How can content design help you improve your digital services?

**What is content design? **

We tend to consider content design to be associated with writing and copyediting, but it has gone beyond that. It’s about taking the information that your user needs and presenting it to them in the best way possible. In a world where more and more services and information are being provided in a digital context, it’s vital that service designers incorporate the concepts of content design.

How can it help you design better digital services?

Providing users with the information that they need, in a medium that is best of them, is increasingly important. Putting the user at the heart of how you design a service will result in a more usable and intuitive experience. Ultimately, the easier a service is to use, the more efficient it is, and will result in time saved for both the user and the government.

Here’s how to improve your digital services.

**1. Think about the user journey **

Thinking about the journey that your user is going to take when interacting with a digital service that you provide is essential to building an easy-to-use and intuitive experience. If you only think about the element you are responsible for, rather than the journey as a whole, then you are likely to fall short of creating that great digital service that you are after. Try creating a journey map by thinking about what brings a user to your service, not just what happens when they get there.

**2. Reframe your approach- stop thinking about what _you _need to communicate and start thinking about _why _your user needs you **

When designing an online service, take yourself out of the equation. Put the user at the centre of everything you do when creating an online service. Remember to think less about ‘What do I want to communicate to a user?’ and more about ‘What does the user want to know?’. This will help you create a service that is truly useful, informative and liked by your users.

**3. Crit early, crit often **

Feedback is vital and should be sought as often as possible. Creating a service that your users are going to want to use should ultimately have the input of the users. Seek out their feedback and really listen. If your users are seeing something for the first time when it goes live then it’s too late. Actively involving the user in what their service looks like will help to point out any errors in the system that may not have been obvious to you.

**4. Give yourself adequate time to make the product that your users need **

We all know that deadlines are tight in government and that vital services aren’t something that users want to wait on. However, there is going to be significant value in allowing yourself the time to work on your product. Minimal viable products might be the aim but taking that extra time to create something that will be truly useful for your users will ultimately require less work from your side in the long run.

**5. Simple language is gold **

Talking in a manner that your users understand and appreciate is the best way to make sure that your service is as efficient as possible. This seems like a quick and easy fix but it can take time to convert complex messaging into plain language.

• Leave out the jargon
• Talk in short, simple sentences
• Think about your users at every step

Thanks to participants on Apolitical’s _Digital transformation in the public sector _course for sharing their top tips for incorporating content design into digital service design.

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