Content First: Not the How But the Why

Disclaimer: Thoughts limited to a product designer’s POV. Art would be another area of content creation that could be seen through a different lens since art thrives in discovery through experimentation of the process/techniques.

1. What Makes Good Content?

Content is king, which will thrive in perfectly crafted storytelling –  in a form of different types of media to convey a story that resonates with a targeted audience.

Content could be targeted to a niche audience, but it is possible to attract new types of audiences, as in the case of product development. Usually, you would build your product around the needs of your first 100 customers/early adopters and from there grow your feature set to serve a larger segment.

2. What do you think about viral content?

• Relevance to audience: content that spreads through word of mouth, content that reaches its right audience; Timing and (Place) Container is important.
• The use of word “viral” has peaked and lost its sauce. Everyone is living digitally and expected to see content everywhere fast, cheap and distracted.

3. Content/Container First?

• It’s useful to understand your users/audience and build content around them. I use product thinking/human-centered design process to decide the content and then choose a container.
  1. Containers help to frame and constrain the design
  2. It’s not the how but the why
• For me, it’s not easy to start with containers. It’s too pie in the sky this way. Content is what sets products apart. Content is “THE WHY”
  • Why would I buy it
  • Why would I use it?
  • Why do I care?

4. Are platforms responsible for their content? Do users deserve compensation for user-generated content?

• If certain products can impact someone’s health and mental state it is very important to set parameters, do research and regulate aspects of the container not so much the content.
  • Think social media as an emerging arm of marketing; and how marketing has influenced many people’s lives on a daily basis.
  • Cambridge Analytica’s data manipulation of 50 Million user accounts and the US elections
  • Digital products nowadays are designed for users to get addicted to. I have a problem with that.
• I haven’t really put much thought in this but at the rate that content is consumed right now, there is a potential to do harm on society’s wellness for online content consumption. Just as how the FDA sets some Nutritional Facts and calorie counts to help with physical health, web content diet could be helpful.