7 Tips for Creating Content Author-Friendly Content Types in Optimizely CMS 12

One of the things that I love to see is developers that take an extra interest in the user experience for the content authors. Oftentimes, it is that extra attention to detail that makes a project successful. Here are just a couple of the things that developers should look for when creating new content types.

• Have a business analysis work with the stakeholders early in the process to identify the needs of the content authors.

• Do not nest blocks too deep

  • Some people have a deep dislike for nested blocks. I think they add value if they are done correctly. The key though is to make sure that the blocks don’t nest too far. Once that occurs when you have created a nightmare for the content author.
  • New Blocks are easy to create and as a friend once told me “HTML is cheap”.

• Limit using a content reference when only a single block is required

  • Use a content area and set a min and max number of items that can be set.
  • There is a small (minimal) performance implication, but it allows the content author to create a block using the New Block interface rather than forcing the author to create a new block in the assets pane.

• If you are making a content reference or a content area required, then use David Knipe’s HideOnContentCreateAttribute

  • https://www.david-tec.com/2017/07/hiding-required-properties-on-the-create-new-page-in-episerver/
  • Adding this property allows the content author to create the stub of the block and then add any additional properties (nested blocks or references to other content). The block just cannot be published before the required field is resolved.

• Make sure that important properties are displayed in On Page Editing. It is frustrating to have to back and forth between On Page Editing and the All properties view. If it is important, then it should be able to be accessed through OPE.

  • Most of the projects that I work on include a toolbar for showing these additional properties on OPE.

• And lastly, use Tabs to separate data into meaningful categories.