McCombs Web Operational Analysis
Content strategist @ Simple [A]
The goal of this two-part project was to create a new operational model to support the maintenance and growth of the McCombs School of Business web domain. My role centered on the first stage of the project: a content audit to analyze the structure and strategy behind existing web content and provide recommendations for its management. In partnership with Simple [A], I planned and executed a cross-sectional content audit and analysis using object-oriented UX (OOUX).
Project highlights:
Creation of an audit and analysis spreadsheet, which included object and call-to-action mapping by page and its associated user intent.
Development of a preliminary object map to guide content type development, consolidation and creation within the organization’s CCMS.
Collaboration with a ContentOps expert to design and deliver an operational workshop based on the overall structure identified through my audit and analysis.
The challenge
A newly redesigned website and page structure managed by multiple teams and departments in a large organization.
How might we…
… better understand the structure of the brand domain so we can map and document operational requirements?
Process
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Noun foraging
After documenting all URLs for the audit, I reviewed a cross-section of the website’s pages and documented repeated content types, CTAs and design patterns to determine system structure.
Noun consolidation + instancing
To validate the structure and purpose of potential content types, I gathered examples (instancing) and used them to conduct card sorts (consolidation) to narrow down top-priority objects. -
System modeling
To set us up to analyze the production flow of content within this system, I knew we needed to understand relationships and dependencies between content types.
To do this, I created a preliminary system model that visualized how content could be related based on my assumptions from deeper page analysis and stakeholder interviews. -
Page mapping
In the final stage of this audit, I mapped each of the page URLs to a recommended page type: landing, listing, or detail. I also provided findings about which attributes and related content types are currently featured on each page and which should be added.
This allowed us to map processes not only by page, but by component and content type as well.
This snapshot of the noun consolidation process demonstrates how findings from competitive and brand language audits informed the primary content types highlighted in the system model.
This snapshot of the noun instancing and consolidation process illustrates how I use actual brand examples to validate patterns identified during the noun foraging and consolidation process.
This work-in-progress system model served as a vehicle for workshop questions and activities. This targeted approach to client interaction helped us document and validate our understanding of the client's domain.
Outcomes
My work served as the culmination of this project’s “first step” — after presenting our findings to the client, I handed off documentation to a Content Operations collaborator. I also participated in a series of operational workshop planning meetings to map content structure to the activities.
Artifacts
System model
Findings spreadsheet
Findings deck
Tools
ScreamingFrog
Miro
Google Sheets / Slides