{"id":2192,"date":"2018-08-13T08:45:14","date_gmt":"2018-08-13T08:45:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.gov.scot\/digital\/?p=2192"},"modified":"2019-11-14T16:35:09","modified_gmt":"2019-11-14T16:35:09","slug":"what-content-designers-do-when-theyre-not-writing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.gov.scot\/digital\/2018\/08\/13\/what-content-designers-do-when-theyre-not-writing\/","title":{"rendered":"What content designers do when they\u2019re not writing"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>This post was inspired by Leisa Reichelt\u2019s excellent\u00a0summary of\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/userresearch.blog.gov.uk\/2014\/09\/10\/what-user-researchers-do-when-theyre-not-researching\/\">what user researchers do when they\u2019re not researching.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Content designers:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>work as part of cross-functional service teams in the Scottish Government<\/li>\n<li>support public sector colleagues who are designing new services, or improving existing ones<\/li>\n<li>create and maintain content on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mygov.scot\/\">mygov.scot<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>People who haven\u2019t worked with content designers before often assume that we a) only get involved towards the end of projects, and b) spend all our time <a href=\"http:\/\/resources.mygov.scot\/content-standards\/content-delivery\/creating-content\/writing-content\/\">writing<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>But content design\u2019s not just about putting words on the page. As well as finding the right formats, keywords and tools, we\u2019re involved at all stages of the <a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.gov.scot\/digital\/2018\/08\/02\/the-6-stages-of-the-content-lifecycle\/\">content lifecycle<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>The main thing we do is translate users\u2019 needs into clear, simple, accurate and accessible content that\u2019s easy for them to find. But to be able to do that, we have to understand what these needs are, and advocate for them throughout the different phases of a project.<\/p>\n<p>Here are just a few of the things we do when we\u2019re not writing:<\/p>\n<h2>We work with service teams<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>Help interaction designers, developers, user researchers, service designers and policy professionals understand the content challenges users face, such as accessibility or readability issues<\/li>\n<li>Create content and prototypes to support user testing<\/li>\n<li>Work with product owners, performance analysts and developers to make sure the tools and platforms we use meet\u00a0publishers&#8217; needs<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>We research<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>Observe user research, review research and consultations, analyse data and feedback, look at the questions users are asking online and check the search terms users are typing into search engines to find out what users\u2019 needs are<\/li>\n<li>Look at current digital services and carry out audits of existing content to see how it\u2019s performing<\/li>\n<li>Carry out gap analysis to see if there\u2019s content that users need, but doesn\u2019t exist<\/li>\n<li>Create stakeholder maps so we know <a href=\"http:\/\/resources.mygov.scot\/content-standards\/content-delivery\/content-discovery\/working-with-stakeholders\/\">who needs to be involved in the work<\/a><\/li>\n<li>Create journey maps so we know how to structure content in the best way for users<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>We plan<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>Develop <a href=\"http:\/\/resources.mygov.scot\/content-standards\/content-strategy\/\">content strategies<\/a> so content\u2019s planned, delivered, governed and maintained in a consistent and agreed way<\/li>\n<li>Draw up <a href=\"http:\/\/resources.mygov.scot\/content-standards\/content-delivery\/creating-content\/creating-a-content-plan\/\">content plans<\/a> with stakeholders that detail the user need for each piece of content<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>We share what we\u2019ve learnt<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>Write blog posts, about <a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.gov.scot\/digital\/2017\/01\/23\/improving-mygov-scot-for-businesses\/\">the work we\u2019ve been involved in<\/a><\/li>\n<li>Put together and deliver presentations, workshops and show and tells about our projects, and the insights we\u2019ve gained from events we\u2019ve attended, like <a href=\"https:\/\/gds.blog.gov.uk\/2018\/07\/11\/the-importance-of-content-designers-in-government\/\">ConCon7<\/a><\/li>\n<li>We run Community of Practice events for content designers in the Scottish Government and the Scottish public sector<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>We check how content\u2019s performing and improve it<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>Make revisions and factual amendments so content\u2019s relevant and up-to-date<\/li>\n<li>Analyse site analytics and on-page feedback and use our findings to decide if changes need