Choosing to use story cards

After deciding to join the world of digital content I stumbled across the first (and possibly largest) challenge

Challenge #1: Publishing digital content

I found this to be an incredible stumbling block because of the following reasons:

1 Time

Time, time, time! Trying to make the time to sit down and create good content is going to be a challenge for anyone. I hadn’t even launched my journey into publishing content and this was already obvious.

2 Content formatting

Writing a good blog post requires multiple drafts, formatting, proof-reading, copy-editing, media assets and more. This is a mountain of work to climb before publishing a post.

I quickly realised I could not go the route of traditional blog posts. I needed to find a format which allowed me to quickly turn an idea into a post.

3 A distracted audience

After noticing how I skim through digital content, the last thing I wanted was to spend hours carefully curating a blog post word-by-word only to have an audience read a few headings and click a link (as I would).

I needed something punchy and bite-size, but flexible and adaptable.

Introducing story cards

After some test-runs and tweaks I came up with story cards. Each of my posts is made up of content broken up into any number of cards.

This format draws off a number of other digital content formats and here are the reasons why I chose it:

1 Easier to create

Trying to create a flowing, wordy and punchy 5-900 word blog post is both difficult and daunting.

I find it much easier to jot down key points and tweak and expand where necessary

2 Flexible

A card could contain a paragraph, quote, video, image, bullet point, list or any combination of these.

This flexibility allows me to create an array of different posts with varying content easily and effectively.

3 Adaptable

Nowadays people view digital content on multiple devices and screens. Using cards enabled me to adapt the content depending on what it was being viewed on or how the user prefers to view it.

You can switch between slide and scroll view, with the default being different on desktop/mobile.

4 Bite-size

Being a skim reader myself I wanted to create content that was easier to consume. By using cards it forces me to cut out unnecessary content and allows the user to access key points easily.

You can also share specific slides by clicking the share icon in the top right of each slide 🙂

5 Unique

Being a web developer I am empowered to customize the experience of my personal blog.

Using the cards format allows my blog to become a unique experience rather than being “Just another WordPress site”.

Will I change it?

Probably. I have made constant changes and tweaks while building the blog, but happy with it for now.

If you have comments, suggestions or out-right hate it please let me know!