Designing Content Authoring Experiences - by Greg Dunlap (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

Most content management systems fill authors with dread starting at the login screen. That's because the needs of authors are rarely taken into consideration in CMS projects. When content systems offer a terrible authoring experience, people avoid using them. That means they can't communicate effectively with their customers. The result is stale, hard-to-read content that doesn't align with an organization's goals.

Designing Content Authoring Experiences is a book for the designers, strategists, and developers who build and maintain content management systems. With practical examples and best practices, the book will show you how to create content management systems that support authors, so that authors can better serve their audiences. the book argues that authors are users that a content management system needs to serve. Their needs contribute directly to the project's success. But how do you consider author needs? The same way you do for your site's external users: with research, testing, development, and iteration. Designing Content Authoring Experiences shows you how to balance organizational needs and structured content approaches to create intuitive interfaces for authors.

Review Quotes

"For whatever reasons, editors seem to always be last on the list for attention in the average CMS implementation. They get ignored, slighted, and shoved to the side in the face of other priorities. Greg's book will help you understand that your content is only as good as the tooling and environment provided to the people who create it, and the attention to pay to this environment reverberates through the entire content supply chain."

Deane Barker, author of Web Content Management, Real World Content Modeling, and The Web Project Guide

"Interface and workflow design is an underlooked aspect of a successful CMS implementation. Fortunately Greg Dunlap has written this essential guide to designing an author experience that works for the people using it. Based on his decades of experience leading these types of projects, you'll learn from the expert how to do it right."

Karen McGrane, author of Content Strategy For Mobile and Going Responsive

"Designing Content Authoring Experiences is the modern Bible for content authors. From its opening page, Greg dives deep into the challenges and limitations of content management systems and prescribes actionable strategies for redressing the authoring experience. His thoughtful analysis of governance and deep dive into industry-specific personas is illuminating. He shines a much-needed light on the fundamentals of structured content through an organizational lens and provides insightful guidance on everything from prototyping to the impact of cognitive load on forms. It's a quick but poignant read, and the lessons are sure to be long-lasting. If you're a content professional, grab a highlighter - this is one physical book you'll want to keep coming back to."

Matt Garrepy, Chief Critic at CMSCritic.com