Smarter Content

Side project

2021 – Present

Smarter Content is an educational resource for the content editors, developers, designers, SEO strategists, and product managers working with Contentful. It’s born out of the many calls for help I've heard to best approach the nuances of switching to a headless CMS.  

Smarter Content

Side project

2021 – Present

Smarter Content is an educational resource for the content editors, developers, designers, SEO strategists, and product managers working with Contentful. It’s born out of the many calls for help I've heard to best approach the nuances of switching to a headless CMS.  

Why do people want to use a headless CMS?

Some of the most common reasons teams switch to Contentful is to make the process of writing and deploying content more efficient. Teams want to make their content consistent and reusable.

Think about blog posts — every post has unique body content, and can be written by any number of writers. If a writer changes their bio, imagine how time consuming it'd be to find every post written by that writer and update the bio.

Why do people want to use a headless CMS?

Some of the most common reasons teams switch to Contentful is to make the process of writing and deploying content more efficient. Teams want to make their content consistent and reusable.

Think about blog posts — every post has unique body content, and can be written by any number of writers. If a writer changes their bio, imagine how time consuming it'd be to find every post written by that writer and update the bio.

How does content modeling relate to database design?

Once I began designing content models for large, enterprise teams, I saw a lot of crossover between that and database modeling.

The goals that a content team has — content reusability, consistency, and streamlined updates — are the same goals database modelers have. For that reason, I developed a process for content modeling inspired by the Waterfall Method. It's a helpful framework to create effective content models that scale as teams and content grows in size.

How does content modeling relate to database design?

Once I began designing content models for large, enterprise teams, I saw a lot of crossover between that and database modeling.

The goals that a content team has — content reusability, consistency, and streamlined updates — are the same goals database modelers have. For that reason, I developed a process for content modeling inspired by the Waterfall Method. It's a helpful framework to create effective content models that scale as teams and content grows in size.

How does the process work?

Going back to that blog post example, the process would take all blog posts and separate information into different content types/groupings — blog post, author, blog category, for example.

When creating a blog post, you would then reference an author and a category, rather than baking it into a post.

Now, if an update is made to the blog post author’s bio, it only needs to update once to reflect everywhere it's referenced. 

How does the process work?

Going back to that blog post example, the process would take all blog posts and separate information into different content types/groupings — blog post, author, blog category, for example.

When creating a blog post, you would then reference an author and a category, rather than baking it into a post.

Now, if an update is made to the blog post author’s bio, it only needs to update once to reflect everywhere it's referenced. 

E-book

Creating an e-book to encapsulate all of the knowledge learned from setting up headless CMS platforms for a variety of clients

My intention behind this book is to help people find the best way to create a highly effective content model and Contentful experience. 

Read more about it

E-book

Creating an e-book to encapsulate all of the knowledge learned from setting up headless CMS platforms for a variety of clients

My intention behind this book is to help people find the best way to create a highly effective content model and Contentful experience. 

Read more about it

Connor Rowland © 2022

UiPath

Side project

2021 – Present

Our task was to produce a mood video for the launch that wouldn't reveal the items from the collection but capture their essence—majestic light patterns reflected on glass, plastic and metal.

Why do people want to use a headless CMS?

Some of the most common reasons teams switch to Contentful is to make the process of writing and deploying content more efficient. Teams want to make their content consistent and reusable.

Think about blog posts — every post has unique body content, and can be written by any number of writers. If a writer changes their bio, imagine how time consuming it'd be to find every post written by that writer and update the bio.

How does content modeling relate to database design?

Once I began designing content models for large, enterprise teams, I saw a lot of crossover between that and database modeling.

The goals that a content team has — content reusability, consistency, and streamlined updates — are the same goals database modelers have. For that reason, I developed a process for content modeling inspired by the Waterfall Method. It's a helpful framework to create effective content models that scale as teams and content grows in size.

How does the process work?

Going back to that blog post example, the process would take all blog posts and separate information into different content types/groupings — blog post, author, blog category, for example.

When creating a blog post, you would then reference an author and a category, rather than baking it into a post.

Now, if an update is made to the blog post author’s bio, it only needs to update once to reflect everywhere it's referenced. 

E-book

Creating an e-book to encapsulate all of the knowledge learned from setting up headless CMS platforms for a variety of clients

My intention behind this book is to help people find the best way to create a highly effective content model and Contentful experience. 

Read more about it

Connor Rowland © 2022