{"id":5314,"date":"2024-12-18T14:04:14","date_gmt":"2024-12-18T14:04:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.gov.scot\/digital\/?p=5314"},"modified":"2024-12-18T14:04:14","modified_gmt":"2024-12-18T14:04:14","slug":"building-confidence-in-content-design","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.gov.scot\/digital\/2024\/12\/18\/building-confidence-in-content-design\/","title":{"rendered":"Building confidence in content design"},"content":{"rendered":"

Guest blog from Claire Robertson, Senior Content Designer, Social Security Scotland. <\/strong><\/p>\n

Over the next few months, Social Security Scotland will be sharing a series of blogs from our User Centred Design team. We\u2019ll give an insight into our ways of working and share some examples of our collaborative, user-centred approach.<\/p>\n

At Social Security Scotland, working in the open is helping to build confidence in the process of content design \u2013 both inside and outside our team.<\/p>\n

The idea of working in the open runs through both the Digital Scotland Service Standards and Government Digital Service. At a basic level, it\u2019s about sharing code and common components. If we dig deeper, it\u2019s about sharing ways of working, processes, data, user research \u2013 everything that goes into creating the final piece of work. \u00a0As designers we should be transparent about how these shared outputs are created. This is how we can build trust and confidence in the content design process and create a consistent user experience across our 15 different benefits at Social Security Scotland.<\/p>\n

What do other teams think we do?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Content designers rely on working with multiple teams. For us to be effective, other teams need to understand how content design works and the value it can bring. But content design is a misunderstood discipline. People often have experience of working with \u2018content writers\u2019 and assume it\u2019s the same thing.<\/p>\n

When people don\u2019t understand how content design works, the natural inclination is to engage us towards the end of the project. We are brought in to \u2018add the words\u2019 after the major design decisions have been made. However, our work starts in the discovery stage. The writing of the content is one of the last steps in a long process involving research into user needs and behaviours, data evaluation, consideration of content placement and testing. By being involved at the right stage we can shape the journey and make it simple for the user. Content affects the user engagement and experience. It might sound obvious, but for a client using our services the content is the tangible thing they engage with.<\/p>\n

Content design is new though. How will other teams know how it works, and the value it can add, if we\u2019re not telling them? Our job as content designers, in very basic terms, is to give people the information they need, at the right time. This should be applied to stakeholders, and how they work with us. \u00a0People in content often naturally gravitate towards working quietly, and in the background.\u00a0 Our team want to change this.<\/p>\n

Being more open as a team<\/strong><\/p>\n

So, what are we doing differently? To start, we\u2019ve adopted a more collaborative working environment within our own team. We can’t spread the word about the good work we\u2019re doing, if we don\u2019t know what that work is. We do this by:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Sharing our content<\/strong>
    \nOur team now has content crits for nearly every piece of content. This is where three or four colleagues all discuss a content draft on screen. We\u2019ve found that having an open dialogue about a piece of work opens creativity so much more than a single person proofreading. It\u2019s also a great way to expose team members to a range of content quickly.<\/li>\n
  2. Sharing what we’re working on each day<\/strong>
    \nWe share a daily work update on our Teams channel with what we\u2019re working on. This not only helps us see who has availability for reviews or new work. it also helps us identify any crossovers in our work. Another opportunity to make our content consistent.<\/li>\n
  3. Expert areas<\/strong>
    \nIn our team we\u2019ve assigned \u2018expert areas\u2019. These are things like:<\/p>\n
      \n
    1. content operations<\/li>\n
    2. patterns<\/li>\n
    3. style guide<\/li>\n
    4. stakeholder engagement<\/li>\n
    5. data<\/li>\n
    6. accessibility<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

      Having an assigned expert for these areas means there is someone making sure we have processes and tools in place for our team to follow for these vital areas.<\/p>\n

      As well as expert areas, sharing our work means we now naturally know where specific skills lie within our team. For example, we know who to go to if we need help with Word and templates, or who is best at auditing.<\/p>\n

        \n
      1. Content checklists<\/strong>
        \nWe\u2019ve introduced step-by-step checklists that our whole team uses when creating content. This means that we are creating content in a consistent manner throughout the team and ensures the content design standards we advocate for are consistently applied. These are shared on our organisation-wide platforms too<\/li>\n
      2. Shared spaces<\/strong>
        \nAs well as updating our organisation-wide facing pages and writing blogs, we also do all our work off a shared drive. Again, this means we can help each other apply standards and can look for crossover.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

        These changes in our ways of working have made a huge difference. We\u2019re constantly learning from one another and keeping each other motivated.<\/p>\n

        We want to be transparent about our workflow. This demystifies the content design process and shows all the work that goes into creating our content. Having these standards and processes in place has also resulted in a huge shift in confidence within the team. We can feel assured that we\u2019re working in the right way.<\/p>\n

        Bringing others on the journey<\/strong><\/p>\n

        We\u2019re working in a more open way with stakeholders too. As well as monthly show and tell sessions, we’re taking our \u2018Content Design 101\u2019 sessions round different areas to explain what it is we do and the difference it can make.<\/p>\n

        We also want to bring stakeholders along on the content design journey with us. For a recent project looking at improving our letters, one of the aims was to co-design changes to letters with client advisers. Client advisers are both a stakeholder in, and end user of, these letters and their input into the project was crucial. Client advisors got involved in activities such as journey mapping workshops and sketching sessions for prototypes. We\u2019ll use the outcomes of these to feed into future co-design activities.<\/p>\n

        Working in the open is an ongoing process. Blogs are another way for us to try and spread the word about our work.\u00a0 We\u2019d love to hear new ideas about how we can work more openly too. How do your teams work in the open? Email us at contentdesign@socialsecurity.gov.scot<\/a> to get in touch.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

        Guest blog from Claire Robertson, Senior Content Designer, Social Security Scotland. Over the next few months, Social Security Scotland will be sharing a series of blogs from our User Centred Design team. We\u2019ll give an insight into our ways of working and share some examples of our collaborative, user-centred approach. At Social Security Scotland, working…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":597,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[97,229,461,463],"tags":[27,19,54,95,462],"class_list":["post-5314","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-content-design","category-digital-scotland-service-standard","category-social-security-scotland","category-user-centred-design-2","tag-content-design","tag-digital","tag-digital-public-services","tag-scottish-government","tag-social-security-scotland"],"yoast_head":"\nBuilding confidence in content design - 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\/2024\/12\/18\/building-confidence-in-content-design\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Building confidence in content design - Digital\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Guest blog from Claire Robertson, Senior Content Designer, Social Security Scotland. 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