Make Content clear by always considering the users first.
By: Nikki Fiedler, Co-Founder of Content Design Hub — a companion blog to the DASAT: The Digital Access Show podcast episode.
As Co-Founder of Content Design Hub, I recently had the opportunity to join DASAT’s podcast, The Digital Access Show, to talk about accessible content.
Narelle, the host and Director of Marketing and Digital Accessibility of DASAT, asked a simple question that’s harder to answer than it sounds: how does Content Design Hub actually go about making content clear?
There’s no secret formula. But there is a process, and it starts in a place that might surprise you: not with writing, but with listening.
It starts with the user, not the words
Before anyone touches a sentence, we ask who’s going to use it, and what they need to do once they have. A government form, a product page and a policy document all serve different users with different needs. The “right” content looks different each time.
This is where content design differs from copywriting.
Copywriting is often about persuasion.
Content design is about function: does this help the person complete their task? If someone can’t find, understand or use the information, the content hasn’t done its job, no matter how polished it reads.
Clear content and accessible content
are the same work
Here’s something we say often, and it came up a few times on the podcast: once you start designing for people with disability, you usually end up making things clearer for everyone.
Around 5.5 million Australians live with disability, 21% of the population.
Screen reader users need well-structured, plainly written content to navigate a page at all. But so does someone reading in their second language, someone with low vision on a small phone screen, or someone who’s just had a long day and wants the answer without the runaround.
It’s worth noting this isn’t only a disability issue, either.
Recent research suggests 44% of Australian adults have literacy below the level needed for everyday life and work.
That’s a lot of people who benefit from the same plain, well-organised content that accessibility guidelines call for.
Clear content design isn’t a nice-to-have for a small group. It’s useful for almost everyone, most of the time.
Testing with real people
is non-negotiable
A lot of content gets written, approved and published without a single user ever looking at it before launch.
We don’t work that way.
Testing doesn’t need to be a big, expensive research project. It can be as simple as:
- reading a draft aloud to someone unfamiliar with the topic, and watching where they get confused
- asking a colleague to complete a task using only your content, with no extra explanation from you
- including people with disability in content testing from the start.
What you learn from 5 real users is often more useful than what a style guide can tell you.
People will show you, often within seconds, where your content assumes too much.
Good content design has a
business case, not just an ethical one
This is the part that sometimes gets missed.
Confusing forms, dense policies and unclear instructions don’t just frustrate people, they cost money.
Abandoned online tasks turn into phone calls to a contact centre. Unclear onboarding turns into support tickets. Every piece of unclear content creates work somewhere else in the organisation.
Clear content design reduces that load.
It’s one of the few areas where doing the right thing by your users and doing the right thing for the business point in the same direction.