Understand how content design affects your business. From Cake Content Consultancy. Based on a presentation for University of Cambridge. Original content compiled in collaboration with the UIS content design team. Slide contents: 1. Each piece of content is part of a wider action. The journey to complete a task or find information online could start on Google, and end on a competitor’s website. Make sure the part where people interact with your site is straightforward and useful. Ask: Where has the visitor come from? What are they trying to do? What are they going to do next? This helps you: focus content on what they need now, minimise duplication of what they already know, and recognise related content and improve the information architecture (IA). 2. Content design achieves business goals by meeting “user needs”. By serving site visitor needs, for example providing clear information on ABC, we can increase interest in XYZ. Needs are researched and content is based around those, rather than approaching topics from a siloed perspective. Designing with a user first approach is the best way to meet business needs. It’s in everyone’s best interest. 3. Content design is based on data and evidence for what users need. Content designers don’t guess or assume what users want and where they are coming from, they research it. Content designers use: analytics data, user interviews, user behaviour studies, usability and readability research. For example, they research user language by looking at search data, rather than picking words they think are suitable. 4. Content standards improve findability, clarity, consistency and usability. To produce high quality, trustworthy information, content principles and standards are necessary. Following them needs to be non-negotiable. BBC, The Economist, GOV.UK all hold their content up to such checks, as do your competitors. Usability reviews should cover accessibility and inclusivity. Content standards make information easier to find and absorb in a limited timeframe. A good start is to choose clear, simple language. Respected research shows even experts prefer plain language, refer to The Public Speaks: An Empirical Study of Legal Communication by Christopher R. Trudeau. A smooth, consistent flow through your site builds trust with your users, and helps your reputation. The opposite damages it. 5. Content design is a continuous approach, it goes beyond page layout and wording. Its methodologies and practices: help you create, organise and maintain less, more effective content, enable a consistent user experience, promote relevancy and accuracy, improve content workflow and governance, ensure content is in line with strategy. 6. Content design is a professional skillset. Designing content for a user purpose involves: research, data analytics, user-focused, informational content writing skills accessibility, usability and readability knowledge and information architecture.