Kids Help Phone - Content Consultation
Context
For over 20 years Kids Help Phone (KHP) has been helping kids across Canada harness their inner strength and persevere through challenging situations by providing round-the-clock access to counseling, information and referrals.
Challenge
We were engaged to help guide KHP with their content strategy in anticipation of an updated brand refresh and site redesign. Great design has to start with great content, to that end we worked closely with the youth services team at KHP to define a content conversion plan, and to assist with creating content templates.
Currently KHP content is broken into 3 separate sites: kids, teens and the organizational website, which is focused on fundraising and donor support. The scope of this project was to focus solely on content from the teens site, using the content heavy topics in the "Info Booth" section of the site (bullying, dating, sexting, emotional health, friendship, family, school etc.) as the focus for our content strategy.
Process
We worked through the following activities and provided the following materials to the KHP team to assist them in their content journey:
Content Definition Workshop
During this workshop we defined the site audience, discussed and reviewed each content type (12 in total based on the content currently on the KHP site). Then we then ranked them according to how well they met the following 4 criteria:
- Responsive
- Brand appropriate (align with the updated brand tone)
- Easy to produce
- Persona appropriate
Based on these findings we were able to prioritize the content types to determine which ones would be best suited for each topic.
Example of a topic page with multiple different content types i.e. general written content, imagery, surveys, games, forums, PDFs etc.
We used these pages to perform a content audit and used the results during our content definition workshop to identify which types of content to focus on.
Content definition workshop - 12 general content types were listed (based on our audit of the topic pages). We reviewed each type as a group commenting on pros and cons and noting all related ideas on sticky notes. We also included a wish list section for interactive content like chat bots which were being discussed for possible inclusion in the site redesign.
Prioritizing content types according to themes during near the end of the workshop.
Certain content types like forums attracted a lot of excitement and attention, because of their potential for fostering peer to peer interaction. Other content types like the underused PDF slideshows were seen as more dated and in need of update or removal.
Hard at work writing hopes and aspirations for the project as love letters from the future.
Content Templates and Best Practices
We took our prioritized content list and summarized each content type in an easy to use content guide/workbook. Alongside each content type we also provided helpful tips and tricks for writing legible and accessible digital content.
Content Conversion Plan
This was the focus of our work with the KHP team. We designed a draft template to use as a jumping off point and organized a workshop to discuss the explore each step of the draft process paying special attention to the timeline, content ownership and maintenance as we knew these would be crucial to get right.
As we worked through the draft plan we added in a step for translation and worked to include user feedback on the content by allowing 1 - 2 weeks for youth feedback using a panel of young people (already in place from having given feedback about the upcoming site redesign). Their insights into whether content is engaging and relatable is crucial to the success of the rebrand so we wanted to make sure it was included in the content conversion plan. Lastly we highlight any potential challenges that could derail the plan at any stage of the process.
Testing the Content Conversion Plan
Now that we had a plan mapped out we wanted to test it. We provided a content audit template to the youth services team and together identified which content piece to start with. We decided on the Bullying topic as it had the least amount of legal implications and was also a medium sized topic with lots of different content types represented within it.
The KHP team conducted their own content audit of the topic which we reviewed as a larger group and then started to work through the conversion plan step by step to test for timing and to see whether we missed any steps along the way.
Armed with a validated conversion plan and with content guides and best practices the Youth Services Team could start working through all additional teen topics, with the goal of eventually focusing on all content across all 3 sites. Although we weren't able to work with them through the entire process we felt confident in the plan and in KHP's ability to adapt it as needed over time, before, during and hopefullly even after their site wide redesign.
Content conversation plan checklist - summary version of the plan meant to help inform and align all team members about their responsibilities during each step of the process.
These documents are meant to evolve over time, as roles change and content needs shift. But having something down on paper (even if it changes) is still a very important first step in keeping everyone working toward the same content goals/outcome.
Lessons Learned
1. A plan is only as good as it's executed.
Saying you'll do something versus actually doing it are very different things. Without a solid plan in place that has been co-created and is based on real input from those who will have to implement it, nothing will change. Content needs an owner, it needs to be cared for and maintained over time.
2. Don't throw the baby out with the bathwater.
Content, especially multimedia/interactive content is very time consuming and costly to create. Even written content takes lots of planning so it's best to phase your approach (especially with redesign projects) and be smart about what content you choose to keep, re-write or delete.