Context Context Context

context informs form

Form is only one part of an equation that adds up to effective communication. Another major factor is the context.

To get an idea of how form and context inform each other, consider watching a movie in a dark room versus reading a physical book in a dark room.

A dark room may be the best environment to experience the full impact of a film, but it will make it impossible to get any effect at all from the physical book.

It doesn’t matter if the book is War and Peace or Curious George, if we don’t connect the form to the context, the content may become totally irrelevant.

consider the context

As I’ve written about before, the context of our media is just as important as the actual content contained with it.

But what exactly makes up the context of our content?

Here are a few aspects of context to think about before deciding how to form your content:

Proximal

• What other content will be surrounding this piece of content?
• Where will the audience be physically when they are experiencing this content?

Temporal

• When will the audience be most likely to find this content in relation to the time it was created?
• Is this content intended to only be experienced once, or multiple times?
• Is it easy to find again at a later date?
• How long do you expect the audience to spend with the content?

Epistemological

• What does the audience already know about the subject prior to finding this content?
• What does the audience already know about you or your organization prior to finding this content?

Tonal

• What is the tone or mood evoked by the environment surrounding the content?
• What is the possible or likely emotional state of the audience prior to experiencing this content?

Actional / Reactional

• What actions are possible or readily available to the audience during or after experiencing this content?

Once you have an idea of the context of your content, you can start to shape the form of the content in a way that will have the best chance of producing your desired effect.

what to do with a masterpiece

Consider that one day you discover a painting you’ve never seen before but which you decide is a masterpiece.

The content of the artwork may have been what initially caught your attention, but the context in which you found it will play a big role in how you respond to it.

If you first discovered the painting online, your first instinct might be to look up the artist, his background, his other paintings, artists he was inspired by, etc.

This will give you more knowledge about the painting.

But if you discovered the painting in a museum on a quiet day, your first reaction might be to stop and examine the painting itself in further detail for what could be quite a long time of concentrated attention.

This will give you a better appreciation of the painting.

Then again, if you discovered the painting in an art class, you may have associated it so much with the community of people who discovered and discussed it with you that you feel like it has become nostalgic and part of your identity in some way.

This will give you a stronger connection to the painting.

The painting is the same in each scenario, but the subsequent reaction, impact, and perceived value gained is quite different.

So, what reaction is encouraged by the environment in which you present your content?