Content diagramming: A framework for dealing with complex legacy copy and clarifying the system it’s trying to explain

It’s one thing to write new words for a feature that’s yet to exist. It’s an entirely different thing to write in and around a system so full of legacy copy, you’re not entirely sure which way is up.

Content designers will, likely, all have to deal with legacy copy at some point, so how can we make sure we can look past what the UI says and understand the actual true story of the system the UI represents?

Meet content diagramming, an exercise inspired by the sentence diagramming you learned in high school—but way more fun!—that can help define and understand legacy systems.

In this session, you’ll learn:

• A unique framework to help uncover and understand the parts that make up a digital system
• A fairly low-stakes exercise you can apply to both legacy AND new copy to help understand the true story of digital system you’re writing for.
• A way to align and define that story with stakeholders.