About me
I'm a late-diagnosed, neurodivergent woman, currently working full-time as a Content Designer. I write about my experiences with neurodiversity, in the hope that it will help others.
Before building a career in tech, I worked in pub management, customer service, museum education and local government.
I am a parent, carer, widow and owner of cats.
About content design
Content design is about getting the right information to the right people, at the right time, in the way that they expect.
Content designers structure information in a logical way and remove unnecessary jargon. We keep it simple so that people can use websites to do what they need to do.
Where you might find content designers
I've worked as a content designer in a variety of organisations and departments. Each role asked for the same basic skills but, in my experience, each one was different.
Central publishing
Working as part of a content team, dealing with central publishing for an organisation, involves 'business as usual' work, such as:
updating existing content
assessing the need for new pages
providing statistics on page views and links
site maintenance
We use analytics software to audit existing content and build a picture of how users interact with it. We can then use this evidence to support recommendations for change.
Many companies have their own intranet, only accessible to staff, so there may also be a dedicated intranet publishing team. In both cases, content designers would use patterns and style guides to make sure that their content is accessible, user-focused and consistent.
Creating design systems
Designers rely on systems and style guides to maintain consistency across company websites, support accessibility and build trust with users. Content designers work with other professions such as, product, service and interaction designers to research and catalogue components. Writing guidance for design system components is a really good way to get to know your company design system and build your understanding of other professions.
Writing articles
A content designer aims to simplify content and do less. We remove words, rather than adding more. Before we create something new, we check what's already there.
When we write articles, we focus on what the user actually needs from the page and make it as simple as we can for them to do it. Many people use assistive technology to access websites, so we use techniques to make sure that our content is accessible. These include:
a headings structure to provide better navigation
descriptive links that make sense on their own
clear error messages so that users know what to fix
Then we test our hypothesis with users and change it if it doesn't work for them.
Building digital services
Agile, multidisciplinary teams are made up of user-centred design (UCD) professions, such as user researchers, service, interaction and content designers, as well as technical and delivery roles.
UCD would usually be part of a wider project team, working alongside business analysts, delivery managers, product owners, developers and testers. Together they work to create something that blends the needs of the business with the needs of the users.
Design supports delivery by researching and testing with users, to make sure that what is created works for everyone.