to be made<\/li>\n<li>Carry out <a href=\"http:\/\/resources.mygov.scot\/content-standards\/content-delivery\/quality-assurance\/user-testing\/\">usability testing<\/a> to see if users understand our content<\/li>\n<li>Review language and <a href=\"http:\/\/resources.mygov.scot\/content-standards\/content-delivery\/creating-content\/readability\/\">readability<\/a> to make sure our content\u2019s accessible<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>We take part in Digital\u00a0First Service Standard Assessments<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>Prepare by reading relevant material about the service, and meeting with content designers from the service team to find out how they made their content design decisions<\/li>\n<li>Meet with delivery teams to agree roles and responsibilities, how they&#8217;ll share information about their work, and what structure their presentation will take<\/li>\n<li>Assess what the team has done to take user needs into account, and make sure their content is accessible<\/li>\n<li>Write contributions for the assessment report<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This post was inspired by Leisa Reichelt\u2019s excellent\u00a0summary of\u00a0what user researchers do when they\u2019re not researching. Content designers: work as part of cross-functional service teams in the Scottish Government support public sector colleagues who are designing new services, or improving existing ones create and maintain content on mygov.scot People who haven\u2019t worked with content designers&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":338,"featured_media":2201,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[97],"tags":[36,31,27],"class_list":["post-2192","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-content-design","tag-content","tag-content-creation","tag-content-design"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.8 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>What content designers do when they\u2019re not writing - Digital<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/blogs.gov.scot\/digital\/2018\/08\/13\/what-content-designers-do-when-theyre-not-writing\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"What content designers do when they\u2019re not writing - Digital\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"This post was inspired by Leisa Reichelt\u2019s excellent\u00a0summary of\u00a0what user researchers do when they\u2019re not researching. Content designers: work as part of cross-functional service teams in the Scottish Government support public sector colleagues who are designing new services, or improving existing ones create and maintain content on mygov.scot People who haven\u2019t worked with content designers...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/blogs.gov.scot\/digital\/2018\/08\/13\/what-content-designers-do-when-theyre-not-writing\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Digital\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2018-08-13T08:45:14+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2019-11-14T16:35:09+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/blogs.gov.scot\/digital\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2018\/07\/User-needs.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"900\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"dawnkofie\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"dawnkofie\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Estimated reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blogs.gov.scot\/digital\/2018\/08\/13\/what-content-designers-do-when-theyre-not-writing\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blogs.gov.scot\/digital\/2018\/08\/13\/what-content-designers-do-when-theyre-not-writing\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"dawnkofie\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blogs.gov.scot\/digital\/#\/schema\/person\/e3f3051ef13719ac971f073f2be19544\"},\"headline\":\"What content designers do when they\u2019re not writing\",\"datePublished\":\"2018-08-13T08:45:14+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2019-11-14T16:35:09+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blogs.gov.scot\/digital\/2018\/08\/13\/what-content-designers-do-when-theyre-not-writing\/\"},\"wordCount\":588,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blogs.gov.scot\/digital\/2018\/08\/13\/what-content-designers-do-when-theyre-not-writing\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/blogs.gov.scot\/digital\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2018\/07\/User-needs.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"content\",\"content creation\",\"content design\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Content Design\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/blogs.gov.scot\/digital\/2018\/08\/13\/what-content-designers-do-when-theyre-not-writing\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blogs.gov.scot\/digital\/2018\/08\/13\/what-content-designers-do-when-theyre-not-writing\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/blogs.gov.scot\/digital\/2018\/08\/13\/what-content-designers-do-when-theyre-not-writing\/\",\"name\":\"What content designers do when they\u2019re not writing - 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