Archive for the ‘content’ Category:
Smart Tips to Help You Create User Friendly Content
A major problem with many new websites today is that their content is geared toward a different topic from what their site initially started up as. For example, let us say a website starts up geared toward gadgets and technology reviews. For the first few months, you are getting exactly what you came for, technology and gadget reviews.
However, as time progresses the reviews begin to widen to internet technologies such as web development, emailing, and the likes immediately.
As a reader, you will not necessarily be interested in reading about web development or emailing as you visit the site for gadget and technology reviews, thus, you will probably begin searching for a new website to call home for your gadget and technology review source. Going back to being a webmaster, we will touch base on six tips that help you produce content geared towards your audience as well as tips to introducing new content away from the initial category or categories.
Content That Meets Your Audience’s Standards
When creating content for your website, you need to make sure it meets your audience’s standards, such as comprehension level, topics in their interest, and the likes. Let us continue with the gadgetry and technology example mentioned earlier. Let us say you own a gadgetry and technology review website and your audience range from teenagers to young adults interested in the technology world.
So for example, the content on your website should be written in a rather casual style without much sophistication based on the information provided about your audience. The content should as well be fully geared towards useful gadgetry and new technologies that your audience can make use of or fit right in their alley.
Due to your targeted audience being a young group in addition to the category you cover, your content should not generally be composed in a business-like manner but rather casual as mentioned earlier. With that said, by approaching your audience in a different monotone than expected, your audience will lose interest in the content and or website altogether.
Complimenting Your Website
Your content should compliment your website, which means that your content should be relevant to and or supplement the topics you cover. Think of your website as the introduction to, or the summary of, a book. The introduction gives the reader a general idea of what to expect throughout the book.
However, if the introduction does not compliment the contents of the book, it leaves the readers unhappy and rather confused about the entire book. Thus, your content should supplement or compliment your website to assure it is user friendly.
Skimmable Content
Most users never read your content thoroughly or completely but rather skim through it to get to where they may find it interesting and applicable to what they were searching for. Furthermore, by breaking down your content into short and understandable paragraphs or bullets, you make it easier for them to find what they were possibly looking for.
Additional enhancements to making your content skimmable are to highlight keywords that may possibly be in their interest or to create separate titles for several topics throughout. For example, let us say you have an article on the top ten friendly dog breeds.
To make the article easier to skim through, you would highlight the ten dog breeds you mention so users can easily find the breed they want to read more about or you can provide a title to each paragraph you mention each individual breed in.
Bloated Content
Your content should flow off the tongue naturally as if you are addressing the viewer personally. What this means is, your content should not be stuffed with “filler text” or bloat in order to address your message, but rather be direct and to the point to keep the readers interested in the topic rather than leave or skim through it due to useless and unneeded text.
Strengthen Your Argument
Whether you are reviewing a product, talking about methods to saving time, or how to properly mow your lawn, they are considered arguments, whether you have intended them to be or not. Arguments need to be backed up by other sources or facts.
A lot of times arguments are backed up by imagery or referencing facts your viewers may have never heard of which causes your reader to sometimes doubt about the contents authenticity or correctness.
Therefore, you should occasionally link to outside sources to back your argument to have your readers assure that your facts were not whipped up in a few minutes, but are rather backed up by other reputable sources. Not only does this strengthen your contents correctness, it also assures users that they have chosen the right place to read about certain topics.
Consistent Voice
From page to page, article to article, quote to quote, you want to assure your voice is consistent throughout your website and not contradictory. If users are finding out that you and your content are falling into contradictions throughout your website, it builds a mental image in your viewers mind that your website is covering topics its editors do not quite fully understand which leads to making your website an untrustworthy source to many.
In order to avoid contradictory content, go back and check the content you currently have that relates to what you want to publish, this assures that your voice is consistent and strong throughout.
While making your content user friendly may sometimes be a tricky challenge, it should be something that comes natural if the topic your website covers is something you enjoy and or experience. Additionally, users always tend to love to throw feedback whenever they can, whether be it on the topics you offer, topics you do not offer, your website layout, or even the frequency of how many times a week you post content or the length of the content.
Moreover, taking your users’ feedback and applying it is the best solution to making your content user friendly and targeted while showing your users that you care about their feedback and that your website is built around them rather than for them.
10 Incredible Websites of Big Content Providers
There are many websites of the same genres, but we all choose one out of them all. Whether be it the design, the layout, or the service that hooked us onto it, we all know they all offer similar content. So if you are designing and developing a site in the same genre as many others, how should you design it and what key elements should you include?
Additionally, what really sets these content providers apart from each other? In order to demonstrate what really sets content providers apart, we dive right into news content providers and technology content providers such as ABC, CNN, BBC, Engadget, and others.
