Designing the Blog, Chapter 3: What are my Content Requirements?
Previously: Introduction, 1, 2
Content requirements? For a blog? Well, duh…
Well, yes, of course it can be the utmost in simplicity to condense a blog’s content requirements into “well, it’s the stuff that I write here every day”, but I’d like to dig a little deeper into how the site will be constructed (in an IA sense rather than a code sense) and derive our content ‘To Do’ list therefrom.
First and foremost there will be the blog entries. These will be categorised according to primary and secondary subject (quelle surprise), and will likely vary in length from a sentence or two to much longer entries.
I would also like to create an area for more permanent articles, again probably on a variety of subjects. It’s difficult to define the exact parameters of what constitutes an article versus a blog entry, although I do know that this series will be filed in there rather than the main blog.
What other site areas would I like? Well, like (it seems) every other blogger, I like to take photographs, so a photo gallery of some sort would be nice. I’d also like a section for code experiments – popularly referred to as a ‘sandbox’ these days – so that can also go on the list.
As we noted in Chapter 2, a comprehensive ‘About Me’ section is required. Now, I have a few ideas about what I’d like to include here to make it more fun – perhaps a few ‘My Top 5’ lists, favourite authors, that sort of thing – plus some information about the site, how it got its name, and so on. This site section can continue to grow post-launch, so I won’t worry about defining the content too rigorously.
That’s most of the core areas of the site – are we done? Well, no – there will also be a myriad other small sections of content that all need to be thought about. What will the comments button say? The blurb on the ‘Contact’ page? Download links? “Read this article” or “Rest of this article”? The list could get very long indeed…
I think that I will be guided by basic usability and accessibility principles when it comes time to decide the little things like form and button labels – as long as the text makes sense and people know what they mean, I’ll be happy.
Next – Chapter 4: Getting Functional
Filed under: Designing the Blog.
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Previously: Designing the Blog, Chapter 2: Establishing User Needs
Next: Certainly I Can