Design Technique 9: Content Inventory
When it comes to attaining your vision you won’t get far without content. Time and again I have found myself sitting at my desk just hoping content would arrive – any content – just to move forward. I would suggest building a design like a visual smiley where you put content in later might offer two very obvious perils. The first is your client will NEVER supply the content. The second peril is that you won’t know what you’re designing to achieve – no friggen content – and the game just becomes about making a template that won’t go far to meet the business solution to their business problem. Does that make sense?
So you start getting all of your content together like an organised designer but there are 100+ pages on the site. Hell there might only be 20+ pages! The best way to keep them organised is with a Content Inventory. Jeffrey Veen’s article about migrating to a Content Management System (CMS) also incorporates the concept on a current site. OK how do you create one? Like most things its rather easy.
What is a Content Inventory?
A Content Inventory is simply a chart where you perform a complete audit of your site assets and write down every file name, extension and even the owner of the file. The Inventory is going to be your lookup table for every single page of your site where you want to include an asset (for example a photograph). If the asset already exists you need to hyperlink to it from the document to make it easier to find later. The effectiveness of a high quality Content Inventory is in its detail – be meticulous.
Also Provide a High Level Perspective
You should probably also have a high level perspective accompanying the Inventory so you can quickly find where things go – don’t be afraid to have your pages already named and nailed in stone by this stage of the design. Put the Inventory up on your office wall in front of your direct view to speed up the next phase of development.
The Inventory Always Precedes Construction
It WILL be a whole lot easier thinking visual design when you don’t have to worry about what you can put in the vacancy section or at the bottom of the forum page. All your logos, icons, photos, and content text should be listed and accounted for in the Inventory before you go any further. I know people are generally resistant to undertake boring repetitive tasks but this one will save you time and money. Content Inventories remind me of Data Dictionaries but of real world things. Its probably not a bad comparison.
