Content design is not just pre-Alpha, it’s pre-Discovery

Content is important, undoubtedly. It’s the medium for conveying information. But it isn’t everything. Frequently, the work of content designers acts as a tool that highlights all the other skills a service or product needs.

So include content designers at the diagnositic stage, ideally pre-Discovery – and don’t think you only need to recruit content designers, or mono-recruit in any discipline in fact.

Good design is a multi-disciplinary effort. “User-centred design is a team sport.”

The usual story

Content design hones in on understanding what information users need the different stages of their journey to complete tasks online, and what source material is accurate and relevant for them. This involves user research and internal process research.

Sometimes content designers and strategists take all that on, gathering and parsing the data brilliantly. They describe processes to users, they present information optimally with content that’s usable, inclusive and accessible.

However, very often, they identify issues with the internal processes and the external offering. Users need X, but the service only allows Y. Users need Z but internal processes mean this cannot be done. They can flag this up, but more work is needed, and at this stage the organisation often doesn’t listen.

Business analysis is needed

So content folk can end up as proxy business analysts. But that is not a skillset they are trained in or specialist at. Their trouble-shooting flags are spotty and serendipitous, where professional BAs are systematic and rigorous.

Service design is needed

Content folk can find themselves becoming proxy service designers, again not a skillset they‘re trained in or specialist at. They can almost never effect service change or influence policy. For example, content designers can apply accessible presentation and inclusive language, but they cannot make the service or product more accessible or inclusive.

User research is needed

Content professionals should not be seen as user researchers – they are only trained in content-based user research: relating to focusing information, gap-fill and information architecture. They’re not trained to recognise non-verbal body language cues, and generally not in psychology. They’re not empowered to influence service and product design so, rather like the Casandra figure in ancient Greek mythology, they can describe the current status but not bring about robust improvement. Learn more about Cassandra from Wikipedia.

Interaction design is needed

Content designers can work up a wireframe, juggle Miro boards, edit Figma and learn to code. Or simply do great things in a Word or Google doc. They can prototype visually, perhaps in html. But they are not interaction designers: they are generally not highly trained in interaction design.

Graphic design is needed

Content designers and editors can add a screen reader accessibly-described graphic to enhance meaning and support the info absorption needs of some dyslexic users. They could be fairly decent at Photoshop. But they‘re not graphic designers.

Development is needed

They can edit the CMS and develop workarounds and fixes so that content presents as intended. But they‘re not developers, front or backend.

Next steps – go wide

Content design is vital. It helps you to understand your processes and
describe them clearly to users. However, for deep value product and service design
improvement, you need a multi-disciplinary team (and yes, that includes content).

Here at Cake Design Studio we’re saying have a hard think about your information right upfront at the very start of a digital transformation project. Get content designers to describe the current processes, and make those clear to users – and the organisation. Use this as an internal tool, a springboard, a pre-alpha, a first iteration.

Understand your processes – and work out how to improve them: with business analysts, user researchers, service designers, graphic designers, interaction designers and developers, plus content folk.

Build your user-centred design team

High value data, research and user-centred design are a multidisciplinary effort. Good information design ‘takes a village’. Find out more about multi-disciplinary teams.

Make sure you have the user-centred design team you need. We’re building a directory of UCD freelancers – use it, share it, join it.