{"id":5444,"date":"2025-03-18T12:40:53","date_gmt":"2025-03-18T12:40:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.gov.scot\/digital\/?p=5444"},"modified":"2025-03-26T08:38:29","modified_gmt":"2025-03-26T08:38:29","slug":"we-made-a-content-design-system-in-4-weeks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.gov.scot\/digital\/2025\/03\/18\/we-made-a-content-design-system-in-4-weeks\/","title":{"rendered":"We made a content design system in 4 weeks"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Guest blog post from Andy Robertson, Senior Content Designer, Social Security Scotland.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>We built a design system for our intranet. It creates a consistent user experience for our colleagues processing benefit applications.<\/p>\n<p>The design system is a library of reusable content and patterns.<\/p>\n<p>Here is an overview of our approach to plan, write and build it.<\/p>\n<p>The design system is for an intranet with 6000+ pages. With 14+ different benefits, products and teams publishing stuff on there. It\u2019s our agency\u2019s knowledge management system.<\/p>\n<p>To quote a recent post LinkedIn post from <a href=\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/feed\/update\/urn:li:activity:7212091595829981186?updateEntityUrn=urn:li:fs_updateV2:%28urn:li:activity:7212091595829981186%2cFEED_DETAIL%2cEMPTY%2cDEFAULT%2cfalse%29\"><u>Hinrich von Haaren<\/u><\/a> &#8220;I\u2019m beginning to wonder if the absence of a content design system is responsible for a lot of unnecessary work and stress.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Our team had 3 content designers on this project including myself. And four weeks to get it done.<\/p>\n<h3><strong>Purpose <\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>We wanted to break down product silos. And help designers write and prototype quickly. The purpose of the design system is to:<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>reduce decision making to focus on bigger user needs<\/li>\n<li>give clear best practice for faster prototyping<\/li>\n<li>create a consistent user experience<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h3><strong>Contextual awareness <\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>This is a textile design skill I&#8217;ve transferred to user centred design. Everyone on the team took an hour to:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>look very broadly at what else is happening out there<\/li>\n<li>find who else is making the stuff we&#8217;re interested in<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>This exercise gives you a sense of your own place in the wider design community.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>We found very beautiful design systems from places like <a href=\"https:\/\/www.instrument.com\/work\/nike-digital-design-system\"><u>Nike<\/u><\/a>. And very functional but <a href=\"https:\/\/service-manual.nhs.uk\/design-system\"><u>purposeful ones closer to home in the public sector<\/u><\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h3><strong>Use what already exists <\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>We borrowed a lot from the <a href=\"https:\/\/design-system.service.gov.uk\/\"><u>GOV.UK<\/u><\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/designsystem.gov.scot\/\"><u>Scottish Government<\/u><\/a> design systems. These are more for interaction design and developers.<\/p>\n<p>But like, why does that matter? I&#8217;m a content designer who wants to make the stuff easier to read and use.<\/p>\n<p>Our financial context is challenging. We must work innovatively and collaboratively across government.<\/p>\n<h3><strong>Consistency trap <\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>We design to meet user needs. But using the design system shouldn&#8217;t replace your critical thinking. We have to remember:<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>never be consistent for consistency\u2019s sake<\/li>\n<li>adapt to different user needs and contexts<\/li>\n<li>consistent does not mean identical<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h3><strong>Community principles <\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>A strong cross-government community ensures the design system includes the latest research, design and development. \u00a0And our request form lets content designers make suggestions or share what they\u2019re learning.<u><\/u> This lets us update the system using evidence.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Our community principles are:<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>start with what exists<\/li>\n<li>share examples and research<\/li>\n<li>think beyond your product &#8211; across the whole user journey<\/li>\n<li>dignity, fairness, and respect<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h3><strong>Yeah, but what actually is it? <\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>It&#8217;s a publishing design guide. It looks like any other bit of guidance on the intranet.\u00a0 So it&#8217;s there when you&#8217;re publishing content.<\/p>\n<p>It&#8217;s broken up into four sections:<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Components \u2013 how to use things like accordions or inset text<\/li>\n<li>Patterns \u2013 best practice for user tasks and page templates<\/li>\n<li>Style \u2013 writing and formatting<\/li>\n<li>Community \u2013 ask for a change and share your findings<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h3><strong>Hit me up <\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>I&#8217;d love to hear if you feel the need for something similar in your platforms or projects. Or if you think we missed a bit.\u00a0 Email us at <a href=\"mailto:contentdesign@socialsecurity.gov.scot\">contentdesign@socialsecurity.gov.scot<\/a> to get in touch.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Guest blog post from Andy Robertson, Senior Content Designer, Social Security Scotland. We built a design system for our intranet. It creates a consistent user experience for our colleagues processing benefit applications. The design system is a library of reusable content and patterns. Here is an overview of our approach to plan, write and build&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":597,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[166,431,461,181],"tags":[185,95,432,462,115],"class_list":["post-5444","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-digital","category-scottish-government-design-system","category-social-security-scotland","category-user-centred-design","tag-design-system","tag-scottish-government","tag-scottish-government-design-system","tag-social-security-scotland","tag-user-centred-design"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.8 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>We made a content design system in 4 weeks - 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\/2025\/03\/18\/we-made-a-content-design-system-in-4-weeks\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"We made a content design system in 4 weeks - Digital\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Guest blog post from Andy Robertson, Senior Content Designer, Social Security Scotland. 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