Foreword
While most of us were off chasing the next new-new internet tricks, a group of UK strategists and designers – led by Sarah Richards – had quietly redefined the standards for how a government could serve its constituents online. And they didn’t do it with fancy technology, ‘innovative’
design, or a horde of expensive consultants: they did it with words.
Our industry pays a lot of lip-service to ‘user-centered content.’ Put the user first, we say. Anticipate their needs. Prioritize their preferences. Deliver delightful experiences! The problem is that all too often, we don’t actually spend the time or money to find out what our users really, truly care about in the first place. As deadlines loom, we begin to allow our assumptions drive the bus. ‘We already know our users, because we’ve been serving them for such a long time.’ Or, ‘Our research didn’t really give us quite the right information, but we’ll just use what we have for now.’
Good web teams aren’t lazy about research. They aren’t satisfied with half-baked personas. They don’t just kick content out the door and move on to the next thing. They are relentless about asking better questions, analyzing data, and iterative improvement. They’re in it for the long haul, and they’re in it for the user. That’s essentially why GOV.UK succeeds. It’s why content strategists
around the world point to the site again and again as an example of what can be done if you are brave enough to let user-centered content lead the way.
And it does take courage. When you are reinventing an online service from the ground up, there’s nowhere to hide. Either you nail it or you don’t.
Sarah’s team nailed it, and they did it with the most straightforward, honest approach to design I’ve ever seen. They defined measurable goals, identified key obstacles, navigated them with data-based decisions, and delivered an unparalleled user experience … designed solely with content. What’s more, they did it out in the open, bringing the rest of us along for the ride. That work continues today, in no part thanks to Sarah’s visionary articulation of the value of content design.
Sarah is a consummate problem-solver. Her work in content design has given us a flexible set of tools to identify, articulate, and meet our users’ most important needs. Above all else, she is pragmatic in her work – she has no time for silver bullets or ‘the next big thing.’ She’s straightforward in her approach and unrelenting in her pursuit of simplicity, both in her own instruction and in what she delivers to the user.
All that said: she knows her readers. She knows we are word fanatics. That we strive 24/7 to empathize with our audiences. That, more than anything, we want to do meaningful work that contributes to the
success of both our users and our organizations.
We are her audience. And she’s done the hard work to help us succeed. This book is the result of that hard work. Read it, re-read it, and keep it close at hand. It will help you build a better web.
Kristina Halvorson
May 2017
Founder, Brain Traffic and Confab Events Author, Content Strategy for the Web
This
book
explains
content
design
It will tell you what content
design means,
how it’s different
from copywriting,
and how to
make it work
successfully in
your organisation.
It takes you through the
content design process, one
step at a time, with frequent reference to fictional examples and to real-world situations I’ve encountered during my career.
This book is not about content
strategy, the
process that gives
you an idea of what
you are publishing
where and why.
Ideally, you should understand your content strategy before you start working on content design.
Content strategy is a subject of its own, and someone else has already written the book on it: I recommend Content Strategy for the Web by Kristina Halvorson and Melissa Rach.
This book is not about design as in
graphics, icons, look
and feel, colours,
interaction and so
on. It’s about the
content that sits
within the design.
Contents
1 Introduction
Preparation
Chapter 1
9
Why content design matters
Chapter 2
27
The science of reading
Chapter 3
45
Content discovery and research Chapter 4
91
User stories and job stories Chapter 5
109
Bringing your organisation with you
Designing
Chapter 6
123
Designing content
Chapter 7
135
Writing content
Chapter 8
157
Pair writing
Chapter 9
171 Crits
Chapter 10
187
Finished pages
199
Content
1
Introduction
2
Sarah Richards
Defining
content design
Content design means not limiting yourself to just words. Content on the web is often words, but not always. The point of content design is that you start with research to help you identify what your users actually need (which isn’t the same as what they say they want).
Then instead of saying ‘How shall I write this?’, you say,
‘What content will best meet this need?’
The answer might be words, but it might also be other things: pictures, diagrams, charts, links, calendars, a series of questions and answers, videos, addresses, maps, calculators, spreadsheets, printable documents, and many more besides.
When your job is to decide which one of those, or which combination of several of them, meets the user’s need – that’s content design.
A quick history
of publishing
Humans have been communicating for a long
Introduction 3
time – cave paintings can be dated back 40,000 years.
The first writing systems are thought to have emerged in ancient Sumer (modern-day Iraq) around 3200 BC.
Since then, humans have evolved, adapted, lost and revamped their communication techniques. But one thing has stayed the same: we want other people to consume our thoughts, feelings, goods and services, and we’ll adapt to make that happen.
Fast-forward to today: the internet is a (relatively) new thing, and for the most part we’re still adapting to make best use of it. In the early days, many people assumed that publishing online just meant taking everything that already existed offline, on paper, and just shoving it on a website. (Some are still doing this.) But that approach doesn’t work well.
Since developing paper, the printing press and books, the process of publishing was:
● writer writes
● editor edits
● printer prints
Easy. All nicely defined in a lovely linear process.
In the early days of the web, some online publishing worked like this:
● writer writes
● writer publishes (with or without editing or sign-off) That was brilliant. We could all publish our thoughts
4
Sarah Richards
faster. We didn’t have lengthy subbing processes or month
s to wait for something to be designed and printed. We were reading faster, publishing faster, learning faster, becoming a community faster.
As the search engines themselves got better, we had to work harder to make our websites stand out. The concept of search engine optimisation (SEO) was born, and many web content producers took it to heart.
Online publishing in lots of places now looks like this:
● writer writes
● SEO team adds SEO keywords
● editor edits
● legal expert signs off
● publishing team publishes
Which is much better. And to be fair, a lot of organisations do well with this process. But it has some flaws.
