Content Audit Report

Content audit report with an emphasis on usability and accessibility (Individual Project - 200 Points)

Only content that is relevant, readable, usable, and accessible will achieve the organization’s and the target audience’s goals.  We will discuss website usability and accessibility, the different aspects of a website’s organization, navigation, design, and interactive features that allow users to achieve their goals. To create a starting point for optimizing an organization’s content, the content currently published by the organization on different channels needs to be understood and assessed.  

For this reason, you will select an organization and perform a content audit on its content. You will use several assessment criteria to determine whether the content meets the pre-identified goals. This will include creating a spreadsheet for tracking content and how each piece of content measures up against specific assessment criteria. In addition to creating the content inventory, you will also test content for usability and accessibility. Finally, you will compile your findings into presentation slides that you would use to deliver your results to your audience, the organization.

Specific steps for conducting the content audit

Conducting a content audit will require a systematic approach. The following steps need to be taken to ensure that your results will be robust and that your findings will be valuable for your selected organization:

  1. Research your selected organization and establish
    1. their identity (who they are, what is important for them, what is their mission)
    2. their goals (what is their purpose, what does success look like from their point of view) 
  2. Identify the organization’s target audience (what groups of people do they target in their messaging, what are shared characteristics within these groups), then interview 3 members of this target audience and create a persona profile for them 
  3. Establish MAST (Measurable, Achievable. Simple and Task-oriented) goals for your content audit; if possible, do this in conversation with the organization’s representatives 
  4. Create an inventory of the organization’s content using a copy of the Example Content Audit Spreadsheet (the assessment criteria can be modified based on your MAST goals – be sure to check with me before you modify these criteria)
  5. Conduct usability testing of the content 
  6. Review the accessibility of the content using accessibility testing tools such as WAVE  
  7.  Generate some findings based on your content inventory, plus your usability, and accessibility testing results. 
  8. Assemble your findings into presentation slides for the organization and write up a 1-2 page executive summary that will accompany the slides 

Additional information on how to complete each of the above steps is available on our course website and in your textbook. 

The content audit report (presentation slides format - individual)

To share the results of your content audit with the organization, you will create  presentation slides of your findings and write up a 1-2 page executive summary of your methods, findings, and recommendations. The slides will incorporate an overview of your findings in all areas of your content audit. These slides will also serve as the basis for developing a content strategy plan down the road. 

Your presentation slides need to include the following content:

  • Short description of the organization and its goals
  • Explanation of the organization’s target audience with three persona profiles
  • Description of the MAST goals of the content audit
  • An overview of the content audit spreadsheet with trends observed 
  • The results of the usability and accessibility testing
  • A summary of the overall findings with areas highlighted that need improvement 

Presentation slides grading criteria

Your presentation will be evaluated based on the following criteria:

  • Provides insight into your content audit process
  • Supports the specific points made through sharing content examples 
  • Applies appropriate terminology effectively where applicable
  • Uses visuals (screenshots of content, testing tools, etc) to support your points 
  • Discusses how the content audit led to revealing specific trends and resulted in specific findings 
  • Synthesizes the takeaways from the usability and accessibility testing 
  • Has a clear structure with introduction, body with cohesive content, and conclusion
 

Combined Team Presentation (Team Project - 50 points)

After submitting your individual presentations, you will create a combined team presentation about your findings and highlight specific recommendations that you will enact as a team in the upcoming content strategy plan team project. Each team will present this combined presentation during class while keeping the intended target audience in mind. 

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