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Designing Connected Content: Plan and Model Digital Products for Today and Tomorrow
With digital content published across more channels than ever before, how can you make yours easy to find, use, and share? Is your content ready for the next wave of content platforms and devices?
In Designing Connected Content, Mike Atherton and Carrie Hane share an end-to-end process for building a structured content framework. They show you how to research and model your subject area based on a shared understanding of the important concepts, and how to plan and design interfaces for mobile, desktop, voice, and beyond. You will learn to reuse and remix your valuable content assets to meet the needs of today and the opportunities of tomorrow.
Discover a design method that starts with content, not pixels. Master the interplay of content strategy, content design, and content management as you bring your product team closer together and encourage them to think content first.
Learn how to
Model your content and its underlying subject domain Design digital products that scale without getting messy Bring a cross-functional team together to create content that can be efficiently managed and effectively delivered Create a framework for tackling content overload, a multitude of devices, constantly changing design trends, and siloed content creation
In Designing Connected Content, Mike Atherton and Carrie Hane share an end-to-end process for building a structured content framework. They show you how to research and model your subject area based on a shared understanding of the important concepts, and how to plan and design interfaces for mobile, desktop, voice, and beyond. You will learn to reuse and remix your valuable content assets to meet the needs of today and the opportunities of tomorrow.
Discover a design method that starts with content, not pixels. Master the interplay of content strategy, content design, and content management as you bring your product team closer together and encourage them to think content first.
Learn how to
Model your content and its underlying subject domain Design digital products that scale without getting messy Bring a cross-functional team together to create content that can be efficiently managed and effectively delivered Create a framework for tackling content overload, a multitude of devices, constantly changing design trends, and siloed content creation
239 pages, Kindle Edition
Published December 6, 2017
67 people are currently reading
376 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews
February 2, 2018
I loved every piece of this book. Seriously.
From the smarts and verve with which Mike Atherton and Carrie Hane are explaining what structured content is (caveat: it bigger that schema.org) all the way to the considered, well thought of and super practical and detailed advice on how to get things content design done.
And then this scene, unforgettable, as if from a favourite movie (the one you’ve watched hundred times and can’t get enough of it):
A delightful discovery of the depths designing with words can take us to
To get back to the strange creature (for many) called content design, the book is a delightful discovery of the depths designing with words can take us to. It is also a very very handy guide to refer to when getting your hands dirty with defining a domain content architecture.
The Power of Language and Designing with Words
I would recommend the book to anyone interested to build a solid (and beautiful) basis for their content and use the power of language and structured content creation to their advantage. The book will guide you smoothly across the bumpy road of designing with language and will equip you the understandings needed to craft connected content for whatever medium you will have to.
From the smarts and verve with which Mike Atherton and Carrie Hane are explaining what structured content is (caveat: it bigger that schema.org) all the way to the considered, well thought of and super practical and detailed advice on how to get things content design done.
And then this scene, unforgettable, as if from a favourite movie (the one you’ve watched hundred times and can’t get enough of it):
FADE IN:
INT: Event planning office. Day.
Coffee-ringed papers litter every desk. A busy whiteboard
looms large, plastered with sticky notes and graffitied with
gridlines. Poster mock-ups peel from the walls. Phones ring in
the background, the soundtrack to perpetual urgency.
YOU
Thanks so much for your time! My name is Carrie,
and I’m working on content for the new IA Summit
website. You’re chairing the event. I heard you
know everything there is to know, so I was hoping
to spend the next hour picking your brain. This
isn’t the conversation where we talk about what
should go on the website. This is just to help me
understand how this event works so that I can plan
the content. If it’s okay, I’d like to record the
conversation so I don’t have to take quite so many
notes.
So please, tell me about the IA Summit.
A delightful discovery of the depths designing with words can take us to
To get back to the strange creature (for many) called content design, the book is a delightful discovery of the depths designing with words can take us to. It is also a very very handy guide to refer to when getting your hands dirty with defining a domain content architecture.
The Power of Language and Designing with Words
I would recommend the book to anyone interested to build a solid (and beautiful) basis for their content and use the power of language and structured content creation to their advantage. The book will guide you smoothly across the bumpy road of designing with language and will equip you the understandings needed to craft connected content for whatever medium you will have to.
January 31, 2022
Hane & Atherton fully represent the idea of structured content. Structured content is sustainable, robust and future-proof. They argue that businesses need to start making content work for them (not vice versa). Even if you are not familiar with the concept of structured content, after this book you will be. Hane & Atherton slowly introduce the reader to the topic - their thoughts and approaches are comprehensive. Guided by the example of the IA Summit, Hane & Atherton map out step-by-step how to develop structured content. Along with that, they also share many tips for how to overcome difficulties.
The book starts with addressing the problem of content mess(es). It is suggested for people who “[…] wrestle with content audits, URL schemas, and a volley of incoming requests that leave you with a large content mess to keep untangled.” (Hane & Atherton, 2017) The book describes the process for planning and designing content as structured data and then publishing that content to different user interfaces.
The authors use many examples to show how ad-hoc (content) decisions can have a negative impact on the business. They conclude that unstructured content processes are being expensive in the long run and emphasize to “rethink” content.
I like that the authors address different objections that arise while reading. For example, they address what might happen with the pages that are not concrete objects. Or that implementing this new approach to content might not fit every author’s perspective. They openly and friendly share some advice for those concerns. The book also contains interviews from different industry leaders and practitioners, like Michael Smethurst a former BBC information architect, who writes about web design and architecture (http://smethur.st).