Design is a major aspect of running a successful service. Having a disorganized design can destroy your user base, thus, it is critical to assure your design decisions are for the better and what users can benefit from. When you first setup a service of this magnitude, you want to look at what makes up your competitors design and why it keeps users coming back. This gives you a general idea of how users who frequent such sites like their content organized and displayed, which is a great start.
CNN
Look at CNN as an example of design organization. Its layout really sets itself apart from the others as it really emphasizes on two very important news pieces at first site. As you get lower into the page, the news titles begin to get smaller from very important to least important. This is definitely a key element in organization and to keeping your visitors frequenting your site.
The site’s header is also very clean and organized, allowing you to easily identify what topic you are currently on, and what other major topics they cover. If these major topics were not displayed in the header or navigation bit and were rather hidden in a small sidebar, users will be less inclined to locate and frequent them.
BBC
BBC’s design is quite different compared to the others. It does have the general navigation in the header and a large news headline, however, what really sets it apart from the others is its category grouping and drag and drop functionality.
Its categories are separately grouped allowing you to easily find and read what you came for straight away. With its drag, drop, and group deleting functionalities, you can easily organize the page with your most important news categories on top, or to be able to remove the sections you really do not care for like the business section or sports section. For users, these features definitely allow them to feel like they designed the website, which increases the possibility of your site being their homepage.
MSNBC
As soon as you visit msnbc, your eyes immediately catch onto the top headlines instead of catching onto the logo and header navigation, this is definitely what users want to see. Below the header are the usual news headlines and other news articles that are generic between many other content providers of the same genre.
Therefore, the only element to its design that sets the site apart from others is the unique top headlines bar that comes before anything else. As a designer, this proves that users will favor different content providers over others for selective design elements and organization methods.
ABC
ABC is another major content provider aimed towards the general audience. Its design is very lightweight to suit everyone alike. The unique thing that really separates this site apart from the others is that its layout is built by its content, which is a definite plus for those who do not want to see all sorts of design elements instead of content.
Yahoo!
Yahoo is definitely top on this list as a content provider. Not only does it offer a set of services, it also serves as a news portal. Its unique design is really, what makes it feel how a true homepage should be. It is feature-filled with color customization, drag and drop containers, and a completely customizable sidebar where you can add all your favorite sites and gadgets.
Despite all these additional goodies, it definitely catches your eye on the latest news from political, to tech, to personal, and to a whole set of genres by its intriguing news headline slider. As a designer, many of its site elements are perfectly placed in great locations, and it definitely offers what users want in a design and layout.
Engadget
As a tech blog, Engadget really nails it with its design and layout. It separates itself from others by keeping its design simple and content based. Right below the header, it places a banner of its most interesting review, and below that comes its navigation bit.
This is great for users, as they always want to see what made it to the tech headlines immediately. Other than that main highlight, its content is displayed on the page in importance order, starting with its top stories than its latest posts. A key feature with its latest posts bit is the ability to easily flip through between latest reviews, feature posts, and all news. It is definitely a great way for users to directly browse through for what they came for, making it a must key element for your designs under this genre.
Gizmodo
Gizmodo, another tech blog, has a simple yet unique design and layout to set itself apart from others. Before the main header, several articles, reviews, or interviews are displayed, it is a great way to view what is happening straight away without rummaging through the rest of the site. The simple design and the items before the header is all what Gizmodo has to keep its design and layout set apart from others, it is simple, but it goes along way.
TechCrunch
Techcrunch’s design is very well organized and well laid out. Its navigation is uniquely set above all content with a sub-navigation below the logo. What really makes Techcrunch’s design stand out is its simple layout. It holds a great lightweight slider for its popular news pieces, and then its latest postings.
Users always love to share great reads, thus, Techcrunch really pointed out its social networking tools by providing them on the homepage for each posting as well as within each posting. This really gets users connected with their friends and favorite readings having them frequent often, which makes it another key element to your design.
Neowin
Neowin’s design is very sleek and intuitive compared to other tech blogs. Its navigation is well compact and blends in well, keeping the focus on the content. Its postings are really compacted on the homepage and easy to browse through what are most important to you. Another great element to the website’s features is the Social Activity box in the sidebar, keeping their users connected with Facebook while reading great postings.
CNET
CNET’s design is unique and intuitive, and sets itself apart the most from others by far. The header is very simple and contains all you need, a search bar and the navigation. Its content is well organized and displayed. However, what really makes it stand out is the CNET user bar that sticks to the bottom of your browser wherever you navigate on the CNET website.
It contains a list of your saved reviews and products. The CNET user bar also contains a TechTracker, which sends out reminders to you about outdated software and what needs updating, a definite great tool.
To Conclude
As you know, content is also a major aspect to why users choose a content provider over others. However, design and features are also main elements to the experience.
It is always a great idea to look at your major competitors and see what they have done to keep their users coming back, which gives you a general idea of what your users would be looking for too. Taking the best of what users want and putting it together can create the perfect design and user experience your viewers are looking for.
