As of this writing, it's getting toward the end of March, which means we're wrapping up the first quarter of the calendar year. It hardly seems possible. Yet here we are. Time keeps rolling along.

We're already seeing some trends that bode well for the rest of the year. From within the content strategy and user experience communities to our clients, we are seeing a desire to connect the silos. Here's how they are doing it.

Pay attention to process - Good news! More people want to incorporate content strategy into their design work. The problem is in the execution. How does that happen? Where to start? To help answer that question, we've created a visualization of a model-first design process. This is a peek into how we work with clients to create digital products that serve their audience and help them meet business goals. How has your design process changed to better serve your team and your audience?

Structure before interface - More people are catching on to the idea that building a stable structural foundation for their content is the key to future success. Whether they are approaching a full website redesign, converting a PDF to an online resource, or reviewing an entire digital ecosystem, having a universal model helps. This is why we build models first. Using the model, we can create multiple interfaces and connect systems in a fraction of the time and cost of starting from the beginning every time. As someone said recently, "It's a big learning curve, but worth doing."

Training - As process and mindset shift from "we need a new website (again)" to "it's time to get control of our information," more teams are realizing that they need to get themselves aligned and build skills that will translate to effectiveness and efficiency. Half of the proposals we've sent this year include a training component to help get the people and processes aligned. How have you made strides to build your team's capacity for making content strategy a core competency for your organization?

At Tanzen, we enjoy helping our clients learn how to think about content differently. We also get to learn from them and apply what we learn to the next project or engagement. With one foot in today's reality and a vision for the future, we seek to bring clarity to the vision and lead the process of reaching it.

We'd love to hear from you about the future you envision.

Listen In

In case you missed it, Carrie's been a guest on some recent podcasts to talk about the importance of content strategy and how to take a content-first approach to web design.

CTRL+CLICK CAST (Audio) February 21, 2019 Episode #131: Content Strategy with Carrie Hane

UX Podcast (Audio) November 23, 2018 Episode #198: Connected Content with Carrie Hane

Want to introduce content strategy to your podcast audience, event attendees, or team? Let's talk about making it happen.