In todays class we learnt about how we can develop our ideas and discovery into user stories and real content. Managing content is very important for designers as we need to use a variety of different forms and shapes to display content. Some of the most used ways content is displayed today is websites, PowerPoints, apps, Word Documents etc. There are so many ways we can display our content, so we must be able to have a proficient understanding of them all. We need to understand what content is appropriate where, and this comes from understanding our users.
Most of the content we see on social media is user generated meaning that users create the content themselves in the parameters that they are given. Social media allow the users to post their own content, this includes:
This means that social media platforms are a free canvas for users to post whatever they want. This allows people the freedom of getting their ideas online and available for anyone to see, with interactions with other users being encouraged.
Content curation is the process of taking vast amounts of information and presenting it in a way that is accessible and meaningful. This includes scanning the information, sorting it, re-designing it, and presenting it so that users can now get more out of the information than it was before. This may also include taking some information out, adding in content, but this is all down to the designer and how well they know their user. There is no point in information if it can’t get used and this is our job as designers to make using information easier and more accessible. The image on the left is content before curation, as you can see it is very hard to read and understand, making the UX not great. On the right is content that has been curated, making the content easier to understand and organised, which benefits the UX.
Here are some of the basic principles of designing and presenting content. This is a great list to check when reviewing designs as we can analyse and see if our content is ticking all these boxes.