Bottom line, up top
Bottom line, up top
Season 5, Issue 7 - Content design with Eden Law
Have you seen the new martech market map? It has over 11,000 marketing platforms, with more platorms launching what feels like every week. In a smilar vein, it can feel like there’s a new job title invented every other week, too - and that is how this intro links up to today’s guest!
Eden Law is a good friend of mine and a government employee with a relatively new job title: Content Designer. He has a background in coding, UX, and now content. He also has, in his words, a very niche podcast interviewing people who went on the JET program and what Life After JET has been for them.
I asked Eden to spill all the good stuff on Content Design and he graciously said yes. Most marketers are writing a lot, whether it’s internal documentation, sales assets, campaigns and creatives, or demo video scripts. Looking at this work from a Content Design lens is not only interesting but also helpful in ensuring you’re getting your message across.
Kayla: Could you give a brief overview of what content design is and the main concepts around it?
Eden: Ask two content designers what they do in their jobs and you might get two different answers. One might be focused on marketing and branding, while the other works on efficiency of a given service or product. But both (in their own way) are about designing content for effective communication, based on defined user needs. That content is usually text, but can (and often does) include things like colours, videos or imagery.
Sarah Winters is credited with the first definition of content design: ‘...using data and evidence to give the audience what they need, at the time they need it, and in a way they expect.’ This focus on evidence is important: useless content can be expensive. Evidence is done through research, whether analysing site analytics or running user interviews.
Content design isn’t about getting it right the first time. There’s no such thing as perfection - it’s an iterative cycle of continuous improvement, reviewing and changing what doesn’t work. This makes sure that the content stays up-to-date as user needs change over time.
K: Recently you and I were discussing a bit of a clickbaity article that talked about killing a company blog, as someone who is looking at (and analysing) content all day, what do you wish you were seeing more or less of in the content you see and consume?
E: Manipulative headings to drive user traffic - what a time we live in. It’s like using the dark side of content design. But to answer your question, I wish there was more effort made to just… getting to the point. Like most people, I feel like I don’t have enough time in my day, so I really appreciate writing that gives you what you want and expect.
Recently I ran a content design meetup, where the presenter summed up his team’s approach to content design: ‘bottom line, up top’. Short, sharp - and yet informative (it’s beautiful and should be on a t-shirt). The idea of efficiency in writing - whether getting to the point quickly, or using plain language principles - should be applied universally.
K: What are some questions you ask yourself when you're appraising content, whether that be the copy, the medium, or the design?
E: It’s always about the users. For example: who needs this content? And why? What’s the purpose and how will it serve the user? It’s an effective way to shortcut any potentially wasted effort. Recently my coworker used this approach to hulk-smash an idea I had. She was right and it saved me an hour of work (but did nothing for my ego).
I also find myself thinking, how can this be made simpler and easier to understand? Outside of a novel, or something for entertainment, many things could be improved with this mindset.
K: You also have experience in development and UX design, how do you think your career path has influenced how you think about content?
E: I think it’s given me an appreciation of how different disciplines can work together to create good content. That’s why, in a multi-disciplinary team (MDT), communication and collaboration are so important. Each skill set brings a perspective that will influence the final output - be it a product or service.
I currently work in the public sector, which has a huge impact on how I think about content. As the public sector delivers a product or service that benefits the community, we need to consider accessibility and inclusivity in our work. 44% of adult Australians have low levels of literacy - which can stop them accessing important products and services. This is why good content design - using plain language, shorter sentences and less jargon - is so important.
K: What recommendations do you have for people working in content in any capacity, whether that's learning and development resources, sources of inspiration, or ways of thinking?
E: I think it’s important to realise that learning content design is an ongoing process - nobody is an expert. I’m still learning, and the more I’m aware of stuff out there, the more I realise how much I don’t know. That’s why meetups are great - not just for networking, but to be inspired by the passion and enthusiasm of other people, and to stay on top of trends. There’s always something to learn, as people come up with new and wonderful ways to cut that content cake.
I also strongly recommend understanding and embedding principles of accessibility and inclusivity - because sadly so few people do. It can literally be life-saving. Dramatic? Sure. But if you’re writing resources on mental health for example, you want to make sure your users get the help they need, without working for it.
If you’re just starting, check out the book ‘Content Design’ by Sarah Winters. Government websites have lots of free resources, like:
the Australian Government Digital Profession’s content strategy guide
the Australian Government Style Manual
the Victorian Government’s detailed human-centred design playbook.
To jump off Eden’s point about accessibility, here are a few links around that:
SA Gov’s accessibility toolkit (a resource I’m pretty sure I originally got through Eden years ago)
How to write an image description for screenreaders and vision impaired people
Lastly just a shout out to colour blind people, don’t forget them, especially for graphs!
Reminder: all of these resources (and many more) are linked via a spreadsheet in the footer of this email!
Things from around the web
“Internally we have a scale for measuring the creative index for each campaign we do. Every month, every single piece of work done by all the markets in the region are brought in front of a panel of 150 marketers, both internal and external, who judge and rate the creativity and creative bravery of the campaign,” he said.
“When I first joined the regional role, our score on a scale of zero to 10 was 4.8. In 2021, it improved to 5.3. Right now, we are at 5.5. My goal is to get it up to 6 or even 7. But I am happy with the constant upward trajectory, it shows we are breaking the rulebook and not adopting the cookie cutter approach,” he added.
This article, announcing McDonald’s new CMO (Eugene Lee, here’s his LinkedIn), is full of good stuff. The first is obviously the above quote and focus on creativity and improvement, and the second is that he’s built his career within McDonald’s in Malaysia. With all the instability in tech and layoffs over the past year, it’s just nice to hear a regional employee won out over an American HQ.
Second up, there’s a genre of websites that have existed since the dawn of the internet that have never been updated. This website is one of them, belonging to a little sandwich shop in San Fran that takes lunch orders by fax (and then you have to call them to confirm they received the fax).
If you don’t follow theaussiecorporate on Instagram you’re missing out. They mostly use stories, and corporate employees share updates on what their companies are doing, pay equity, and all sorts of random stuff like the Salesforce sign being installed on their new HQ building. Even though I’m not in the corporate world it’s still entertaining.
Nicole Donut is a newsletter I subscribe to, often just covering personal musings from Nicole, but also often about writing and creativity. In the latest issue, she writes a great essay on Chat GPT and what it means for writers, and quotes Rosemary Valero-O’Connell, “What is the point of removing the human element from human expression?”
That’s all for this week, ciao!