Researching Subjects for Content Strategy
When designing connected content, you'll plan out a foundational structure before filling that structure with content. That structure comes from the concepts and connections inherent to your content’s subject matter. Your first mission is therefore one of discovery—researching your topic to tease out its main concepts and ideas, learning which areas appeal most to the people you design for, and capturing the terminology and language used to give form to the subject itself.
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This chapter is from the book
This chapter is from the book
This chapter is from the book
Over the next few chapters, we’ll go deep into our process for designing connected content. You’ll plan out a foundational structure before filling that structure with content. That structure comes from the concepts and connections inherent to your content’s subject matter. Your first mission is therefore one of discovery—researching your topic to tease out its main concepts and ideas, learning which areas appeal most to the people you design for, and capturing the terminology and language used to give form to the subject itself.
Where Do We Begin?
Design begins with language—first, an understanding of the problem space shared with your project team, communicating your vision, and debating your differences until you reach alignment. And eventually, a solution that identifies and articulates some core concepts and the connections between them. Intuitive designs put into context the understanding we already have and extend our understanding to learn something new.
Let’s say you’re designing an app to help people choose a mortgage. You’d want them to understand fixed and variable interest, repayment periods, and mortgage types. You’d design navigation choices based on how these things relate in the world of mortgages. Your app would let people play around with different mortgage choices and learn how they differ from each other.
But chances are that as a designer or content specialist, you’re not a mortgage expert, so you need to begin your research by leaning on the subject expertise of others.
