Responsive Web Design, Part 1 (2015)

Content Choreography In RWD

Ongoing Content Maintenance

When I’m building out a content model, it’s important to start conversations about governance and ongoing maintenance for each content type and section. It’s tempting to ignore these questions because they’re not directly related to building this fancy new RWD site, but unless I want to come back in a year and see the blog with still just that single “Welcome to our new site!” post, I have to grit my teeth and dig in.

•Owner
Who’s in charge of this content? This may be a specific person, or a position, or an entire department. Every type of content needs an owner who will take responsibility for its quality and accuracy.

•Approval process
Does this information need to go past the legal department before it goes live? When marketing writes a compelling sales pitch, should someone in development read through it to make sure it accurately represents the product? It’s important to spell out a clear path from creation to publishing that everyone understands and agrees with.

•Review schedule
When will this content be reviewed, and by whom? Monthly, quarterly, annually? If revisions are necessary, who makes them? Planning for regular reviews of the site content is crucial to its ongoing quality and usefulness.

A new site often leads to changing roles and responsibilities around content. As governance and maintenance decisions get made, it’s really helpful for the team to start embodying their new roles — writing blog posts on a regular schedule, having monthly meetings to review social media campaigns, editing images for the photo gallery — even though the new site isn’t ready yet. That way, new features will launch with a few months’ worth of real content in them, and process issues can get ironed out before they’re critical. Site launch day should never be the first day someone has to explore and learn their new tasks in the CMS.