Content as conversation in government websites

Abstract

Thinking of content as conversation is a very powerful way to plan, organize, write, and test websites. Early government websites seemed to be built as if they were virtual file cabinets - offering people access to paper documents. Today, that metaphor is dead. A better metaphor is to think of websites as replacing the telephone. Using a case study of transforming a government website, I show how thinking of content as conversation and planning for customer-focused purposes, customer personas, and customers' questions can help government writers give people what they need in words they understand. I also show how walking personas through their conversations is a powerful review technique and how content as conversation helps in planning for usability testing. © 2013 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg.