What is content design?

What content design is and how to design content to meet user need.

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Designing content not creating copy

Good content design allows people to find out what they need to know or do quickly.

We have a tendency to publish content that is more focused on what it wants to say than what the user needs to know. This makes content difficult to understand and act on.

This can result in frustrated users who cannot find the information they need or complete the tasks they come to us for. This can include residents, business people and our local councillors.

We can avoid this by basing what we publish on research into user behaviour. Rather than publishing what we want them to know, figure out what users actually need know. 

Content design always starts with user needs

When we talk about content design we mean taking a user need and presenting it in the best way possible.

A user need is something a user will need to do or find out from us. For example:

There can sometimes be more than one way to design content. Decisions on which way to choose should be made based on user research.

Before publishing content, find out your users’ needs. Then, design your content around these needs.

Content strategy and design 

Depending on what your user needs are, you may need to:

  • reduce the amount of content you plan to publish
  • split one big piece of content into smaller pieces
  • change the format of the content
  • remove content from the site
  • publish your content elsewhere, like a partner site or social media

You’ll need to consider all of this when planning your content. You will also need to consider how long the content will stay on our website. What will happen to it after it’s out of date?

If you need content design advice, you can contact Communications and Marketing team using the web content request form (Intranet) [council staff only].

Design by writing great content 

Both this guidance and our style guide are based on GOV.UK research about how people use the web.

As a local authority, we must write content that's accessible to anybody, no matter their abilities or way the choose to access our information. 

Write content clearly, in plain English and optimised for the web to help the most people understand and find the information they need quickly and easily. 

Before you start, read about how to create accessible content.

Avoid duplication 

Content design also involves making sure content can be easily found and it is not duplicated elsewhere, especially on a site with thousands of other content items.

Duplicate content produces poor search results, confuses the user and damages our credibility. Users end up using offline channels, like calling our customer service centre, because they are not sure they have all, or the right, information.

Content maintenance 

Good content design practice ensures that our web content stays accurate, relevant, current and optimised both for users and search engines.

When content is no longer accurate or useful it needs to be withdrawn (unpublished).

Read our section on content maintenance. It looks at how to maintain and review content using Canopy, our dedicated inventory tool. 

Simpler, clearer, faster 

Applying all of these content design principles mean we do the hard work for the user. But the reward is a site that is simpler, clearer and faster for both residents and staff.