Core, extend, jump: a fresh approach to content hierarchy and strategy
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What is it all about?
This methodology is a thinking tool which provides you a guideline to define a proper content structure. Here at DUMBO we call our approach »core extend jump«.
Meeting the demands of ongoing screen size shrinking and dwindling user interaction and user attention is a dramatically increasing challenge in designing digital products and services.
Above all, by using the »core extend jump« approach we can handle sheer countless demands in the form of business goals, stakeholder wishes, legal and technical restrictions, trends and best practices, without the user losing his orientation and searching for his needle in the haystack.
To achieve this we have to define decision criteria which enables designers as well as stakeholders to prioritize and structure content.
In a nutshell, the »core extend jump« approach enables us to create clear expectations and serve a good orientation point, leaving the user free to move confidently at his very own pace based on his knowledge and previous experience.
Why is this important?
As designers we often face requirements of stakeholders personal interests as well as stratetic business goals. In many cases these requirements compete with actual user needs, which opens the fight for every pixel above the fold.
This competition is subject to the fear of the unknown, the fear of lack of interaction.
- How does the user find the information he is looking for?
- How does the user find the function that will help him?
- How does the user learn about new features or actions?
- How …
By ceasing to create pages according to requirements and starting to focus on the »core needs« of users, we create relevance, increase conversion and accelerate interaction. Through the thinking tool »core extend jump« we transform information and functions for complex user tasks into understandable and pleasant user interactions.
How does it work?
Preparation… Identify the target user of the digital product or service that the client has in mind. Get your client’s objectives and sub-objectives — in a prioritized and measurable form. Research and prioritize actual user goals by conducting qualitative interviews and collect them in form of job stories. By this you derive content in form of information and functional requirements to structure your page. It has to pay on both, overarching business objectives and user needs. More on all of this we will discuss in a future post.
- Define the core. Make clear what this page is about at first glance, as concise and clear as possible. That enables the user to realize quickly if he found what he was looking for. If this page doesn’t satisfy his needs, we cannot convert him. Don’t be sad! That is good for both parties and exactly what we want to achieve. The main goal of this step is to cause the decision to stay or to leave the page within a fraction of a second.
- Define the extension. Hereafter we focus on the one who is on the right track. We enrich the core in a way, that no question remains open to the user. All presented information and functions are based on the pages core. The main goal is to enable the user to get his job done.
- Define the jump. A jump can serve as two different things. On the one hand it can be a gentle push to the next page in a journey, on the other hand it can be a safety net for the unlikely event that the page failed to satisfy the users needs. The overall goal is to protect the user from getting stuck and keep on browsing.
Please notice, there are a few rules to follow while passing through these three steps:
- Only one »core« per page permitted. If several cores are found, this is an indication for several pages.
- Proximity is the key. The more one moves away from the »core« area, the more general or inspiring the content of the »extend« area will be.
- Brevity is the soul of wit. The »extend« area should be compromised to the key aspects. The »jump« area should ideally consist in one to a maximum of two great topics. Contextual reduction creates relevancy.
- Keep browsing. Our goal is to never show the user the end of a page. This way, we ensure that the user has already been able to satisfy his needs on his way to the page’s end.
- No shell without a pearl. The »core« is mandatory for every page. The »extend«-area is optional as well as the jump-area, because both of them depend on the page’s target (e.g. product page vs payment details).
You can use the »core extend jump« approach first and foremost as a thinking tool, but you can also use it as a priority and decision-making tool and a communication tool to bring together the various disciplines to an interdisciplinary collaboration around one common theme, the digital product’s or service’s core.
How does it feel?
From the user’s view. They use a digital product or service designed only to meet their »core needs« with ease. As an outcome of the »core extend jump« approach the users get a quick orientation and can speed up or slow down their interaction based on their level of knowledge and experience. This makes them always feel safe and in control.
From the client’s view. The company can smartly prioritize it’s own requirements by tailoring a digital product or service directly to it’s customers’ core needs. Thereby the customer is no longer in the dark about which requirements matter more than others.
From the designers view. The focus on the core needs of the user provides a captivating clarity that greatly simplifies and sharpens the organization of the information architecture. Beside this, the »core extend jump« approach is helpful for the big picture by making it easy to keep the overall storyline consistent across the entire page. This makes it easy to take the right decisions.
