How We Simplify Web Content

At Dept, we’re always looking for the best tools to make our digital projects as seamless as possible. Anyone working on content will know that using Word documents can be ineffective and confusing. Our content team seeks out the best alternatives to draft content and collaborate with our clients.

After battling for years with Word or Google Docs to create web content, we were so happy to discover GatherContent many years ago. We’ve never looked back. It helps to solve all those issues around versioning, collaboration and drafting web content.

We can work on the same piece of content, set up content models or templates, and collaborate on copy, tone of voice, structure and strategy. It’s a pretty essential tool in the life of our content team and projects. We have used it for everything from 100+ page website redesigns to single campaign pages.

Earlier in July GatherContent held a webinar to demo the features of the new GatherContent editor. Their team decided it was time to rebuild the platform from the ground up. Dept Content Strategist Rebecca Treacy joined the webinar to check out what’s new on GatherContent, and hear about the plans for the future.

Here are some of the changes that got us thinking about how we can use the new GatherContent feature to improve on our own projects.

Simplified interface

There’s been a real effort simplify the interface, which is still fairly text oriented but a much cleaner and clearer experience. The focus is all on the content itself.

Tabbing is now available for each page. This could be useful to separate out your brief from the content, or add a new tab for content formats that stand apart in some way such as forms. All giving you the ability to focus in a bit more on what you’re trying to work on.

The tool bar is also gone, with tooltips appearing instead when you highlight a piece of content. Instead you now insert ‘block elements’ into a field (meaning a table, quote or list), instead of these appearing in a toolbar.

This is one we’re particularly enthused about. Anyone who works with content knows that minimising clutter and distraction is vital. Creating solid content is tricky enough without the platform you’re on further confusing it.

We’re looking forward to trying out the new ways of putting together templates. Already, we’re busy thinking about how we can create a better experience with the new features.

Clearer workflow

The workflow has been moved from the top left as GatherContent felt it was getting lost. Now it is front and centre in the top middle, with the intention that it’s the first thing you see when you land on the page.

There is also now a history of who changed the status at each stage. Giving you a little more transparency over the decision making.

Multiple editors at once

One of the main frustrations we had with GatherContent was that only one person could edit at a time. Valuable time was wasted waiting to get editing permission. The aim is to fix this by moving towards an approach more like Google Docs. Now multiple people can work at once, with a coloured cursor to indicate who is editing what.

We expect this to be useful for many people, especially those of us who regularly work with clients and across teams.  

Slack integration

For those of you on Slack, you can now integrate it with GatherContent so comments and updates come directly to you. Which hopefully means less updates buried in your email inbox. At Dept, we’re always on Slack so this could come in particularly useful.  

Comment across content types

Commenting abilities are expanding. It is now possible to comment across content types – from plain text and buttons to images and assets. You can also @ people and groups in your comments, more in line with how we’re used to using comments. Plus it’s far more efficient than having to find and tick a box for everyone you want to notify.

And to add a bit more fun to comments, GatherContent now supports emojis. So plenty more ability to get chatting and collaborating for better content.

Find out more

You can find out all about the updates on the GatherContent website. While you are there check out their fantastic content related blog. We’re certainly looking forward to trying the new interface, and seeing where the platform goes in the future. Or get in touch to find out more about Dept’s content strategy team.