Summary
Content strategists have fallen into the same trap that print designers fell into before them. The way content is created today (with multiple versions for different mobile platforms, different versions for different web browsers, tweaks for PDF web distribution, as well as slightly different versions for each eReader environment) is untenable. It’s as if we’re in the preindustrial age—handcrafting expensive artisanal products. With the proliferation of mobile devices, that task isn’t getting any easier.
We have to create content the same way manufacturers do: considering each component not only as an individual piece of information that has value, but also as a part of a larger information product, or ideally, part of more than one information product.
The only way to create content that meets changing customer needs is to adopt a unified content strategy. Such a strategy allows you to develop adaptive content that can be efficiently “manufactured” into a variety of information products for multiple devices.
Adaptive content automatically adjusts to different environments and device capabilities to deliver the best possible customer experience, filtering and layering content for greater or lesser depth of detail. Adaptive content can:
- Be displayed in any desired order
- Be made to respond to specific customer interactions
- Change based on location
- Integrate content from other sources