SAG-AFTRA

Building a modern digital platform for the powerful performers’ and broadcasters’ union.

As the most prominent performers’ and broadcasters’ union in the world, SAG-AFTRA represents approximately 160,000 entertainment and media performers in movies, television, new media, radio, commercials, and other parts of the industry. SAG-AFTRA is based in Los Angeles but has local offices in about two dozen U.S. cities.

In 2017, SAG-AFTRA began work on a major website redesign. The union hired the agency Four32C to perform an initial research and discovery phase and then design the site with a grounding in user-centered principles. Four32C enlisted me to lead a two-month content strategy phase to build off the initial findings and provide a detailed content foundation for the subsequent design work.

My first big task was spending a couple of weeks developing a comprehensive content audit of the existing site. I catalogued and studied thousands of pages along with assorted content types, content formats, taxonomies, information structures, redundant material, and other details. With some Four32C colleagues, I also made two trips to L.A. to lead in-person meetings and worksessions with multiple SAG-AFTRA departments, focusing on the content itself but also on institutional processes and organizational concerns.

My primary deliverable was a detailed content strategy document that provided extensive findings and recommendations both general and highly specific, such as these:

• Best practices and recommended tactics for audience targeting and personalization; findability and search; taxonomies and content relationships; and evergreen content versus timely content.

• Specific approaches for various primary content areas, including mission and values, national and local news, membership and benefits, industry resources, programs and departments, and local newsletters.

• Updated information architecture down to the third or fourth level, with detailed analysis and explanations for various decisions.

Separately, I provided a site structure spreadsheet that went into even more detail about the recommended updates to the site’s information architecture. My IA recommendations informed the subsequent UX and visual design phases and, ultimately, the build of the site. User testing was undertaken in later phases.

The ultimate goal of the redesign was to enable members and other stakeholders to have faster, more efficient, more meaningful interactions with the union — and solve their problems quickly and efficiently. I think we succeeded. Visit the SAG-AFTRA site.