The best way to explain why we need your content before we create the navigation of your site is to give you an example from several years ago.
The client hadn’t sent the content but wanted the site as soon as possible so we agreed to build it and the client assured us that they would send the content for the pages we created. All went well - content began to arrive - until we received a series of the clients’ testimonials. Testimonials? We weren’t aware they were to be added to the site.
Let’s face it, getting the content together for a major publication - and a website IS a major publication - is a daunting task. It’s difficult for our clients to gather all the information they need and ensure that everything they want to convey to their visitors is on the site. So it’s not surprising that this client realized at the last minute, that testimonials were going to be included on the site. But this hadn’t been mentioned to us before. We had already built the site, complete with navigation, and there was simply nowhere for the testimonials to go.
Our client had two choices at this stage; we could rebuild the entire site with new navigation or we could add a solo ‘testimonials’ button to every top level page. Naturally, the client chose the latter, as rebuilding the site would mean considerable extra charges. Our client was happy with this, but still knew that the site was less than 100% perfect because ideally, the testimonials should have been allowed for in the main navigation of the site. At TSDG, we were less than happy because we create sites which work perfectly for our clients’ needs and saw the solution to the problem as being a compromise. We would have much preferred to allow for all content on the main navigation.
In the majority of cases, the content for a company website comes from several different sources within the organization; each department will probably develop copy for their own section of the site. These are busy people and have work to do - the website copy isn’t at the top of their list of priorities and some subjects could be overlooked.
Let’s say that your organization is a museum with an education department. The head of the department supplies copy and from that, we acertain that the education section needs to be split into four subsections. Once the site is built, an employee who is responsible for community education realizes that his or her division isn’t catered for on the site. Just like the example we quoted earlier, we can either rebuild the site, at extra cost, or develop an adequate (but unsatisfactory) solution.
This is one of the reasons we build a very simple, plain prototype of your site; so that your staff can experiment with it to ensure that all content has its own section, and that viewers can easily find the information they need.
If various people within your organization are supplying copy, we refer to them as your
content management team. Your content management team should have someone who acts as editor. The editor has to adjust and approve the final copy, just as a magazine editor would do. There has to be someone who is in overall charge.
Common errors are:
Content from two people is contradictory. For example, one member of your content management team writes that your product carries a thirty day guarantee, another mentions a sixty day guarantee.
Information is duplicated by different members of the team
There is no consistency of style. For example, see the following ‘identical’ phrases:
- Dr Smith’s office opens at 8am.
- Doctor Smith’s office opens at 8:00 a.m.
- Dr. Smith’s office opens at 8
- - and many more variations!
Or the examples below:
- Constable’s The Hay Wain is 30 inches by 40 inches
- Constable’s ‘The Hay Wain’ is 30” by 40”
- Constable’s The Hay Wain is 30 x 40
There is no consistency of formality. Again, see the following statements:
- Dr Smith enjoys seeing his patients get well.
- Doctor Smith’s ultimate goal is for his patients to achieve wellbeing.
- Dr. Smith is a dedicated physician who states that his greatest desire is to see his patients relieved of their illnesses so that they might lead happy, fulfilled and healthy lives.
Even simple dates can be written in various ways:
- January 1, 2009
- 1 January, 2009
- January 1st. 2009
- 1st. January 2009
- January 1st., 2009
- 1st January, 2009
- 1/1/2009
- 1/1/09
- and many more variations!
If your content management team has an editor whose decisions are final, these errors can be avoided. Without the editor, the copy will be fragmented and inconsistent.
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