The book is well structured (how not 😊), fun to read and a comprehensive guidebook for the journey to design connected content well.
The book starts with addressing the problem of content mess(es). It is suggested for people who “[…] wrestle with content audits, URL schemas, and a volley of incoming requests that leave you with a large content mess to keep untangled.” (Hane & Atherton, 2017) The book describes the process for planning and designing content as structured data and then publishing that content to different user interfaces.
The authors use many examples to show how ad-hoc (content) decisions can have a negative impact on the business. They conclude that unstructured content processes are being expensive in the long run and emphasize to “rethink” content.
I like that the authors address different objections that arise while reading. For example, they address what might happen with the pages that are not concrete objects. Or that implementing this new approach to content might not fit every author’s perspective. They openly and friendly share some advice for those concerns. The book also contains interviews from different industry leaders and practitioners, like Michael Smethurst a former BBC information architect, who writes about web design and architecture (http://smethur.st).
The book is well structured (how not 😊), fun to read and a comprehensive guidebook for the journey to design connected content well.
March 11, 2024
I'd give it a 3.5. The theory is sound and well explained. But the implementation is still foggy- chalked up to "hand it over to the engineers." Also, it's not as helpful when you're an IA for a well established, large company. I already have an ocean of content to deal with - already written content for applications. I can't start with my domain model. And my domain model is HUGE - banking. I'm not creating a small website for a professional group's annual event. I struggle to find books that touch on content models on a larger scale meant for a technical documentation team.
July 14, 2025
If you're a content designer or strategist in today's AI-driven world, you may be dealing with years of content/tech debt: siloes, duplicates, and a fragmented process of organizing content on the backend. This book is an essential and practical primer to moving from publishing-like practices—thinking of digital content as discrete, unstructured pages—to more of an object-oriented practice where content is broken into chunks and assembled in clearly structured ways.
January 6, 2020
Brilliant, smart and straightforward guide to content strategy
This is a great and smart read on content strategy, more specifically how to design your content in a future-proof way. Hint: Don’t start with designing interfaces, rather research and define the concepts your content is about and how the are connected. Absolutely recommended!
This is a great and smart read on content strategy, more specifically how to design your content in a future-proof way. Hint: Don’t start with designing interfaces, rather research and define the concepts your content is about and how the are connected. Absolutely recommended!
June 4, 2022
I never knew "this could have been an email" applied to books too. I did appreciate the jokes. So both plenty of chuckles and yawning.
December 17, 2023
Книга хороша, але інформація частково вже застаріла. Крім того, зовсім не розкривається тема омніканальності і чендж менеджменту.
June 6, 2020
This book advocates an approach to content strategy that leads with understanding the structure of the knowledge you wish to represent and then using that structure throughout your design process. The fundamental concepts will be familiar to anyone with the slightest familiarity with database design, and it's apparently a sort of recap of information architecture, too. Overall, I found its organization of the big ideas and their representations in visuals and tables quite useful, and the authors write in a clear and pleasant style.
I realized I was already familiar with some of what they were explaining (relational database 101, repurposed to content modeling), but their use of familiar concepts in a new context was helpful and inspired some new ideas for my own work. Now that I've finished it, my bookmark is back in the domain modeling section as a reminder for a current project.
This is a strategy book, not a technical how-to, but the authors include helpful references to other experts, sites and books when they mention a subject that needs more detail. They assume that the reader works in a large enough organization to have specialists to do all the specialist work, but the references provide pointers to those of us who are on our own.
I realized I was already familiar with some of what they were explaining (relational database 101, repurposed to content modeling), but their use of familiar concepts in a new context was helpful and inspired some new ideas for my own work. Now that I've finished it, my bookmark is back in the domain modeling section as a reminder for a current project.
This is a strategy book, not a technical how-to, but the authors include helpful references to other experts, sites and books when they mention a subject that needs more detail. They assume that the reader works in a large enough organization to have specialists to do all the specialist work, but the references provide pointers to those of us who are on our own.
February 1, 2023
Excellent overview of what it means to develop a well-designed, content-driven website. This book really made me appreciate CraftCMS (my CMS of choice) because Craft put me into these design patterns years ago. This would be a great book for a beginner, however, I can see a beginner being a little bit overwhelm with the theory. You almost need to struggle through your first dozen CMS-driven websites and then read this book.
As a final note, this book does a great job explaining why Wordpress doesn't really cut it for a well-designed, content-driven website.
As a final note, this book does a great job explaining why Wordpress doesn't really cut it for a well-designed, content-driven website.
August 27, 2019
An excellent book for anyone creating content for digital communications. I can't think of another one like it. The authors discuss creating a model so that content is easily adapted for updates and different platforms. The discussions are quite detailed and use real-life examples throughout. I also particularly liked the short interviews with practitioners that closed each chapter.
February 3, 2021
Well, this one took me a while to get through, but it was worth it.
Some great insights to help me edit other people's content in a connected way, and also, hopefully some ideas that'll help me expand out the services I offer into the more strategic/IA side of content projects.
Some great insights to help me edit other people's content in a connected way, and also, hopefully some ideas that'll help me expand out the services I offer into the more strategic/IA side of content projects.
April 5, 2022
Had some content and principles that weren’t all that new to me, but still a good set of useful ideas in a relatively concise format.
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews