?
A clean data structure also enables automated content handling in the future. We are currently working on a project that involves an automated data migration of more than 4,000 datasets. In this specific project, harmonizing the data and developing the automated migration accounts for more than a third of the budget because the content was never properly structured. At the end of the day, maintaining a clean database is also a significant economic factor.
low-fidelity Prototyping
Prototyping is a simple and cost-effective way to sketch out how content will actually be structured on the website. Usually, our design team creates very simple (low-fidelity) prototypes. These have a significant impact compared to elaborate (high-fidelity) designs.
With these low-fidelity prototypes, we can coordinate the user experience with our clients quickly and flexibly, making adjustments easily and clarifying whether we have structured the content effectively for the homepage, navigation, and overview pages.
