Domain modelling at the BBC

Domain modelling at the BBC

(in 10 minutes)

Polar cubs

Mike Atherton

Tom needed to make a great content site, on the cheap.

The BBC had tons of quality content, gathering dust in the archives.

location

ecozones

ecoregions

habitat

individual

cohort

species

domicile

event

bio_event

adaptation

con_status

is composed of

is aggregation of

lives in

is aggregation of

is composed of

participates in

has adaptation

features in

Tom adapted a scientific model from Carl Linnaeus (1707 – 1778)…

…then chopped up hours and hours and hours of footage to fit the model.

The result is a product where the links are as important as the video clips.

The case for domain modelling

Domain modelling is the mental modelling of subject domains.

It’s a method of IA that stems from the elements inherent in content itself…

…rather than trying to classify content by document type.

artists

tracks

releases

release types

release events

labels

It’s about abstract relationships that will become pages and links...

ingredient

chef

technique

programme dish

recipe

…and it works for all kinds of subjects and sites.

Anatomy of a domain model

My first attempt at live music.

PROGRAMME PAGE WITH TRACKLISTING

BBC MUSIC ARTIST PAGE

Woo – cool journeys across subject domains!

Knowing your subject

I know nothing about football.

Same terms used everywhere from tables, to classes, to menus.

competition

goal

team

player

match

stadium

round

A best fit model for everyone...

…that informs website navigation.

Filling up the model

Good content is good.

location

ecozones

ecoregions

habitat

individual

cohort

species

domicile

event

bio_event

adaptation

con_status

is composed of

is aggregation of

lives in

is aggregation of

is composed of

participates in

has adaptation

features in

Better content is granular enough to populate your model.

Business data enriches content and adds context.

bbc.co.uk/nature/life/Giant_Panda en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giant_Panda

If you don’t have the content, steal it from hippies.

Designing the user interface

Each thing is a page by itself, so I can point at it from across the web.

Although some things may be mere footnotes.

bbc.co.uk/nature/life/Giant_Panda

bbc.co.uk/nature/life/Giant_Panda/sounds

bbc.co.uk/programmes/p00chptr

bbc.co.uk/nature/life/Giant_Panda/news

And almost all things are really collections of other things.

Add plenty of context, since most of us came straight here from Google.

And don’t sweat the stuff you can’t link up right now.

Curation

Curation brings human love to a cold, robot heart.

Curations tend to be natural, social, or editorially-driven.

A strong curatorial layer is better than an orphaned microsite.

So what?

Let’s not let IA slide into obscurity.

Let’s keep our beautiful clients focused on what they’re good at.

Let’s make sure we have a platform-neutral content model.

Let’s be clear that it’s not just about websites anymore.

slideshare.net/reduxd

‘How we make websites’ by Michael Smethurst bbc.co.uk/blogs/radiolabs/2009/01/