Content design

And now for something a little different with a touch of fruity language.

One of the lovely colleagues on my previous project shared this blog post by Cap Watkins with me last year and I have thought about it a lot since. Essentially, if you are having a difficult design or content conversation, how much does the issue mean to you on a scale of 1–10?

There have been a few times recently when I could tell someone felt far more strongly about a decision than I did. So, I acquiesced, with the hope that the next time I'm a ten-out-of-ten on a topic with that person involved, they'll recognize that and hear me out. If you can let go of the things that don't matter so much to you directly, you can build currency with others and earn their trust when you do wind up pushing back.

I have found this an incredibly useful mental trick. When you are in the fog of deadlines and challenging work, it is easy to feel like every decision matters and all arguments are worth fighting for. But that's not how true collaboration works.

To work effectively as a team when things get tough and tense, there has to be a bit of give and take. You can't go full steam ahead into every single conversation. It's unlikely that your way will be the right way every time.

So yeah – these are good questions to ask. Is this decision – this argument – really that important to me? Do I feel so strongly about it? Or can I let this one go and save my persistence for a problem that's more of an 8, 9 or 10 out of 10?

From this concise and extremely handy guide to content design:

Instead of thinking about what we want to say, we research what a user needs to achieve their desired outcome. What they want and what they need can be different. It’s a content designer’s job to figure that out. Once we have researched user needs, we determine what sort of content will meet those needs.

I'm aware that I talk about content design a lot on the blog and in the newsletter. That's because writing in clear language is in large part about understanding who you are writing for and what they need. And that's crucial to content design.

But I am also conscious that there are many people who write in clear language and do not work in content design. This one-page content design overview is from Shelter's style guide and a brilliant place to start.

If you want to dig deeper, I recommend the handily-titled Content Design, written by Sarah Winters and Rachel Edwards.

It's all well and good using clear language, but you still have to get the right tone and choose the right words. It's even more important when writing about difficult or sensitive topics.

The Co-op team do lots of great work and this piece by lead content designer, Helen Lawson, includes some fine examples. It covers the principles that help funeral directors write and work with content.

This paragraph resonated with me:

We reduce the chances of misinterpretation by being very deliberate with the language we choose. For example, we say “he died” not “he passed away” because euphemisms can be misunderstood – especially when English is not someone’s first language. Defined by Collins Dictionary as “a polite expression used to refer to things which people may find upsetting to talk about”, euphemisms about death do not soften the blow but they can lead to confusion.

I have spent the last 18 months working on content where I have needed to tackle this exact challenge. How can we write clearly and directly, while also showing empathy, understanding, even warmth? It is not easy. Often, I have felt like there were no right words available to me at all.

Luckily, I have been working alongside a team of other experienced content designers. We've had the most success when we have worked openly and improved content based on insights from user research. In practice, that means making changes to language and tone in response to feedback from the audience. And by sharing with and learning from each other.

Sometimes, that work has led to a change in terminology – a simple update to the style guide. But there have also been fundamental shifts in how the entire organisation talks and writes about the service and its users. It has had a material effect on both internal culture and the user experience.

Of course, this is how you should approach all projects. Listen to your audience. Write or make a thing. Test it and be willing to change. But I'd argue it is even more important to have these conversations and work iteratively when the content you're working on has potential to cause harm or traumatise.