How do you match your content design to user research?

1 Understand your users

Before you start designing your content, you need to understand who your users are, what they want, and how they behave. User research is the key to gaining these insights. You can use various methods, such as interviews, surveys, personas, scenarios, user journeys, and analytics, to collect and analyze data about your users. User research helps you define your user segments, their needs, pain points, motivations, preferences, and expectations. It also helps you identify the gaps and opportunities in your current content.

2 Define your content goals

Once you have a clear picture of your users, you need to define your content goals. What are you trying to achieve with your content? How do you measure its success? How do you align it with your organizational goals and brand values? Content goals help you focus your content design on the outcomes that matter to your users and your organization. They also help you set the criteria and metrics for evaluating your content performance and impact.

3 Create your content strategy

After you have defined your content goals, you need to create your content strategy. Content strategy is the plan that guides your content design decisions and actions. It covers aspects such as content scope, structure, format, tone, style, voice, governance, and distribution. Content strategy helps you determine what content to create, how to create it, where to publish it, and how to manage it. It also helps you align your content with your user research findings and your content goals.

4 Design your content

Now that you have your content strategy, you can start designing your content. Content design is the art and science of creating content that meets the needs and goals of your users and your organization. It involves applying principles of user-centered design, information architecture, copywriting, visual design, and accessibility to your content. Content design helps you craft content that is clear, concise, consistent, coherent, credible, and compelling. It also helps you adapt your content to different formats, channels, and devices.

5 Test your content

Before you launch your content, you need to test it. Testing your content is the process of evaluating how well your content meets the needs and goals of your users and your organization. It involves using various methods, such as usability testing, A/B testing, feedback surveys, and analytics, to collect and analyze data about your content performance and impact. Testing your content helps you identify and fix any issues or problems with your content. It also helps you validate and improve your content design decisions and actions.

6 Iterate your content

After you launch your content, you need to iterate it. Iterating your content is the process of updating and optimizing your content based on the data and feedback you collect from your users and your organization. It involves using various methods, such as content audits, reviews, edits, and revisions, to monitor and maintain your content quality and relevance. Iterating your content helps you keep your content fresh, accurate, and useful for your users. It also helps you adapt your content to changing user needs and goals.