Curated for content, computing, and digital experience professionals

Category: Content creation and design (Page 41 of 60)

Technologies and strategies for authoring and editing, including word processors, structured editors, web and page layout and formatting, content conversion and migration, multichannel content, structured and unstructured  data integration, and metadata creation. 

Meet the Gilbane Conference keynote speakers

Gilbane Conference keynote

Join us in Boston to learn how your peers and competitors in marketing, IT, business, and content across industries integrate content strategies and computing technologies to produce superior customer experiences for all stakeholders.

Keynote presentations

Rachael Schwartz Gilbane Conference
Rachael Schwartz, VP, Product Management & General Manager, Keurig Connect, Keurig Green Mountain
Build Customer Conversations (NOT Impressions): A Keurig Green Mountain Digital Success Story​

Gabi Zijderveld. Gilbane Conference
Gabi Zijderveld, CMO, Affectiva
Let’s Get Emotional: Creating Deeper Customer Connections With Emotion AI

Juhee Garg Gilbane Conference
Juhee Garg, Senior Product Manager, Adobe
Adaptive Content Strategy: How to increase your ROC (Return on Content)

Subrata Mukherjee | Gilbane Conference
Subrata Mukherjee, Digital Transformation Strategist, Chief Digital Officer, RealConnex
Disruption – Is Enough Really Enough?​


Gerry Murray, Research Director, Customer Experience: Sales and Marketing Tech, IDC
The Rise of AI in Marketing: IDC Shares What Every Marketer Should Know

 

The Gilbane Digital Content Conference is focused on content and digital experience technologies and strategies for marketing, publishing, and the workplace.

Main conference program: November 28 and 29
Post-conference workshops: November 30

The Renaissance Boston Waterfront Hotel

The convergence of web and mobile design

The actual title of the article I am referring to above is 7 future web design trends, by Jowita Ziobro. The trends are on target and the examples are clear. Worth a read.

But what struck me is that the post is a reminder that the way to look at planning and development of web and mobile applications is to focus on the ‘and’. Too much of the discussion is about the limitations of web or mobile or which should come first – a sometimes necessary short term choice but not a strategy. Jowita’s larger point is that from a design point of view web and mobile are converging. The post also suggests functional convergence.

Design convergence

Jowita’s first trend, “Gestures are the new clicks”, provides one example:

We forget how hard scrolling webpages used to be. Most users would painstakingly move their mouse to the right edge of the screen, to use something ancient called a ‘scrollbar’…

In 2015 it’s far easier to scroll than it is to click. On mobile, you can scroll wildly with your thumb. To click on a precise target is actually more difficult — the complete opposite of what we’re used to on the desktop.

As a result, we should expect more and more websites to be built around scrolling first, and clicking second. And of course, that’s exactly what we’ve seen everywhere…

There’s every reason to expect this trend to continue as mobile takes over more of the market. Modern sites have fewer things to click, and much more scrolling. We’ll see fewer links, more buttons, bigger ‘clickable’ areas, and taller pages that expect to be scrolled.

So mobile is changing web design for the better, and not only because of the consistency of the UX but because it is offers improvements.

Functional convergence

Mobile is also learning from the web. Mobile apps are either constrained by limited access to their own data and content, need custom deep linking to code to access other apps data, or need to exit to the web via a web browser. Whether the app uses a lightweight custom browser built for the app or one of the mainstream browsers the UX often suffers. The limited linking of mobile apps is a significant functional constraint, especially for enterprise apps.

Apple and Google are each interested in the health of both the web and their own mobile ecosystems and are both advancing deep linking to address data and content access. This will be a little wild-westy for awhile but the direction is clear.

Jowita’s sixth trend, “Components are the new frameworks” is relevant to design and function:

Web technology continues to get more complicated, and less semantic. Designers must embed messy code onto their pages for simple tasks, like including Google Analytics or a Facebook Like button. It would be a lot easier if we could just write something like this instead:

<google-analytics key=”UA-12345–678″>

And we can with Web Components, which aren’t quite ready to be used by most designers yet. 2015 is looking like their year.

