Exploration: Admin UI features for authoring content

[katjam]

What needs doing? We need a way for members of neontribe to be able to add and update content that is NOT code based for some types of content. We had some initial discussions about that... copied here from https://trello.com/c/HC12h5hx/45-features-we-might-want-from-a-cms and https://trello.com/c/RWKCuw8K/6-team-authoring-content-strategy-admin-ui

[katjam]

Description Team lead Rose

This team is looking at requirements for content authoring user interfaces, including updating and adding content workflow.

It includes discussion around what types of fields and data we need for contributed content - which has an author vs. static content which makes up the site and will be less frequently updated.

For the static stuff, there is some crossover with the Copy team.

Link to the realtime board rsh: https://realtimeboard.com/app/board/o9J_kykLPwA=/ (in progress)

[katjam]

Andy: FYI on the current blog we have tags, and if you click one of those tags at the top of an article, you get a filtered list of only articles with that tag.

For example:

https://www.neontribe.co.uk/tag/windows/ https://www.neontribe.co.uk/tag/linux/

which you see appear in the attached screenshot of one of my blog posts just above the tweet button.

Tags on old site:

[katjam]

Potential needs

Should be fed from the contributed content team- though we might just want to archive this in favour of a clone of their TEAM card which has lots of research/ info on it - TEAM: Authoring Content Strategy (Admin UI)

For starters we might want any of:

Freedom to add images Not need to make a PR in git to add content Authentication for adding content Not need to host DB Ability to tag posts Different types/ collections of posts (blogs and projects) with templates Some kind of wysiwyg

[katjam]

Rob: I stumbled upon this company using a branded medium for their blog https://read.acloud.guru/

Rose:Meeting minutes from 31st Oct 2018

Present at the meeting was @holly_stringer, @robpreusmaclaren, Rose and @katqneontribe.

We reviewed Rose's research on blogging platforms and social media platforms: https://realtimeboard.com/app/board/o9J_kykLPwA=/

Decisions made:

• We will use Wordpress as our blogging platform, but people can still use GitHub to upload a post if they wanted to
• We decided that we needed a least a presence on the following social media platforms: Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and Youtube
• Decided we needed to think more about using Twitch and to talk to @neonandybarnes about his thoughts on it
• Decided that vimeo wasn't the right platform for us because Youtube was more accessible

The next steps are:

• Clean up Facebook
• Clean up LinkedIn
• Clean up Youtube
• Create a Twitter calendar and allocate days to people who will be responsible for Twitter
• Create a rough guide to Twitter

A few of met last week and I presented my research on what content management systems were available for our blog. It was decided that we will probably use Wordpress as @robpreusmaclaren was confident we could use their API to pull the content into our static website. I wrote up the minutes of this meeting below :)

Katja;

Thanks @rosebonner1 We've discussed site infrastructure a bit since then and there is a general feeling that a wordpress install to maintain might be overkill in terms of providing a place that is nice to write blogs. Not entirely ruling it out if it genuinely solves a need not addressed by one of the 'lighter' CMS's.

Currently our favourite would be to use Ghost (since the devil we know) - hopefully with it's updated editor. https://blog.ghost.org/2-0

Or even to use a hosted/ paid for CMS to take that burden out of our hands.

Which other CMS did you consider other than WP? We could have a look and see if any of them would be easier to integrate into a simple as possible workflow.

Did you come up with a list of 'must have' features for the blog editor? If you do have that 'problem' defined we may be able to find a solution that makes life easier for all.

Kat; We may have jumped too far from user stories @katjamordaunt

Medium was our first plan - because of its value in tech community credentials for individuals and companies who use it - but it integrates in the wrong direction. I think only Wordpress has been considered for those that go in the right direction.

But the stories that I think are most important are the ones around "things must be easy to find AND the wrong things must be easy to ignore" for various users.

Would it be helpful if I start a checklist of "shorthand" stories - not actual features, but slightly closer to features, that I think matter here?

Katja: @katqneontribe Yes - I think there might be some confusion around what we need the CMS part to do.

The display and organising of the content will all be done by the static site. The CMS part will be for lg in as a contributor, write a post/ add tags/ add image(s) etc.

Think of it as the admin interface. Still important to be able to move around it and find your stuff etc. but not same as what we need to present to public.

Kat:@katjamordaunt - yes very much - but for me the crucial is that the CMS part adds the right things so that the site can find things.

For example most of our site user stories are around making sure people can find the content THEY need

For me that is tags, categories AND straplines - if the CMS doesn't consider all those things differently, I don't see how the site itself can?

Katja: From the devs point of view - we need that content to be easy to consume through an API, securely stored, and easy to version control / workflow release.

Kat: @katjamordaunt ok so from a neontriber who is not a dev pov its "not have to learn markdown, be able to place images well without having to trouble a dev, and be able to add the right kind of features (tags, categories, phrases that are parsed differently to body text) so that the site can display the non static content in a series of different ways, not just one Blog"

Katja: We should be able to template 'post types' in any CMS - which means tags, straplines etc can be specified.

From the perspective of the people writing the blogs - I assume they want it to be easy to log in and easy to create content.

And be able to have the content reviewed and be able to release the content to live.

Do you have examples for "so that the site can display the non static content in a series of different ways, not just one Blog"

Kat: @katjamordaunt

Don't have a current example and I've no idea whether we would go with this set finally - but for example instead of there ever being a Blog page (which is genuinely no use to any user ever except for the actual post they land on from a social media or email link) there might be a TechforGood (for anyone to read but aimed at charity sector clientspage), a Neontribe gets Technical Page (for Dev and Sys Admin posts), and an Out and About Page (for conference blogs).

In my hack things together style of building arts charities temporary sites, I've done this using categories - I don't think that's the right way - but I think that we will need to make sure that SOME way is possible - unless we reject that and go for a really fancy search and tag system for accessing blogs instead.

It may of course be that all systems allow for this - so the focus goes back to the people using the CRM itself for which works - not my area!

But all that flexibility and ability to explore what will get things to the right people at the right time AND lead them from the blogs to other content as well matters way more to me than the writing side of the interface so long as it isn't Rupert's original suggestion of write everything in Git! (although yes - I start to see what you mean now, and agree with all of those and would probably add "preview own post")

Oh - and we should make a decision on whether sign off is needed or not - or whether people are just working to guidelines etc. (which is where I think this group will really come into its own - some content creation guides)

kat: @katjamordaunt @neonandybarnes Agreed - tagging is one way of helping users find content. I don't think it is the only way. Or enough.

Andy: I have no view on what is enough, just that we have more ways of consuming the existing blog than described by "someone landing on the blog" or "someone following a link by social media".

Of course we could do better :)

Katja: @card Sounds like we might be able to find something that is not wordpress & suits devs and content authors alike.

Can we come up with a rough 'feature list' for adding content? I've started a checklist with ideas - but please add/ remove/ change order etc.

Kara: @card added myself to this team as I can help with this and this team seems to have the least hands overall.

[katjam]

katja:@neonandybarnes @katqneontribe @rosebonner1

There's quite a lot of info on: TEAM: Authoring Content Strategy (Admin UI)

which could do with going through and pulling out into user stories maybe? Not too granular - just enough so we know if the CMS solution we choose will meet acceptance. Also consider archiving this in favour of some existing user stories like:

As a neontriber I want to get my content approved and online so that it can be seen without delay.

[katjam]

Closing. For historical info. Was https://trello.com/c/HC12h5hx/45-features-we-might-want-from-a-cms && https://trello.com/c/RWKCuw8K/6-team-authoring-content-strategy-admin-ui