Hello again,
As you may know by now, I am a bit overexcited about the opportunities that Artificial Intelligence (AI) provides me in my job. I keep discovering new ways I can use it, but in this email, I want to share just one example that I hope might inspire you.
I have been involved in a site redesign for a content-heavy site. One of the biggest problems is that many pages are too long and packed with dense, hard-to-read copy.
For example, the site has these long case studies that are basically taken straight out of a print brochure. Just one section of the case study dedicated to “challenges” came in at nearly 200 words and consisted of just two paragraphs.
As we know from research carried out by the Nielsen Norman Group, users will only read between 20% and 28% of the content on a page, preferring instead to scan for what they are looking for.
In the past, I would pick through this copy, trying to identify themes that I can split into content blocks. A content block is an easy-to-scan page element, made up of a heading, a short description, and a link to more information where applicable. They often have associated images as well.
Using content blocks instead of large paragraphs of text allows people to scan the headings and read the description if they are interested before clicking a link to learn more about that subject.
Thanks to OpenAI playground, we can now automate the process of identifying and writing these content blocks.
To do this, I take the poorly written copy I want to turn into content blocks and paste it into OpenAI playground. Then, I follow that with a prompt such as:
Using the reference copy above, complete the following steps in order:
- Step 1: Identify a minimum of three topics from the reference copy.
- Step 2: Write a headline for each topic that is a maximum of 60 characters and has a reading level of 9th grade or less.
- Step 3: For each topic, also write a short description of no more than 250 characters and a reading level of 9th grade or less.
Optionally, you could even add a step 4 that drafts a generative AI prompt that could be used to create an image in something like Midjourney. However, my personal experience of doing this has been mixed.
You could also give OpenAI guidance about the tone you want (e.g. formal or friendly) or how to format headings (e.g. word headings as challenges that were overcome or features of a product). The possibilities are endless.
By using this approach, you can chunk large blocks of content provided by stakeholders into something that users can more easily consume and are more likely to remember.
Of course, this is just the tip of the iceberg of the benefits that AI can provide us. However, what this example does demonstrate is just what a big difference AI will make, especially in terms of improving the quality of content on the websites we support.
But, what about you? How are you using AI in your workflow? I am always looking for new ways to use it, so if you have any tips, I would love to hear them. Just email me.