Google’s Material design is here, and it may just be what gets this movement started. Powered by Polymer, and supported by all modern browsers, it provides the rich animation and interaction components from Android apps, with simple tags…

Apple’s newly announced Safari View Controller for iOS 9 ups the ante for mobile browsers by providing developers access to Safari code making it much easier to access the web from mobile apps. Developers can still build their own for specific design or functional reasons if they need to. See iOS 9 and Safari View Controller: The Future of Web Views.

Jowita ends with:

Right now you see the best of mobile app design appearing in web design. With enough time, the difference between an app and a website might almost entirely disappear.

Optimistic perhaps, but there is a trend to root for here. And a perspective to be embraced for a superior UX.

Modern Design Tools: Adaptive Layouts

I’m sure there are exceptions, but design has almost always followed function in software development. That was never a great situation, but today’s reality of the constant additions of new form factors forces us to figure out how build function and design in a more parallel and earlier iterative environment.

Responsive design is an important approach to dress up the past and get started with workable multichannel publishing, but its scale is limited.

See Josh Puckett’s discussion in Modern Design Tools: Adaptive Layouts for some great ideas and links to other discussions.

Since our tools shape our thinking, it’s critical that we have design tools that allow us to go beyond the static thinking that has encumbered us for so long. While it’s technically possible to design and optimize for various layouts and orientations today, it’s tedious and difficult, which means that we often don’t do it.

Design tools should have the same properties as the medium for which we are designing… Let’s take a look at how a modern design tool might work for designing an iPhone app. Read more

Additional Gilbane Conference workshops posted

Gilbane conference lightbulb logo

We’ll be posting the complete program for this years’ Gilbane Conference over the next 2-3 weeks on the main conference website. The afternoon workshops are below.

Workshop D. Adaptive Content Modeling for Omnichannel UX

Speaker: Noz Urbina, Consultant and Founder, Urbina Consulting

Thursday, December, 4: 1:00 p.m. – 4:00 p.m.

Your users need you to come to this session, even if they don’t know it. Multi-channel, or “COPE (create once, publish everywhere)”, content is a bit of a holy grail. Our trade is discussing content being freed from the browser, available for reuse, and accessible in apps, kiosks, responsive mobile deliverables, eBooks and syndication services to our partners – even in wearable technologies. All this should improve the experience of users, and benefit the organizations that serve them. Adaptive content is content that is nimble enough to realize all these ambitions. But making our content adaptive means addressing a topic that sends many running for the fire exit or nearest window: semantic modeling of structured content. This session will connect the dots between adaptive content, responsive design, multi-channel delivery and user experiences to show you why you want and even need to have semantic content structures. It will then go through a non-terrifying introduction to getting started with modeling your own content in a future-proof way. Learning objectives:

  1. The knowledge that their content is already more structured than they realize.
  2. A solid sense of what semantic, structured content actually is and its relationship to adaptive content, multichannel, and UX.

This workshop is designed for either intermediate or expert attendees. Bring your laptop and go home with samples and templates.

Workshop E. CMS Implementations: The View from the Implementor’s Side

Speaker: Deane Barker, Director of Business Development, Blend Interactive

Thursday, December, 4: 1:00 p.m. – 4:00 p.m.

Ever wanted to know how CMS integration shops approach projects, and how you can better work with them or use their techniques in your own organization? In this workshop, Deane Barker will explain the ins and outs of CMS project work from the perspective of a veteran integrator, with the goal of helping you understand how best to find an integrator, work with your chosen integrator, or manage your project and team. Learn about how integrators:

  • Evaluate RFPs
  • Develop proposals
  • Scope projects
  • Schedule work
  • Manage client expectations
  • Plan implementations
  • Select software
  • Execute and manage development
  • Support existing implementations

Workshop F. What’s it Worth? Assessing the ROI of your Content

Speaker: Lindy Roux, VP, Content Marketing and Strategy, Rauxa

Thursday, December, 4: 1:00 p.m. – 4:00 p.m.

