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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
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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
Rockwell
CONTENT
Newseum
KRT
USA TODAY
NPR
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
Poynter.org 10/28/2013
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?
WTHR app
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.
Lucent Home
animatedalbums.tumblr.com
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
Parade Magazine
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
