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The Asilomar Institute is dedicated to advancing and promoting information architecture.
Copyright 1992-2004 Victor Lombardi
Design Principles for Content Management Applications
I'm working on a content management application - the part of the content management system the authors and administrators use - and jotted down a few principles to follow. They may not be applicable in every case, but expanding along these lines might lead to some design patterns.
- Manage content, not pages. This makes content reuse easier.
- Reuse existing content when possible. The interface should make it easy to
do so.
- Content should improve the user experience. When deciding whether to reuse
content or create new content that will facilitate a significantly better user experience, create new content.
- Store content once: Do not create (or allow the user to create) copies.
- Facilitate quick updating: Reduce need to update the site through less
convinient processes, such as uploading templates outside of the CMA.
- Content is valuable: Content takes a long time to create and update. Do
not delete or expire content unless absolutely necessary. In general, more content is better.
- Separate content from presentation: wherever possible, separate display
text from HTML and other formatting information.
- Design CMA display to resemble CDA: when possible, this helps to present
authors with a familiar visual design
Sunday, October 26, 2003 | Permalink | Filed in Content Management Systems