Two thumbs up for Content Strategy

Successful projects have to be goal-driven. The problem is, there is rarely a unified goal among User Experience teams. Businesses have goals, every product you release has goals, each team contributing to that project has goals, and each person within each team has individual goals. Many website projects operate in this manner. Lots of disjointed input, fragmented strategy, lots of 'do it now!', and little thought on 'why should we create this?'. For some reason, content is always an afterthought - a bit ironic since most web users' primary purpose for visiting a site is to find, read, and interact with useful content. There's got to be a better way...

Enter Kristina Halvorson, content strategy advocate and expert. I began following @halvorson and other UX experts on Twitter so I could have experts filter out and recommend the best blog posts, hottest topics, and latest trends in the usability and User Experience world. I mean c'mon, you think I wanted to go out and find all that good stuff myself? This is where I started hearing about 'content strategy' and I think I'm in love.

I recently attended SXSW to find out that I'm not alone in thinking Content Strategy is an extremely important yet under-represented practice on the web. Luckily the term is growing in popularity and was one of the buzz words of a cutting edge technology conference. My mission now is to spread the word and hope that we builders of websites can set better standards across the web. There's no perfect solution, but let's all start by properly planning a project and remembering to think about content early and often. I promise, the websites and their visitors will thank you.

Here's the 5 second 'get started' version:
Step 1: unify your goals and vision
Step 2: do the hard work - audit, analyze, strategize
Step 3: maintain it

Illustrator: Making a servertape

Here is a breakdown of how I made a Server Tape image for a banner image.

Illustrator Tutorial: Design a 3D logo

WELCOME UX FAN BOYS (and girlz)

Here is an Illustrator tutorial on how to create a 3D effect with a bit of style and grace. Follow through the simple 12 step program (the first step is caring).

alright, enough nonsense, enjoy the tutorial!