Structured content modelling and websites with flexible content

Andy Thompson

2 minute read

  • On a continuum:
    • very structured content e.g. recipes, products
    • semi-structured e.g. news articles, blog posts
    • loosely-structured e.g. homepage
    • unstructured e.g. page builder with visual components

If you do content modelling training, you're probably working at the start of that scale, almost a dogmatic approach. It might sound like content modelling isn't really compatible with web content.

In agile design & development, we talk about the concept of shu-ka-ri (define it). It's still a good idea to start there at the structured end, to get in the right mindset.

But what might be missing from your content modelling training (the shu)... once you know what you're doing, of course you can break the rules and create your own. Just be careful!

Your heavily structured content is the most likely to be reused heavily across channels.

But let's face it, your unstructured web content is less likely to be omni-channel, so embrace that it is web-centric (or even single-channel) content, and get over it! But you still get benefits of taking as structured an approach as possible:

  • separation of concerns
  • super clean content that can easily be re-skinned elsewhere/later
  • streamlined editing experience for editors
  • reusability
  • migratability
  • accessibility
  • best practice alignment with responsive & atomic design

Example from Ondrej 

  • create web-only content types with a prefix
  • also try to limit content types as much as you can
  • it's very similar to database design, if you're not going to reuse something, why would you divide it?
  • problem: it takes time to set it up correctly, and nobody has that time. developer has limited time, just implements it however it needs to be done
  • people are confused, if it's black or white, either unstructured or structured
  • right now, this problem is in the very early stages. They might not be talking about it, but they (will) need to solve 

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