Once you have actually agreed to a structure on a certain page, regarding to an explicit core, the output of each contributor will be much more effective than before. You create a high level blueprint for the entire team. For example, the UX and UI designer can create the right focus, whereas the editor points out the right message.
Examples
As mentioned above, we have to distinguish between certain contextual requirements that determine, among other things, whether an extend area or a jump area even exist on a page. Therefore I would like to give you an example for an action page sequence as well as an inspirational browsing sequence. This should point out the methodology in its different manifestations.
Browsing Pages. As best practice for an inspirational content structure we can mention Bang & Olufsen Play. A couple of month ago we noticed that B&O Play relaunched their entire product landing pages. The differentiation between product experience and product purchase is one of the key aspects both web architecture and web design are focusing on. Both aspects are crucial for a lifestyle brand in a highly competitive market like the wireless music one. However, it is both impossible and without necessity to address both needs at the same time. At this point the designers for B&O Play did a superb job. They build two pages, which address each need in an exemplary way. Let me sum up the central aspects:
Product experience
CORE — Be introduced to the product
EXTEND — Experience the product
JUMP — (…)
Product purchase
CORE — Buy the product
EXTEND — Provide insights and specs to put a stop to any doubts
JUMP — Compare it to similar products
The experience page focuses on the creation of an immersive and emotional experience in which consumers can get inspired by the product and its functionalities. And they did a great job. However, they failed at the end of the page. There, the user get’s stuck while looking right into a huge white footer, searching for a little black »call to action« button like the one at the top that provides the desired follow up action. As much as we were impressed at the beginning, we were disappointed at the end. We recommend to think about follow up actions like purchasing the product, compare products or similar alternatives. Which content or functionality addresses a relevant alternative regarding to the »core« thematized on this page?
Instead, the purchase page focuses on product specs and configuration options. By this, it is doing it’s best to put an end to any doubts. The page provides a great jump as well. The possibility to compare the product at hand to different ones clarifies the last insecurities.
Even though they fulfill different tasks, both pages are part of an inspirational browsing cycle accompanying the user to find the perfect fit.
Action Pages. We have to tackle different goals on action pages. Action pages need focus to prevent human errors and enable the user to perform the task at hand with ease. Here is no place for inspirational content. We have to be careful when jumping arond. A best practice for this approach is Slack. If you setup or join a workspace the business messenger provides the user with just one task at once. Let’s have a look at the first two actions of the workspace login:
Step 1
CORE — Enter the Slack-Workspace URL
EXTEND — (…)
JUMP — Forgot your URL
Step 2
CORE — Enter your email address
EXTEND — (…)
JUMP — (…)
…
You might observe that Slack focuses on one single action per time. And they provide the user with just as many options as he needs to perform his task. Each UI element seems to be chosen with care. We couldn’t find any inspiration or distraction during the whole sequence. Instead we found certain fallbacks that ensure that the user reaches the overarching goal. Even though he is not able to go straight forward, he will never get stuck.
Good to know
You can combine our method with the »core model« of information architect Are Halland, which he presented at the AI Summit in 2007 in his presentation »Core and paths — designing findability from the inside and out«. (It does exist a newer and more elaborated presentation, »The core model — designing for top tasks from the inside and out«, by him on the same topic. Even more on this topic can be found in Ida Aalen’s article »The core model — designing inside out for better results«.) Halland defines that the core of every page is the optimal information unit that fulfils a defined user task and at least one business goal at the same time by its content and/or functionality. Based on this, he asks to focus on the core need of a user and matching business goals when designing digital products. At DUMBO, we use a slightly different core model that focuses solely on need satisfaction instead of pages. That gives us the possibility to shape a dramaturgy and guide the user even better throughout their products and services. We use our »core extend jump« approach to structure each page and shape a consistent dramaturgy across all touchpoints between user and company.
I’m Robert, cofounder and designer at DUMBO. I’m always passionated in conceptualizing and designing products based on user needs instead of ideas and empathetic conclusions. I will write about methodologies, case studies and insides to build products that »focus on core«.
