A NSW Government website
Premier & Cabinet
Blue 01

Content design

Content only re-theming example

Full brand colour palette updated to new theme, but only applied to content section of the page. Global elements (header, navigation, footer etc) remain aligned to masterbrand corporate colour palette.

Swatch

Colour

Hex value

CSS variable

Brand Dark

Blue 01 #002664

--nsw-brand-dark

Brand Light

Blue 04 #CBEDFD

--nsw-brand-light

Brand Supplementary

Blue 02 #146CFD

--nsw-brand-supplementary

Brand Accent

Red 02 #D7153A

--nsw-brand-accent

Link colour

#002664

--nsw-link

Visited link colour

#551A8B

--nsw-visited

Hover background colour

rgba(0, 38, 100, 0.1)

--nsw-hover

Active background colour

rgba(0, 38, 100, 0.2)

--nsw-active

Focus outline colour

#0086B3

--nsw-focus

Ways of working

Content design is not copy writing. It may not even be about writing a lot of words. It’s a way of working that starts with the problem you need to resolve for users.

We look at user research, analytics and statistics to learn how people use services. And we test our content so we can learn how to improve it.
Users don't read every word online. They prefer to scan, focusing on keywords and subheadings.

Building relationships

Work with others to understand the problem you need to address on behalf of the user. Other people in your team may already be doing that.

A content person comes in many guises and you may not be a part of the multidisciplinary product team. While you're gathering evidence about the user, try to build relationships across that product team.

In your team there may already be a sprint cadence that includes content design. Become familiar with agile practices such as the Kanban wall, daily stand ups and sprint planning. Understand the user journey and their needs. Get involved in usability testing sessions and iteration.

Otherwise, the content workflow may be separate from the product team. At the very least, make sure the team has real content to use, when they’re building a prototype. Also ensure your team uses real content when it does usability testing. Attend playbacks from this testing, to know how your content needs to change.

As well as designing the user experience with product team members, a content designer works to know the facts with subject matter experts.

Core skills

You may have come to content design from a variety of backgrounds – such as communications, marketing, web editing, copywriting, technical writing, journalism.

Plain language

Content designers need to know the basics of good readability. They’re aware how readers scan content. There’s a skill involved in improving content for ease of use. They will know how to create signposts for users, mix up the length of sentences and use active language. They work hard to make the meaning succinct and clear.

Plain language tool

Learn more about writing clear, concise, organised, and appropriate content for your intended audience using plain language tools.

Content design for transactions

As a content designer, your task is to get the user from A to B in the transaction.

When designing content for transactions:

  • minimise the user’s chance of error
  • maximise collaborative teamwork
  • balance business and user needs.

In this guide we’ve used Service NSW examples.

Explain transaction

The landing page explains the entire transaction to a user. It serves as the front door.

By having a clear guide at the start, users know where they can return to for more information, or to start again.