Platform ≠ Content

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Slides from my talk about the difference between content and platform design and why it is essential to understand the difference. It explains why designers are uniquely qualified to solve some of the toughest problems facing newsrooms today. This talk explores how platform design is the new battleground for audience retention and how designers play a crucial role in building successful digital products.

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PlatformContent

Thank you to my smart friends: Callie NeylanJeremy PennycookPaulo LopezMax PfennighausPatrick CooperBenjamin DauerWes LindamoodJosh HatchJoel SuchermanKinsey WilsonMiranda MulliganMichael Yoch

Ian AdelmanTyson EvansBill CouchMatt MansfieldJustin FerrellBryan HaggertyMatt ThompsonRon CoddingtonMichael ManessLaura RamosIrakli NadareishviliMarc Lavallee

Louisville Slugger

About me

•Newseum

•Knight-Ridder/Tribune

•SmartBrief

•USA TODAY

•NPR

•Twitter

Rockwell

CONTENT

Newseum

KRT

USA TODAY

NPR

Twitter

PLATFORM

Understanding the differences between the platforms is essential to creating good work.

Content design and platform design are different beasts.

ContentExploratory

Specific

Custom

Storytelling

Pacing

PlatformRigid

General

Template-driven

Distribution

Wayfinding

The perfect page The perfect system

What is the best way to tell this story?

What problem am I helping this reader solve?

reporting the story

bandwidth

readabilitypacing

illustration

graphics

metrics

wayfinding

CMS

scale

sharing

CONTENT

PLATFORM

“...like trying to make one pair of shoes fit everybody’s feet.”Jony IveFastCoDesign.com

Digital news design is still broken.

•Many story pages still feel the same.

•Pages are filled with unnecessary junk.

•Things don’t work on mobile.

Samey

152 choices in the top nav.

Unsolicited NYTimes redesign by Andy Rutledge

Your competitive set?

Gmail = ubiquitous

News / Information Consumption

News Orgs → ← Tech Orgs

Jim Roberts Is Mashable’s Exective Editor and Chief Content OfficerMashable October 30, 2013

Source: wikipedia

Jeff Bezos Says Washington Post Could Take a Page From AmazonABC NewsSeptember 25, 2013

The battle for audience retention will be fought on the platform.

Design plays a crucial role in helping news organizations make digital products.

How might design help create better experiences?

We must create beautiful spaces in which our audiences want to spend time.

Lots of time.

Design thinking can help

•Context

•Research

•Empathy (user-centered)

•Synthesis → Insights

Why?

•Answer the right questions

•Better answers, faster

•Proactive, not reactive

Building great products can’t happen in dysfunction.

Our organizational structures are kryptonite to innovation.

The baggage:

Paid to manage risk.

Distribution Content

Paid to tell stories.

vs.

TechnologistsBetter!

ProductShepherds

User Experience

Good experiences thrive in organizations where design is respected.

Visual journalists are ready-made problem solvers.

•Ask questions

•Observation helps challenge status-quo

•Readers are fickle

If you’re not agile, you’re doing it wrong.

•Small

•Multidisciplinary

•Empowered

•Accountable

Fertilizer for Agile

•Clear strategic direction

•Co-location

•Mutual understanding

Evaluate and iterate

Tappable prototype

Understand how things work.

We say “build” for a reason.

Handing a PSD to a developer does not make you a platform designer.

Knowledge of how things work is critical to making informed design decisions.

Start small:

•Little experiments

•Skunk works can be cheap

•Google is free

•Show, don’t tell

•SHIP IT.

Understanding the differences between the platforms is essential to creating good work.

Experience is everywhere.

Thanks!

@dwjr

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