Digital resources for local government from Cake Content Consultancy

My local gov background

I started my digital career at Brent Council, who had residents reporting potholes by text back in the early 2000s! There I worked on everything from online service design and training staff in writing for web, to council-side work connecting people to relevant local services from one national site. I moved to a role with Department for Communities and Local Government, now MHCLG, working on Home and Community content, and feeding into the Local Directgov programme. This linked national to local, bringing people straight through to the service they needed from a central site outline of it. You can still do this for a limited number of services, including housing benefit, from GOV UK.

I think the programme’s legacy could have been further reaching, for example encompassing digital plus alternative path standards, and service design patterns for local government services – in addition to the LocalGov Digital content service standard created in 2013.

Much later, in 2018 I worked on local government service pattern co-design between GDS and local councils. These were heavily user researched, with interactive steps designed to GDS service and accessibility standards and customisable. (There is also a project from FutureLearn which identifies common components across council services.) I’ve since worked with local councils as a consultant, including New Forest District Council, as well as a range of different clients in the charity, higher education and further sectors.

1. Engaging stakeholders, management teams and CEOs

Trailblazing for content design – my open source presentation, originally created for University of Cambridge Information Services senior management team.
Digital transformation is not instant – my Prototypr article

Why multidisciplinary teams are good – my CloudCamp talk

17 tips to get content people in the room, for non-content people – my Cake article, originally published on the Content Design London website

Pair writing with subject matter experts, multi-disciplinary team members or content designers – my Cake article, originally published by GatherContent

2. LocalGov service patterns

I was involved as the content reviewer and content designer on the central prototype for this collaborative national project.

The main project purpose was to embed Verify into local gov services as an ID check, but in doing so built very well researched service patterns, which passed the GDS service assessment.

Read about the patterns on the GDS blog:

designnotes.blog.gov.uk/2017/10/16/designing-the-first-service-patterns-for-local-government

Prototype links

Journey maps plus design, user research and policy notes links

3. Training

My article on the need for more UCD training options and why I created mine, plus article highlighting barriers to existing options.

My UCD and content design e-learning offer:

User-centred design how-to articles I’ve written.

Free digital content production tools I recommend.

I’d like to licence my courses so that councils (plus charities and higher education providers) can have broader access, and customise them to incorporate into their internal training offering. I’d be happy to discuss re-creating them as branded training – get in touch.

Plus, I can deliver the pathway courses as full or half day workshops. I’ve previously trained teams at MHCLG, APHA, British Red Cross, and The Law Society, and I co-created an Accessible content workshop-format course for Content Design London which was presented at A11y Camp Sydney 2019.

4. Content standards and community

Readability Guidelines

Whilst consulting for Content Design London as a content strategist and trainer, I led the collaboratively researched Readability Guidelines project and also wrote up the findings and designed the wiki: readabilityguidelines.co.uk.

I grew the Slack community from about 40 to 700 through a social campaign and a structured collaboration strategy, and held weekly sessions with contributors worldwide.

Style guides

I contributed to the GOV.UK Style Guide when it was created in 2013, and the GDS Design system incorporates web design accessibility guidance I worked on at Office for Disability Issues, DWP, in 2009.

I’ve helped Red Cross, University of Cambridge, GWR and more with their content standards, including maintenance considerations, and governance (crucially, streamlining approval processes and involving content teams earlier).

5. Intranets

Central and local government

I’ve embedded task-based intranets at DCMS, MHCLG, APHA and New Forest District Council and reached many more through my book. My content was used for the GovIntranet demo site: demo.govintra.net

Book

My task-based intranet content book is also an introduction to user-centred design. You can also access the free references and resources list, including case study links.

Contact me