Exercise 1: Publish useful content

Part 1: User story cards

Read our short article about user story cards.

Then, choose a piece of content you have already published. See if you can identify a couple of target audiences and tasks for this content. Create a user story card for 2 – 3 audiences or tasks. Think about real users and real tasks, rather than trying to fit the user story card to the existing content.

Did this help you identify improvements you could make to the content?
Could you see this helping you plan for the next piece of content you need to write?

Part 2: Make an inventory of the content you need to manage

This activity is optional, but worthwhile.

Create a spreadsheet that lists all the online content you need to manage. Record the following:

• URL (address of page)
• Title
  
• Format of content (web page, document, multimedia)
• Content owner or approver
• Date last updated

You might also want to record the following if you have access to the relevant data. You could make a note of these figures each 3-6 months and keep track over the time the content stays live online.

• Page views
• Average time on page

Determine review dates for each piece of content. Then schedule that time in your work calendar.