DTA – Introduction to content design, Canberra
9 Feb 2017
With Libby Varcoe
These recollections are based on my personal notes, mistakes are my mine. My comments added in [square brackets]
- DTA has a small team of content designers
- Works externally with peers
What is content design?
- Usability
- Readability
- Accessibility
Important to:
-
Understand user needs
-
Design content around the user needs
-
Refine the content based on user feedback and testing
-
Make use of critiques
NOT what do we want to tell people but – what do people want to know
I am sorry I wrote a long letter I didn’t have time to write a short one
-
NOT JUST WRITING AND EDITING (but writing and editing still extremely important)
-
User research/testing can be shocking
-
Language of simplicity and trust [? I think trust is very important but not sure how it is defined. I think this comes out of a relationship over time]
Agile work methods
- They make use of morning stand up – what are you doing today.
- They also use a Kanban (jobs on a board visible to all – to do | doing | done) type methodology to share visibility of work across the team
- They use multidisciplinary teams and work in the open
Fun stat: 44% of Australians have low literacy
Issues
-
User needs first or Policy first – Funding model supports policy development rather than user needs
-
User research – they make use of user stories [Can be a good design artefact]
-
The also use pair writing [A big fan of this too] – work together early
-
Guerrilla testing of copy – with a highlighter – highlight important bits.[I like this]