Content design and UX are not solitary activities. They require collaboration with other content professionals, developers, designers, researchers, stakeholders, and users. How do you ensure that your content is aligned with the goals, needs, and expectations of everyone involved? Here are some tips to help you collaborate effectively on content design and UX.
Before you start creating or editing content, you need to have a clear content strategy that guides your decisions and actions. A content strategy defines your content purpose, goals, audience, tone, voice, structure, formats, channels, and metrics. It also outlines your content processes, roles, responsibilities, and tools. A content strategy helps you communicate your content vision and value to your collaborators and get their buy-in and feedback.
Content strategy should be based around: 1) What SMART goal are you trying to achieve? Eg 50% growth in new current accounts opened in the next two months. 2) Who do you need to target to achieve this? Eg financially literate high earners in the UK 3) What will convince your targets to take the actions required to achieve your goal? Eg your bank's higher interest rates, customer service record, or digital capabilities 4) What channels do your targets trust? Eg Social media, press articles, etc You can then build your content around communicating (3) through channels in (4)
Content design is a user-centered approach to creating content that meets user needs and business goals. To do this, content design methods can be employed to research, ideate, prototype, test, and iterate your content with your collaborators and users. Content audits and inventories can be used to assess existing content and identify gaps and opportunities, while user stories and scenarios help define user problems and goals. Content models and maps are useful in planning the structure and relationships of the content, as well as standardizing content formats and elements with content types and templates. Content style guides and checklists can be implemented to ensure quality and consistency, while content prototypes and wireframes are useful for visualizing the layout and interactions of the content. Finally, user testing and feedback can be used to evaluate the effectiveness and usability of the content.
This AI generated text is really awful. Share your strategic goals with the design team you're working with. Create a brief for them on what the high level look and feel is for the experience, eg informal, brightly coloured, no frills, etc The design team will then create a mood board or boards based on your brief and goals, which you can feed back on in terms of what you like and don't like. This helps you both understand each other better The design team will work up 1-3 design directions into mock ups, and again you will feed back on what you like and don't like, until you reach a point where they can start building a full draft
One thing to keep in mind is that there is going to be a good number of back and forth. So, be patient and stay ready for this. Example - 1. designer hands over the design to you, 2. you write some content, 3. designer adds it to the design and suggests any changes 4. you edit as needed or you suggest changes in design 5. then, it reaches a point where it is good for implementation 6. you understand user feedback and edit your content/ design accordingly After working as a UI/UX writer for over one year, this is how the process looks like and it is better to be prepared for feedback and this back & forth work.
Tools are essential for collaborating on content design and UX, helping you create, edit, review, approve, publish, and manage your content across different platforms and devices. However, not all tools are created equal. When choosing a tool, you should consider its functionality, accessibility, scalability, and affordability. Does the tool have the features and functions you need? Is it easy to access and use? How secure is it? How reliable is it? Does it handle large volumes of content and users well? Is it flexible enough to adapt to changing requirements and situations? And most importantly, is the cost worth the investment? Be sure to check for any hidden fees or limitations.
Workflows are the steps and actions you take to create, edit, review, approve, publish, and manage your content. These help you organize tasks, timelines, and deliverables as well as coordinate activities and responsibilities with collaborators. To establish clear workflows, you need to define content roles and expectations - who does what, when, how, and why - as well as document processes and guidelines. You also need to monitor and optimize content performance by measuring results and impact, collecting data, analyzing insights, and using these to improve your content.
Apart from workflow, it is also crucial to set boundaries. How many edits or iterations can you afford to do? I once worked on a project where they changed designs very frequently and it was an unhealthy cycle. Eventually, I was paid for the final content but it took me so much time, effort, and 6-7 iterations to reach there. So, it is also important to maintain some boundaries for your self-respect and sanity.
Feedback is essential for collaborating on content design and UX because it helps validate assumptions and hypotheses, identify strengths and weaknesses, learn from collaborators and users, and build trust. To seek and share feedback, you need to ask the right questions, choose the right methods, and act on the feedback. Ask yourself what you want to learn from the feedback, how to frame questions without bias, what methods to use (surveys, interviews, focus groups, etc.), how to process and prioritize feedback, what feedback to accept or reject, how to implement feedback into your content, and how to communicate your actions and outcomes.