Choosing the Right Content Management System for Your Project
With the increase in developers producing mass quantities of Content Management Systems, in terms of functionality and overall quality we must learn what to look for in the one that’s just right for our projects and satisfies our needs.
Thousands of CMS’s available, and only a fraction can truly speak for themselves. But even then, choosing the right one can always be a bit of a hard task, especially if you’re not looking forward to having to switch from one CMS to the next several times resulting in the loss of valuable time.
What’s Really A CMS?
When we sit back and analyze the true nature of a Content Management System (CMS), we generally come up with an answer along the lines of “A system (that uses a database such as MySQL) put into place allowing the user to create, edit, manage, publish and store HTML content that’s easily accessible. The content that’s published is then showcased to the viewers in whatever way, shape or form the user specifies.
Below, we’ve outlined several key points that will help you choose the right Content Management System for your next project.
Flexible User Interface
One of the most important qualities a great CMS can posses is how well it allows a user to interact and accomplish a variety of tasks with the user interface. A good CMS should allow you to effectively manage your website, be simple enough to carry out day-to-day tasks with little or no effort, and have a well designed WYSIWYG editor. Understanding how your CMS works is key, but having an easy to interact-with user interface is vital.
Being able to smoothly edit, customize the visual structure, and other technical aspects is of grave importance. No user wants to become frustrated and tired with their CMS because it doesn’t offer the flexibility they need. Which conveniently brings us to our next point; comprehensive functionality.
Comprehensive Functionality
Basic functions of a CMS include the creation, deletion, editing, customization, and organizing of pages. And because of this, almost everyone believes that every Content Management System they come across implement these features into their core functionality. This train of thought has been proven wrong time after time. These basic functions are just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to what you’re CMS should come with.
For example, not every CMS will allow the user to categorize pages in parent and child format, instead some may only allow you to have a few parent pages and no subs. This can be very frustrating for a user that has numerous pages and uses a number of categories in their website. Therefore the common misconception that every CMS allows you to group your pages in tree hierarchy format is wrong, and this feature should be analyzed separately when it comes to choosing your CMS.
Same concept goes for what features you want your CMS to have in terms of function. You should analyze how easy it is to perform tasks, and if the usability of that particular CMS is up-to-par with what you need. Always make sure you test the system in place for functionality and usability. These two aspects can make or break a good a CMS.
Plugins, Addons and Extensions
Most Content Management Systems give you the option of customizing the way your content is viewed and how it may interact as well. This is can be accomplished with the use of extensions and plugins that modify how the data behaves internally to produce a corresponding external presence. These components are usually installed using the user interface or by uploading the required files to the correct directory.
When searching for the right content management system, make sure you find out if you’re able to add plugins and extensions to enhance your sites appearance and the way it delivers content. This can save you a lot of time by eliminating some of the repetitive coding that in any other case your site would require to take care of the same exact tasks a plugin can otherwise carry-out.
Security
Selecting the right Content Management System means you should analyze the support for an existing structure for security. If your CMS doesn’t offer much of a stable level of security, then make sure a security system can be implemented or that you’re able to edit the “technical” structure to add your own security using PHP and other technologies.
Some CMS’s secure the management end (i.e. admin, control panel, etc.), but they don’t offer any sort of security when it comes to the delivery of content (i.e. the directory and site folders). Make sure you take an in-depth look at how you’re going to be protected, this can save countless headaches.
The Installation
Not every CMS is as easy to set-up like WordPress or Movable Type for example, and sometimes depending on how easy it is to install, this can reflect how easy it could be to use the system. Many hosting companies will automatically install a few types of CMS’s to your domain (i.e. Joomla, WordPress, Drupal), however there are a few that require you to manually upload them to your directory using an FTP.
At any rate, an easy installation can go a long way and can save you loads of time. Sometimes a manual installation isn’t as bad as it seems since this will allow you to become familiarized with the content structure of the CMS within the entire directory.
Conclusion
Content Management Systems have become one of the most sought out and utilized platforms for publishing content on the web, and yet, finding and choosing the right CMS fit for your project and the tasks at hand can be a difficult feat, especially for those without some sort of guide.
Remember, the process of choosing the best CMS to get the job done needs to run as smoothly as possible and must meet some if not most of the requirements above. Using the information we’ve outlined, it can ensure that the CMS you choose will provide the best possible solution for your needs and will increase the chances of maximizing the value and quality of the way you choose to publish content.
Everyone at Design Reviver would like to apologies to Trent Walton – It appears that we used an image of his in this post without permission. There is no excuse for this, Design Reviver will endeavor to make sure this never happens again. I hope you can forgive us Trent.Update – Trent has kindly accepted our apology and allowed us to use his image. Checkout his awesome CMS Breakdown article from where the image was sourced.