WHAT IS CONTENT DESIGN?

CONTENT DESIGN

Content designer
What is a great content?
The purpose of the content
How to formulate a user’s need
USER-CENTRED CONTENT PRINCIPLES

what is content design?
pexels.com

 

Content designer

The job of a content designer is to make sure that the information is clear and in plain language (English for example), and given to the user at the right time, in the appropriate format.

 A content designer must be able to:

  • Think critically 
  • Be able to work fast and meet due time
  • Work collaboratively
  • Has team work spirit
  • Open to notes

What is a great content?

A good content gives people what they need, when they need it in an easy and understandable way. It must meet users need and help them find the answer, therefore it must be:

  • ·         Informative
  • ·         KISS: keep it short and simple & without unnecessary complicated words
  • ·         Headings and sub-sections.
  • ·         organized

 

The purpose of the content

The goal behind content design is the user and their needs. Your content should respond to their needs and offer a solution.


EX of an online learning platform:  Users’ needs might be

v      -To learn a specific skill

v      -To stay up to-date in their field

v      -Earn academic certifications

EX of an instruction booklet:

Users’ needs might be:

v      -To know how to use a device

v      -How to clean the device

v      -How  to reach customers service

How to formulate a user’s need

 

The formula to figure out a user need is as follow:

As a (the user position) …..i need to (the the need)….. so that I can ( to fix something purpose).

User need= the audience + the need/ problem+ purpose.

In simple words, a user need is something that the person has got to fix or get done. Regardless if there is already a tool that he/ she is using, it might not be helpful anymore.

A content designer should make a research about the users he is aiming to reach, or work in collaboration with customers’ research (user research) department. This will help to establish a strategy to design the content needed.

USER-CENTRED CONTENT PRINCIPLES:

 

USER-CENTRED CONTENT should be:

  •   Relevant
  • Short and in plain language
  • Presented in the appropriate format
  • Accessible
  • Offline/online
  • Inclusive /exclusive

 

Before designing any content, content designers should have a knowledge about who their users are, what are their needs and how they would like to be informed.

Quick & simple EX: designing content for brand new energy drink.

Let’s say we want to reach two audiences: teenagers and adults

 

Teenagers

Adults

The content: words

·         The setup: dance competition

·         The use of slang and collocation, trendy expressions and

·         UX design: energy and playful

·         Witty and young tone

·         The setup: employee of the month

·         The choice of words would be net, professional and motivational, should go hand in hand with the professional UX design.

·         formal tone

 

Extra linguistic tips:

  • ·         Call for action sentences.
  • ·         Use bullet points, headings.
  • ·          Use sentence case for headings/titles
  • ·         Descriptive links
  • ·         Avoid cluttered text
  • ·         Relevant format/ outline 

 

 

 


Comments

Post a Comment

thank you for your time and engagement with the article.

Popular posts from this blog

E-learning during a Pandemic

Image
Why most of us if not all of us didn’t manage to have a successful E-learning experience even though we were at the comfort of our own homes??? one word: stress. Corona or COVID 19 took us by a storm, and it gave us a sense of fear and threatened our well being which resulted in an intolerable stress. Scientifically   speaking, when a human being is found in a threatening situation, the emotional station within our brain (I.E: Amygdala) takes over, our conscious curls inside and the stress controls our mind, then we feel hopeless, our mind can’t function as usual because the prefrontal cortex is stopped by the hijacking of the Amygdala. “ Bad stress erodes confidence and makes us question our ability’ (Schultz, 2019) ” So, I retrie ved some memories about our E-l earnin g  experience, which we were forced to undergo due to the pandemic, I remember our teacher trainers doing a lot of work, sharing some interesting insights with us as well as doing online sessions to m...
Read more

DAILY THOUGHTS

Image
photo credits:  pexels The sound of the roaring engines of phosphate factory are depriving me from my sleep, or so i thought.  Why do i have a feeling that every thing is ending soon? At least for me. On the sound of a train passing by, my heart bumped faster than usual. I suddenly realized this urging feeling that lives within my ribs, that everything is on the edge and i am only living to witness the final show. I get this fear of losing my beloved ones and it is killing me because i deeply know i can't and will not be able to do anything about it. Besides, i really push myself to feel better, to stop all this craziness and chaotic mess inside me, but it only seems to grow stronger and spread its shadow over me. I hate to admit it is a depression that can't be cured easily. I was always following my gut feeling, it was always right, but now, i am brutally affected by it. My intuitive mind has been my guide this whole time, now it is only serving me as an annoying al...
Read more