Why Your Content Model Should Not Mirror Your Design System: A Guide to Omnichannel Content Strategy
By
Dougal MacPherson
Summary
This article explores the critical distinction between content models and design systems in the context of omnichannel content strategy. The author argues that many organizations mistakenly build content models that mirror their visual design systems, which limits their ability to deliver content across diverse channels like voice assistants, search snippets, mobile apps, and emerging platforms. The piece explains what a proper content model should look like—focusing on content types, attributes, and relationships that are channel-agnostic—and provides guidance on structuring content for future-proof, multi-channel delivery. It emphasizes that content models should reflect the inherent structure of the content itself, not the visual presentation layer.
Source
A List ApartWhy Your Content Model Should Not Mirror Your Design System: A Guide to Omnichannel Content Strategyalistapart.comKey quotes
· 5 pulledDo you remember when having a great website was enough? Now, people are getting answers from Siri, Google search snippets, and mobile apps, not just our websites.
I learned the hard way that creating a content model—a definition of content types, attributes, and relationships that let people and systems manage content—is harder than it looks.
A content model is not a design system. It's a reflection of your content's inherent structure, not its visual presentation.
Forward-thinking organizations have adopted an omnichannel content strategy, whose mission is to reach audiences across multiple digital channels and platforms.
These days, content models have to serve a variety of delivery channels, each more outlandish than the last.
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