About content design
What our content designers do
Content designers make things easier for people to understand and use. We work within multidisciplinary agile teams, making sure users can find content in the right place and format.
We design single pieces of content and end-to-end user journeys across digital and offline channels. Our content makes sure users can complete their goals, and also delivers on policy intent.
What content designers are responsible for
Our content designers create and iterate content for our digital services, websites, applications and internal platforms.
In this role, we:
- design transactional and non-transactional content including user interfaces, webpages, forms, emails, text messages and letters
- use research, analytics and data to make sure our content meets user needs
- make sure content is responsive so it works on a range of devices
- follow GDS and WCAG guidelines and use best practice from the NHS service standard
- collaborate with interaction designers to create low and high-fidelity flows and prototypes
- shape content as part of the core user-centred design process
What content designers do not do
Our content designers do not:
- design content alone, instead we work with users and stakeholders to identify key information and themes
- work in silo to proofread or review content after most of the design work is complete
- build prototypes from scratch
- create promotional, marketing or social media content – this is the responsibility of our communications team
Expectations of a content designer
This guidance will help you:
- learn about the different content design roles at NHSBSA
- understand what skills are needed at each role level
Expectations of all content designers
We have junior, midweight and senior content designers working across our digital services.
Content designers at all of these role levels:
- work to NHS and GOV.UK standards
- identify key communication moments, user questions and content needs at each stage of the end-to-end journey
- explain design decisions, and document these decisions in UCD logs
- make sure language is consistent across all channels, aligning what the service says with what it does
- take part in design reviews and content critiques
- engage with and contribute to the NHSBSA and cross-government content communities
Our content designers work with:
- interaction designers to prototype and iterate designs
- service designers to understand the ‘as is’ and ‘to be’ service blueprint
- user researchers to contribute to discussion guides and observe research sessions
- other professionals in multidisciplinary delivery teams, including product owners, delivery managers, technical architects, business analysts and developers
- our communications team and customer experience (CX) team to create a consistent, understandable and usable end-to-end content journey
Expectations of junior designers
Our junior designers specialise in content, service or interaction design. They:
- work as part of a service
- explain design decisions
- work collaboratively
- identify key user needs and pain points
- are supported by more senior designers to work increasingly independently
Expectations of midweight content designers
Our midweight content designers (sometimes known as digital content designers):
- use evidence, data, research and customer insight to make content decisions
- identify online and offline content touchpoints across end-to-end user journeys
- build relationships across the NHSBSA to focus on the needs of the user and influence stakeholders
- clearly explain design choices, using evidence to show rationale and impact
- use and contribute to style guides and content patterns
- mentor, coach and support junior designers
Expectations of senior content designers
Our senior content designers:
- take responsibility for content across complex services and oversee small teams
- review the work of other designers to assure quality
- update content in coded prototypes
- think strategically to understand how content can work at scale, engaging and involving senior stakeholders
- agree content with teams and stakeholders in scenarios where there’s increasing levels of risk and complexity
- set direction and embed good practice within teams
- mentor, coach and support colleagues across UCD
Content designer skills matrix
Skills matrix
| Skill level | Junior designer | Midweight content designer | Senior content designer |
|---|---|---|---|
| Agile working | Working | Practitioner | Practitioner |
| Content concepts and prototyping | Awareness | Working | Practitioner |
| Stakeholder relationship management | Awareness | Working | Practitioner |
| Strategic thinking | Working | Practitioner | Expert |
| User focus | Awareness | Working | Practitioner |
| User-centred content design | Awareness | Working | Practitioner |
Content design principles
We apply these user-first content principles across all of our services.
Start with user needs
We start by understanding users and their needs. We work to understand users’ questions, language and behaviours by:
- collaborating with user researchers and the CX team
- gathering user feedback
- identifying key metrics
- using analytics
Use plain language
Many of our services can be complex. We use plain language to make our services simple to use and understand.
We aim to write content for a 9 year old reading age across all our services, including those available in both English and Welsh.
Be accessible and inclusive
Our content is designed to meet WCAG standards, so our services are accessible with different assistive technologies and devices.
We use as few words as possible to reduce cognitive load and make sure everyone can understand our content, including users with:
- disabilities
- a range of literacy levels
- low digital confidence
- limited understanding of written English
We follow the NHS inclusive content principles when designing our websites and services. We speak to our users about how they want to be described and test our content with them.
Design content for journeys
Content is part of the end-to-end user experience and is part of the design process from discovery onwards. We work with service designers and the CX team to design joined-up content experiences across all channels.
This helps users:
- improve their awareness of our services
- make decisions
- complete tasks
- understand what happens next
- get further support if they need it
Be consistent
We use consistent terminology and patterns across our services to make sure content looks and sounds how users expect. This makes our services feel more familiar and increases users’ trust and confidence.
We use and contribute to:
- style guides
- design systems
- terminology lists
We collaborate with interaction designers to consider how patterns, components and language influence each other. This helps us design consistent interfaces that support users to understand and complete tasks.
Test and iterate
We use user feedback to iterate our content as part of our continuous improvement process.
We test content with users to make sure:
- they understand it
- the design works in the context of the service
Monitor and review
After new or improved content is published or released, we identify key metrics and monitor how well the content is performing. This helps us understand how well it’s meeting user needs and informs future planning.
We regularly review content to make sure it stays up to date. We work with a range of stakeholders to make sure content is accurate, trustworthy and reflects current:
- user needs - these may change over time
- policy
- clinical changes
- legal requirements
- organisational goals
Sources
Improve the playbook
If you spot anything factually incorrect with this page or have ideas for improvement, please share your suggestions.
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