About us

Founded in 2008, CAKE supplies digital content consultancy – strategy, management and design – in the form of recommendations, training and hands on skills, for projects of all sizes.

We work on everything from national, high profile, award-winning projects, like content management on the Great Western Railway site redesign and content design leadership on National Careers Service Job Profiles, to content quality assessments and annual maintenance reviews.

CAKE Consultancy Ltd is a listed supplier on the UK Government Commercial Digital Agency DOS 7 framework. And we enjoy working on smaller projects too.

Our work for past clients has transformed and developed website content in the arts and heritage, commercial, charity, higher education, and legal sectors, as well as in government.

This includes consultancy for: Government Digital Service, DACS, Loch Lomond and The Trossachs National Park, University of Cambridge, Kings College Cambridge, UCL, Great Western Railway, John Lewis, British Red Cross, RNIB, Scope, Content Design London, and UK government departments like DCMS, DESNZ, DEFRA, MHCLG, and APHA.

Why we’re called CAKE, and a few other details

It’s a memorable acronym for Content And Knowledgeable Editing. And, well, everyone likes cake! Plus, like cakes, our clients and projects come in all shapes and sizes.

We’re a limited company, registration number 06584083 – a small, nimble business, who can stretch to supply a whole content or UCD team, and competitive rates. Currently we do not charge VAT.

But if you budget is very tight, or you’re focusing on upskilling in-house staff, we recommend you try our expertise-packed modular online courses.

Lead consultant

Our lead consultant is Lizzie Bruce, who’s worked in web content since 2003. Her 22-year user-centred design career has focused on content usability, this is integral to her strategy advice.

She led and shaped Content Design London’s global content style readability project, which reviewed decades of user research evidence. Lizzie wrote project findings up into a readability guidelines wiki which she designed; it’s also published in print as a handbook. This work won a DigitalAgenda Diversity Impact Award.

Lizzie also contributed to the GOV UK style guide in 2013, and her previous work for the Office for Disability Issues was used in the development of the designing accessible content section of the GOV UK Guidance and tools for digital accessibility.

Specialisms

Lizzie excels in strategy-aligned audits and rationalisations of information architecture around user needs, as well as content patterns, usability and standards. And also enjoys quizzing subject experts, to translate technical jargon and legal terms into clear language.

She’s recently done this for DACS (the Design and Artists Copyright Society), and government clients like DESNZ and Defra.

Training background

Lizzie’s extensive digital experience plus CELTA teaching qualification inform our affordable e-learning courses. Her academic background is in linguistics, media and the moving image, and she’s coached many teams and individuals in content design.

Author of a popular intranet content design book, a UX design manual for homes and the Readability Guidelines handbook, Lizzie’s content and UCD thinking has been published by Working in Content and UX Collective, and she was a regular on the GatherContent blog.

How we work

Our consultants are quick to immerse themselves in your world. They research audience needs and motivations, and come equipped with good practice digital know-how from high standard user-centred design projects.

Based in London, we:

• work directly with you, remotely or on site

• resource your project full-time, part-time, ad hoc and through workshops

• can be booked onto a project through an agency

• can partner with other content strategy and UCD consultants

• are on the GOV UK Digital Marketplace DOS 7 framework

Freelancers

Cake is connected with a large network of experienced user-centred design specialists, many available for contract work, as well as audio-visual creators.

We can advise you on resourcing for your digital project.