Want vs need
The ‘write, SEO, sub, publish’ type of publishing doesn’t necessarily take into account what users actually need. Sometimes, users don’t need to read anything.
What a user wants and what they need might be two different things.
For example, a person may want a quick, easy solution to a complicated debt problem.
Introduction 5
What they need, however, is a series of easy-to-follow steps to get them out of debt – which may not be quick or easy at all. It’s not what the person wants, but it is what they need.
A content designer will think about the best possible way to deliver information to the indebted person.
Perhaps that might mean using video, or an online debt repayments calculator. Those are pieces of content that might meet the need, but in many organisations, creating them will be the responsibility of a completely different team.
So a content design approach will take that into account, and the work might involve building relationships with teams you’ve not worked with before.
Business needs
vs user needs
A business usually needs money to run. Even if the goal is simply to help people, at some point almost all businesses need money to function.
Sometimes what a user wants gets forgotten in a lot of pages saying what the business or organisation wants to say.
I’ll show you how to keep your business and user needs in mind and how to tackle both together.
6
Sarah Richards
What content
designers are like
There’s a lot of technical skill in content design.
You have to know how to interpret analytical data, and how to put that data to good work. It can tell you things that help you plan your content. You have to be aware of all forms of communication that could be useful, and you have to know a lot about your audience to know what is right for them. We’ll go through it all in this book.
I think good content designers:
● should be humble; they serve the audience
● are totally focused on user-centred content
● appreciate that no one can know everything
● are open to learning
● aren’t wedded to grammar rules they were taught in primary school. Language moves on and a good content designer moves on with it Humans learn, evolve and adapt and you need to adapt with them. Assume nothing, question everything and test until you are sure.
Then go and do it again.
Because that’s how content design works.
Introduction 7
Finding your way
through this book
This book is divided into 2 halves.
The first 5 chapters are about preparatory work - doing research and going through the essential discovery phase.
Chapters 6 to 10 are more practical, guiding you through the tasks you’ll need to complete one at a time.
9
Why content
design matters
10
Sarah Richards
A few years ago,
website that had a
page designed to
help people find
their local GP.
The problem was
that most people
don’t say ‘GP’, they
say ‘doctor’. When
they search on
the web, they use
‘doctor’ there too.
Why content design matters 11
Users weren’t
finding the right
page on the website
because it didn’t
have the word
‘doctor’ on it.
I changed the term
and the page went
from being in the
bottom 50 for the
whole site, to one
of the top pages.
That’s iterative
content design
in action.
12
Sarah Richards
As so many
organisations are
still focused on
what messages
they want to push,
rather than what
their users need...
Why content design matters 13
why do you
need to put so
much effort into
your content?
14
Sarah Richards
Organisations like
Apple, Amazon
and Google take
research and user
behaviour seriously.
Why content design matters 15
They are also
global, very
succe ssful
brands people
talk about.
They are successful
because they make
people happy, which
includes creating
websites that are
easy to use and meet
people’s needs.
16
Sarah Richards
There are billions &
billions &
billions &
billions &
billions &
billions &
billions &
billions &
billions &
billions &
billions &
billions &
billions &
billions &
billions of
pages on the internet.
Why content design matters 17
Unless you are
a unique entity
that people have
no choice but to
deal with
the UK government, for instance you have
competitors.
To do better than your
competitors, you need
smarter content.
18
Sarah Richards
Not
more
content,
Why content design matters 19
smarter
content
20
Sarah Richards
Writing digital
content is a skill.
People won’t find
your website because
your design is funky.
They’ll use words
they are thinking
about and pick you
from a swarm of other
results offered up
by search engines.
You need to stand out
on the results page.
Why content design matters 21
That’s why content
design is important:
it helps you stand
out in a world where
everyone wants to
stand out.
Standing out comes
down to three things:
• push vs pull content
• trust
• ease of use
Let’s look at each one of those in turn.
22
Sarah Richards
Push vs pull
content
Ther
e are two types of writing for communications: push and pull.
Push content
If you see a poster while waiting for a bus, you are choosing to look at it, but it is there. It’s in front of you.
The effort is minimal. Your eyes just happen to hit it.
Similarly, if you publish a press release and send it to every journalist you know, that’s push content. Content is being shoved out there for someone to pick up.
Pull content
When you go to a website, you are pulling the content.
To get to a page at all, you have to decide what you want to read about, get some words in mind, type them into a search engine, choose from the results, and then get to a page to consume the content. You might see a link on another page or Twitter and decide you want to follow that link to read the content. All of that takes effort. All of that means you actually have to do something. That’s pull content. You pull the content towards you.
The most important skill for writing on the web is
Why content design matters 23
turning push content (what you want to say) into pull content (what your audience wants to read).
Any push content can be turned to pull. All you need to do is find what your audience actually wants. The more pull your content has, the more successful you will be. For example:
Push:
Look at this cool new phone! Buy it!
Pull:
This cool new phone makes your life easier and puts the entire world in your pocket. And it’s only £500.
Books would be boring if there were no thought-pro-voking prose. And adverts wouldn’t persuade us to buy anything if they just said: ‘Trainers. Keep your feet dry.
Available in two colours.’
But for either type of communication to be successful, it has to be what the intended audience wants or needs at the time they see it.
Trust
If your audience doesn’t trust you, they won’t interact with you – it’s as simple as that. While you gain trust from your reputation, track record and marketing on the web, trust can come from:
24
Sarah Richards
● design (does it look like the real deal or is it a scam site?)
● brand awareness (does it match your brand? If the Ministry of Justice looked and felt like Ministry of Sound, people wouldn’t trust it, would they?)