Content Design

Product Information

The winner of the #Diversity Category at the 2020 #ImpactAwards is..... @ContentDesignLN for their incredible work in progressing #accessibility 🏆 Congratulations!— DigitalAgenda #TechForGood (@DigitalAgenda_) June 16, 2020 Well, and just remember that the term content design came from changing government conversations around what we as a content team should be doing. We needed to get them to stop thinking we were going to proofread their work. We were going to design that thing from end to end, whether it was a tool, a calculator, a calendar, an app, a video that we would go and commission. It is not just words. Then at some point next year, you will get the second version of my book, which is being written by me and my whole team.

Our content designers work directly with clients to create clear, accessible content that meets user needs. They are experienced trainers and regularly work with individuals and organisations to help them develop their content skills. Clare Reucroft The internal political landscape at Directgov at that time was such that if the senior managers didn't like what people in content were doing, they'd simply stop it and/or threaten to stop paying for Directgov. In conversations with colleagues, Sarah realised that the way everyone spoke about content had to change and be 'elevated' somehow. The playing field needed resetting, so that people working in the discipline could have a stronger voice.

Job stories

Sarah is responsible for delivery and direction of all our client projects. She makes sure work is delivered on time to a high standard. She also works with the team to develop a supportive organisational culture. Understand how you can open your content to a much wider audience by using content accessibility and inclusivity techniques. This book is short, lively and practical. Using real-world examples and imagined examples, it takes the reader through the content design process one step at a time, explaining everything along the way. Sarah is experienced in leading global and UK-based digital projects through a human-centred lens. She’s passionate about accessibility and has extensive experience in the culture, education and charity sectors. Rich Prowse

Thanks to Rich Higgins for building and maintaining the Wiki, and to Dave Brayford for designing the book. Article: Copywriter to content designer The differences between the two from Sarah's point of view. I feel like in much larger enterprises, especially that are dealing with legacy products, that I almost would like to see either organizations that have a Chief Digital Officer, or a Chief Customer Officer, that it sits there. So that it is something that is truly centralized and that is being served up as the beating heart of content within an organization and that it sits between and connects across all these different silos. That's my vision. Who can make that happen for me?What if there was one place where we, as a community, shared knowledge and created a style guide that was accessible, usable and – if we wanted – evidenced? We could then spend time on the things that matter more to our organisations.” A move to the Co-Op followed, where Sarah took up the position of Content Strategist. It was a return to one of her biggest passions: So I just don't know. I don't where this snobbishness is coming from. I have, maybe it's a privileged position that I'm in. I don't really mind about the titles. I care about the job and the end result and the environment that you're working in. And from what I can see, so we have people come to us and say, I would like a content designer. Because we find people and we embed them in other companies. Now at the time I was looking for books and interviews and videos and stuff about this kind of thing. And from what I saw, and I don't read everything obviously, but from what I saw, everything was from a design perspective and from an interaction, I'm doing silent air quotes here, interaction design perspective. It wasn't done from a content perspective. So by the time I left GDS, I was like, this is content design in and of itself. It's the journey maps, writing to a user needs, we can run a whole organization off of one bank of user needs. It's language mapping, it's sentiment scoring, it's using empathy maps. So we didn't start any of that, but we pulled it all together and it was like, this is what we do. So content design. So that's what I mean, you can just cut that out if you like. That's a very long waffly answer to the fact that it is a content perspective on user centered design. In the early 2010s, Sarah and her team at the Government Digital Service looked to user-centred design techniques to transform their content. The team used this new approach to set out a system of content design in the UK Government’s content. In this book, Sarah explains what “content design” really means, and shares how to put it into practice in your organisation.

I think that just the idea of having somebody who is quote, a writer, who's actually leading is just completely foreign to these organizations where design, design is complicated, design is the future, design is solving big, messy problems through design thinking. I mean, it's just like a sexier pursuit. I mean, why don't we have more research people in leadership positions? And these are the folks that know what's going on with the users and the customers and within the larger marketplace. Why aren't they running the show? I don't know. I mean, I think it's values, I think it's politics. I think that it is the way things have always been done. I think there's a lot, but it's not to say it's not happening. And I think that for the people it is happening for, we need to get them on this podcast to share their stories.Editors edited and publishers published - you could say it was really easy for people to understand. Everybody knew what that meant. Consultancy, including Alpha/Beta consultancy (where a consultant from CDL is placed in a project to support) Discovery is a technique to find out more about your audience, including how they speak and think, which channel they are on and what they need. Chapter 4: User stories and job stories Sarah's next role was Product Manager for Citizens Advice Bureau, where she was charged with leading its digital transformation. It was a wider remit, and involved far more than just content. She was also having to work with a new set of logistic challenges, as the organisation's offices were located all across the UK.