The Prussian field marshal Helmuth von Moltke famously said: “no plan survives contact with the enemy.” Similarly, few structured content models survive contact with a complex designs, CMS limitations, and real-world deadlines. Content reuse and cross-channel publishing depend on effective use of structured content: how can we combine those ideals with the pragmatic needs of our projects?

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Deblobbing in the
real world
Modeling reusable structured content
that keeps working after the launch
CS Forum 2013

2. Hi. I’m @eaton!
I’m with Lullabot.
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strategy, design, and development

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Chunks vs. Blobs

5. ©2013 Victoria Belanger, Jello Mold Mistress of Brooklyn http://jellomoldmistress.com/
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6. NEEDS MOAR STRUCTURE
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7. No model
survives
contact
with real
content
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8. How does
structured
content
break?
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9. 1. Design Coupling
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Question
Answer
Episode
Topic
Name
Name
Location
Question
Answer
Episode
Timestamp
Segment
Products
Topic
Design-First Content-First

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16. 3. Oddball Content
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Modeling Complexity
Quantity+Longevity
Structure Payoff
FAQ page
Sidebar
promos
Terms of
service
News
article
Staff bio
Photo
gallery

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Assets Structure Ephemera

19. 2. Editors doing design
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Position Priority
Appearance ➧ Emphasis
Proximity Relationship
vs

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If you must,
treat the
layout as its
own kind of
content

24. 4. Narrative flow
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HTML is for browsers.
Article Gallery
Header Hero
Aside Slides
Div Warning
vs

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Shortcodes Custom XML
Insertioncodes
HTML
HTML5
attributes

29. Make WYSIWYG speak
your language.
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30. Structured content is a
series of trade-offs.
‣ Model meaning, not mockups
‣ Ephemeral content needs less structure
‣ Capture emphasis and priority, not layout
‣ Narrative requires structure in the body
… Share your lessons!
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Thank you!