No matter how well researched and deliberate your content strategy is, the proof lies in the pudding and the most successful content professionals continually evaluate the effectiveness of their content and adapt their strategies to improve the return. Too often, content is evaluated or audited only when a major digital shift is in play (a move to a new CMS, a new marketing automation tool, a new campaign launch.) In order to be truly successful, that evaluation should be ongoing, providing the opportunity to learn from past content marketing successes and failures. Lindy Roux will demonstrate an approach to content evaluation across multiple channels, based on qualitative and quantitative assessments, which has been used to help organizations understand the true ROI of a piece of content. The session will end with a practical exercise in content evaluation where participants will try their hand at developing assessment criteria and then applying these to real content. Participants in the session will learn:

  • How to establish content goals that are measurable and realistic
  • A way to evaluate content against these goals
  • How to establish a regular review workflow and process
  • An approach to optimization across all channels
  • The appropriate team structure for ongoing content performance

Documents are dead – or not

Last night I somehow stumbled on a link to the March 19, 1998 issue of David Weinberger’s JOHO (Journal of the Hyperlinked Organization), where David posits The Death of Documents and the End of Doneness – because of the Web of course – and I disagree that documents are dead. David and I are old friends and I am sure we each had more to say to each other on this topic, but I can’t remember if he ever accepted my corrections to his obviously misguided position, whether he just decided to spare me the embarrassment of pointing out gaping inconsistencies in my argument and gloat privately, or whether we figured out a weaselly way to agree. I have a vague memory of the latter – perhaps in an AIIM publication?

In any case, I was gratified to find that I still agree with my 1998-self, and will check with David to see whether he is the same self he was. You can reach your own conclusions and also have a fun read (if you don’t know him, David is very funny) at http://www.hyperorg.com/backissues/joho-march19-98.html.

Update:
See David’s response at http://www.hyperorg.com/blogger/2012/05/22/documents-dead-or-grizzled-survivors/

David:
Aha! We now agree and in a non-squirrely way. You didn’t have to say you were wrong, now I am going to have to admit the same when it’s my turn. 🙁 …Besides, you were only a little wrong…

Adobe to Launch iPad Friendly Publishing Suite

Adobe Systems has launched a new version of its digital publishing suite for individuals: the Adobe Digital Publishing Suite, Single Edition. Essentially it enables freelance designers and small design firms to publish interactive content created with Adobe InDesign CS5.5 software on Apple iPad. Adobe’s Single Edition provides an end-to-end workflow for designers to publish a single-issue application for sale or distribution through the Apple App Store. Designers can now use their existing skills and workflows to create an application for the iPad, saving on development costs while allowing them to maintain creative control. Moreover, Single Edition allows users to publish single-issue content such as a brochure, highly-visual book, annual report or personal design portfolio as an application for the iPad. As an extension of the Digital Publishing Suite line, Single Edition enables users to utilise Creative Suite 5.5 workflows to create an application for the iPad. http://www.adobe.com/

Adobe Announces Website Creation Tool for Graphic Designers

Adobe has unveiled the public beta of new software, code-named “Muse”, that enables graphic and web designers to design and publish HTML websites without writing code or working within restrictive templates. Leveraging the latest Web standards, Muse combines design and creative freedom with frameworks for adding navigation, widgets and HTML for advanced interactivity on a website. Designers can add fully customizable interactive elements like slideshows, lightboxes, remote rollovers and more. Muse embeds HTML code snippets from sources including Google Maps, YouTube and Facebook and allows for the creation of Adobe‚Äêhosted trial sites for testing and review purposes. A site can be sent to clients, converted to a paid Adobe‚Äêhosted site or exported for FTP to other hosting providers. Muse is different from other Adobe web design products such as Dreamweaver, which requires coding to build websites; Edge, which is for creating HTML5 animations and motion-based graphics (not websites) or Flash Catalyst, a tool for designing internet applications built on Flex. http://muse.adobe.com

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