Content designers as users of user researcher’s content
To all content designers and word people, I apologise for the title of this post!
Somebody once told me that the internal content you create is just as important as the external content you create. So, when content designers kept asking us the same questions about user stories, we thought we might have a problem.
The old way of working
A user researcher used to write user stories in a set format. For example:
When… my savings are going to increase
I want to… know how this could affect my benefits
So that… I can prepare for changes to my benefits and manage my finances
As a… disabled person
Acceptance criteria
- I know which benefits are affected by savings
- I can find out how my benefits will be affected when my savings increase
We added these into our workflow, and they were picked up by a content designer. This was how we shared user needs in the team.
But content designers would often come back to user researchers with the same types of questions. Or a different user researcher would be designing the testing sessions and would ask questions.
We needed a shared understanding of user needs within the team.
The first thing we tried was introducing a refinement session. A user researcher would write user stories. Then the user researchers and content designers would have a meeting.
In this meeting we would look at:
- how users experience problems
- how users move between problems and tasks
- search data to find out the language people use
- how user stories and related pieces of content fit together
The aim of the session was for us all to have a shared understanding of the user needs. These were helpful and we still do them now. But content designers were still asking the same types of questions in the meetings.
So we did what user researchers do best… planned a research project to understand our users’ needs.
The only difference is that our users were content designers.
Understanding our users’ needs
The aim of the research project was to improve the research outputs we provide content designers. We had 2 research questions:
- What problems and questions do content designers have when using our research to plan and write content?
- What research outputs (content and format) could we provide to help with these problems and answer those questions?
We did interviews with the content designers to find out their information needs when planning and writing content. For example, some of the questions we asked were:
- What is the first thing you do when you start a new piece of content
- What do you need to know to decide how to organise content?
- What questions do you have about the audience you are writing for at this stage?
We analysed the data and created journey maps for the content designers. From this, we were able to identify the gaps in the research outputs we created. The content designers needed:
- More information about the audience. For example, who the people are, the tasks they need to do and what people are struggling with.
- More information on context. For example, other challenges people might be experiencing, differences in language and terminology.
- To be able to identify overlapping or related content.
- To be able to group user stories in a structured way.
Developing and testing prototypes
Based on the needs we identified, we created 4 prototypes for user stories. Each prototype showed the same need in a different format. We tested these with the content designers and asked questions such as:
- What are your thoughts on this user story?
- Is there anything that you still need to know to write content to meet this need?
- Is there anything that is unhelpful?
- What questions would you have when using this?
We also asked which prototype was the most useful for writing content. And of course they picked 2 different ones! But they were seen as useful for different reasons.
So, we iterated. We combined the features that content designers found most useful. And took out the things they said were unhelpful.
We wrote a new user need using a more detailed format. We still call them user stories but they expand on the traditional format. This was the format after iteration:
When… I am going to receive inheritance money or property
I want to… check how this could affect my benefits
So that… I can make the most of my finances and prepare for any changes to my benefits
As a… disabled person
Acceptance criteria
- I know how inheritance will affect my benefits
- I know what I need to contact
People
- claiming ESA, looking to buy a property
- claiming income-related ESA in the support group, DLA and housing benefit
- claiming old style ESA and PIP
- claiming lower rate PIP and ESA
Triggers
- I have inherited money.
- I am soon to inherit money.
- I have inherited a property with another person, but they do not want to sell for at least 12 months.
- The property will be rented out and I will receive half of the rental income.
Contexts
- recently bereaved
- living in unsuitable housing
- in need of disability equipment
- in debt
- worried about losing their benefits when they receive the inheritance or property
Tasks
- working out what type of benefits they receive
- working out whether inheritance is classed as savings and needs to be declared
- working out what they can use their inheritance for and the effect it will have on their benefits
- planning for the future
Questions
- If I buy the property with the inheritance can I still receive my benefits?
- Would I need to declare the money?
- Will I still be eligible for means-tested benefits?
- How do you end a claim with DWP when it involves being over the savings threshold?
- When savings go below the £16,000 threshold do you then make a new claim for UC?
- How will the inheritance affect my ESA and PIP?
- What am I allowed to do with the inheritance?
The content designers agreed that this was a more helpful format. So we started using it. The benefits of this have been that we’ve been more open to trying different ways of presenting user needs. For example, if people in different situations are experiencing the same problem, we used to write 3 separate user stories. But now we’ll write the same user story and show the different situations people are in through the ‘when’, ‘people’ and ‘context’ sections. We are no longer in the habit of sharing our research outputs in a set format because “we’ve always done it that way”.
Since we started using the new format, we’ve also added to it. We now have a section for keywords which are specific to that user story. This means content designers can:
- see connections between user stories if they have similar search profiles
- avoid using the same keywords across multiple pages of content which is bad for SEO and could cause confusion for users
One of the needs we could not fully meet with the new user story format was giving content designers the information they needed to be able to group user stories in a structured way. This is because how they should be grouped sometimes depends on the answer. To help meet this need, we added scoping sessions with a subject expert into our workflow. Chloe talks about how content designers structure user stories in her blog on the social care rewrite.
Stand the test of time?
We did this project in autumn 2021. So why has it taken so long for us to write about? We had to try them in real life.
We cover content on lots of different topics. Some are more complex than others. Some can overlap with other user needs or topics. We’ve tried the new format for lots of different scenarios. So far we have noticed:
- we have shorter refinement sessions and can cover more user stories in them
- content designers are asking less, if any, questions about the user needs
- it is easier for us to design scenarios and tasks to test if a user need has been met
- we are identifying relationships and dependencies from the start of our workflow
As Chloe mentioned in her recent blog, the content we’ve been working on recently has been complex and interconnected. This is because the user needs are complex and interconnected. Some of our recent user stories have had 20 acceptance criteria. But the new user stories are still working as a way of:
- describing user needs
- sharing an understanding of user needs between user researchers and content designers
- testing if user needs have been met
- showing the situations people are likely to be experiencing
- identifying relationships and overlap between needs and topics of content
We have even used the new format of user stories to improve existing content. By revisiting the data we have on a topic and rewriting the user stories in the new format, we have been able to:
- merge 2 or more existing pages
- expand the scope of content
- use internal links to help people solve problems and move through content that is interlinked
Final thoughts
Internal content is just as important as external content. And taking the time to meet your users’ needs as a user researcher can improve your ways of working and save you time in the long run.
The format of the new user stories is not set in stone. Because user needs are not set in stone. They are a snapshot of a set of users at a specific moment in time. So, if:
- content designers start asking questions or need more information
- we cannot test if a need has been met
- we cannot show the relationships between needs and topics
we’ll revisit the format and iterate so we can keep on meeting our users’ needs.
