Web Directions Year round learning for product, design and engineering professionals

This week’s Monday profile is Karen McGrane, Author, renowned content strategist, and someone who’s been working to make the Web a better place since almost its inception.

Karen spoke at our Respond Front End Design conference, and this profile appeared in our magazine, Scroll, which you can download right now.

You can follow Karen on twitter, and find her at KarenMcgrane.com

IN ONE SENSE I DON’T HAVE A LOT OF FAMILY. I AM AN ONLY CHILD, I AM NOT MARRIED, I HAVE NO CHILDREN. (I DO HAVE PARENTS.)

In another sense, to describe “family” as only blood relations strikes me as too limiting, as we don’t live in a 1950s children’s book. I have dog godparents and blood sisters and foster brothers and friends who I’d die for. Your family should include people you choose.

Q What formal qualifications do you have? How did you end up doing web work?

A I am one of the few 20+ year veterans in this industry with formal training. I studied human-computer interaction and technical communication in a masters program in the mid-90s.

If I were studying today, I’d be tempted to rename those programs Interaction Design and Content Strategy. I knew, back in 1995, that I wanted to work on the web, and I went to engineering school to understand it better. In retrospect, it feels like a great privilege to have learned the foundations of the field in graduate school, since so many people have had to pick up bits and pieces along the way.

Q Describe what you do. What’s your job? Is presenting at web conferences part of that job?

A I answer emails and make spreadsheets and take screenshots of web pages. Somewhere in there I try to make the web a better place, for the people who use it and for the people who create and maintain it.

Because I am an independent consultant working with clients, speaking at web conferences is part of my job. The best client relationships are the ones that start with someone saying they heard me speak.

If a client can see themselves and their problems in the talks that I give, then they know I understand what they’re going through and I can help them. You have to market your business somehow, and for me, speaking is an enjoyable way to find new work.

Q Do you give much thought to the title you apply to yourself? Does it matter?

A My title is “Managing Partner” even though I have neither employees or partners. I have business cards left over from a time when I did have employees and partners, so that’s what I call myself. Titles can be important in certain contexts, but mine isn’t so important to me that it’s worth reprinting my business cards.

Q Describe the first time you gave a presentation on a web topic.
A I spoke at the very first Information Architecture Summit in 2000. I emailed Lou Rosenfeld and talked my way onto the program, believing that was an event I should be a part of. I gave a talk on modular content and design, based on a case study of a project from Encyclopedia Britannica. Recently, a friend pointed out that I’m still presenting on essentially the same topic, more than 15 years later. He asked if I’d become bored with the subject matter — the truth is I find it more interesting and rewarding than ever. If I spend my life’s work exploring that very same topic, I’ll feel it was time well spent.

Q In The Graduate, Mr McGuire has just one word to say to aimless college graduate Benjamin Braddock:“Plastics”. What one word would you give to today’s prospective web professional?

A Stylesheets.
That’s probably two words. I don’t mean that strictly in the CSS sense, but in the sense that people need to be able to encode semantics separate from styling. Whether you’re a writer, or a designer, or a developer, working with stylesheets is a skill that pays off. I wish we taught it in schools.

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