Content Audit and Competitive Analysis

Project Description

In this project, my teammates and I were recruited to conduct an audit (under a non-disclosure agreement) of the database of a company’s training website. Their website at the time lacked an up-to-date information architecture that could efficiently handle the number of training videos being stored. We audited the information architecture and recommended changes that would make the database easier to navigate.

Statement of Collaboration

I worked in a team with Tatyana Ah-Chu, Melanie Alter, and Megn Thomason. Our roles are listed below.

• Tatyana Ah-Chu: Project Leader
• Melanie Alter: Liaison
• Megn Thomason: Editor, Quality Leader
• Myself: Assistant Meeting Leader

As assistant meeting leader, I wrote the meeting agendas and meeting minutes. I also made sure that the team covered all of its discussion points during the meetings.

Process

Inventory

The company gave my team an Excel document with a list of all videos in the database. We checked to see if each video and corresponding materials had functional links. Some videos were duplicated and stored in multiple categories, so we noted those occurrences.

The image above is a sample of the spreadsheet that the team kept. All names, asset numbers, and dates have been changed.

Findability and SEO

On another page of the Excel document, we gave suggestions for keywords and metadata of each video. Customers originally had to type the names of the video titles verbatim. This was difficult since sometimes the names of the videos didn’t always contain words that were relevant to the topic of the content. For example, the title of a resource about working from home might be, “No Cameras, No Problem.” Keywords and metadata would drastically improve findability of content.

SWOT Analysis and Competitor Analysis

In addition, we conducted a competitor analysis as part of our SWOT analysis, or analysis of Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, an Threats. One threat that we identified was that competitive companies prioritized accessibility of content while the company we worked for did not. In our analysis, we recommended reformatting content, for example, adding closed captions and using color combinations that are easily readable, to improve its accessibility.

Key Takeaways

🔑 Operating under an NDA

This was the team’s first experience with an NDA, or Non-Disclosure Agreement. We learned to produce anonymous content, a transferable skill for the workplace.

🔑 Increased productivity

Our client thanked us for writing a thorough report. The changes we recommended will benefit the database with greater searchability, navigation speed, and reduced time in discovery.