harley-davidson.com model year 2010 content strategy

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Harley-Davidson.comModel Year 10Content Strategy

Table of ContentsProject Overview…………………………………….3Role of Content Strategist……………………….4Project Challenges and Solutions…………….5Explore..............……………………………………27

Developed by: Andrew Lewelllen


Project OverviewThe Harley-Davidson Model Year 10 project aimed to use an edgy look-and feel design, which communicated the brand’s aesthetic and image, with a fluid flash application to create a dynamic interactive experience that would engage a global audience, both brand loyalists and new consumers, with the 2010 Harley-Davidson motorcycles.

Page 3 Developed by: Andrew Lewelllen

Role of Content StrategistThe role of the Content Strategist was to gather and review the content for the 43 2010 Harley-Davidson motorcycles and all their relevant features, and ensure that the organization in the back-end file structure would allow the creative vision to function correctly, thus displaying the content in all its variations and correctly on all the global Harley-Davidson websites.

Specific Duties• Create Content Matrices• Create Taxonomies• Edit web site copy• Assist in creating MYSQL Database• Develop a Quality Assurance strategy• Address all content-related issues during QA process


Project Challenges1. Complex International Market

Structure2. High Variations in Content across

Markets3. Complex Language Hierarchy4. Noting Product Availability in Matrices5. Data and File-naming challenges



Solution:Exhaustive DocumentationTo accommodate and document these variations, I developed an extensive Content Strategy that included Two Taxonomies and Eight Content Matrices. Each of these documents had to be flexible enough to account for new changes in content, as well as be user-friendly so that the Internal and Client Teams could use them during the Quality Assurance Testing.


Language TaxonomyModels Online Content Matrix

Challenge 1:Complex International Market StructureHarley-Davidson’s market structure provides divides markets into global market, regional markets, and specific countries.



Solution 1:Market TaxonomyA detailed Taxonomy that outlines the market structure from the Global Market to specific countries. The taxonomy defines parent-child relations in the market structure. This Taxonomy was also used to create the Market Hierarchy in the MY10 Database.


Solution 2:Implementing the Taxonomy into Content Matrices All Content Matrices displayed content variability across markets utilizing this structure.


Model Assortment - Domestic



Model Assortment - International



Wheel Assortment - Global

Challenge 2:High Variability in ContentProbably the greatest challenge with the MY10 project was that any content--Motorcycle Availability, Features, Paint Options, Pricing, and so forth—could be unique to any market, sub-market, or country. All Matrices had to allow for changes to a bike’s availability, features, or any other of the aforementioned content.



Solution:Exhaustive DocumentationTo accommodate and document these variations, I developed an extensive Content Strategy that included Two Taxonomies and Eight Content Matrices. Each of these documents had to be flexible enough to account for new changes in content, as well as be user-friendly so that the Internal and Client Teams could use them during the Quality Assurance Testing.


Language TaxonomyModels Online Content Matrix

Challenge 3:Complex Language StructureThe detailed Harley-Davidson market structure also creates challenges with providing variations copy translations. As per the markets, text on the website had to be translated into seventeen language variations: Spanish, Mexican Spanish, French, Quebecois, Belgian French, Swiss French, German, Swiss German, Italian, Swiss Italian, Dutch, and up to five variations of English: American English, British English, Canadian English, Australian English, and “Other English.”



Solution 1:Language TaxonomyA Taxonomy that details the Language hierarchy, including parent-child relationships. This Taxonomy was also used to create the Language Hierarchy in the MY10 Database.


Solution 2:Implementing the Taxonomy into Content Matrices All Content Matrices containing copy for translations displayed translations on one tab to allow for easy viewing of translations.


Language Translations - English

Solution 2:Implementing the Taxonomy into Content Matrices All Content Matrices containing text for translations displayed translations on one tab to allow for easy viewing of translations.


Language Translations – German and Spanish

Challenge 4:Noting Product Availability in MatricesThe Content Matrices included information about a variety of data in a number of markets. A user-friendly strategy had to be implemented to ensure the documents and data variations would be easy to understand during Quality Assurance testing.



Solution:Availability StrategyA simple color-coding scheme used across all documents ensured that, once users became familiar with the Matrices, they could see Product Availability in any Matrix quickly and easily.


Item Availability Legend



Motorcycle Availability



Wheel Availability

Challenge 5:Data and File-Naming ChallengesThe MY10 database relied on concatenations of data to map data to assets. Due to the variability of the content, a strategy had to be developed to ensure that certain content items were organized in an appropriate way to prevent duplicating data and assets. This applied to the Wheels, Paint Options, and Features.



WheelsSolution: Numbering Strategy Harley-Davidson provided WhittmanHart with information matching wheel options to bikes. However, this list was redundant and inefficient. Rather than needing to list every wheel option for every bike, there was a finite number of wheel options. So I organized these options, numbered them, and built them into a matrix that displayed numbers, using a color code to separate Standard Wheel Options from Optional Wheel Options, to organize Wheel Assets for Motorcycles.


Wheel Asset Numbers

Paint OptionsSolution: Numbering Strategy For Paint Options, I developed a numbering strategy for the paints, 1-24, including a strategy to create parent-child relationships for Paint Colors that had special options, such as Pin Stripes, Decals, or Flames.


Wheel Asset Numbers

Paint Color Numbers

FeaturesSolution: Number per Bike – Alphabetically Order For the Features, rather than numbering them 1-340, I thought it would be better to think of each bike as having a finite number of features. I organized them alphabetically so that, for the most part, features would appear in the same order for all bikes: Engine, Exhaust, Handlebars, Seat, etc.


Feature Numbers

Explore




Homepage


New Models Experience


Model Landing Page


Photos


Paint & Wheels


Key Features


Key Feature Detail


Thank You!

harley-davidson.com model year 2010 content strategy

Automotive

exhaustive

quality assurance

translations

extensive

language hierarchy

product availability

numbering

specific countries