Thinking and writing like a content designer
Introduction
A cross-functional team recently facilitated a “Writing like a content designer” design thinking workshop here at Guidewire. We came with various skills — from technical writing to educational design, journalism, UI writing, visual and interaction design, content design, and information architecture.
Our focus was to help participants understand that writing is designing. In recent years, writing communities have integrated design processes similar to how user experience and visual designers use them.
Writers are designers
Words should impact and influence behavior. In our business context, end users come with one or more goals. Generally, they aren’t browsing as they would in e-commerce. How content is designed — the structure and hierarchy of the information, typography, supporting graphics, and multimedia — all combine to create information experiences for our end users.
A brief review of the design process
Understanding the design process is crucial for effective content creation, just as it is for UX/UI design. While there are various approaches to design, one widely applicable framework breaks the process down into six key stages. This framework can be equally valuable for writers, emphasizing that writing is a form of design. Let’s explore these stages and how they apply to UX/UI and writing:
- Discover: Identify the problem or opportunity
- Define: Gather and analyze relevant information
- Design: Generate and evaluate ideas through brainstorming
- Develop: Create solutions or build a prototype for evaluation
- Feedback: Present ideas and collect responses from stakeholders or users
- Deploy: Implement and continually refine the design based on feedback
Similarities in approaches
Both content and UX/UI designers need to know and understand the problem they’re solving for. To do this, both groups gather information and get requirements from stakeholders. The information is then used for brainstorming and ideating. From there, solutions are drafted and iteratively refined based on feedback, leading to improvements and ultimately the finalization of the design or content.
Every UX/UI designer and content creator strives to improve their work. Even after completion, we track metrics and incorporate end-user feedback to continually enhance the content.
Focus on the end user’s experience
The evolution of writing and content design has paralleled that of UX/UI design, shifting focus to prioritize the end-user’s perspective. Today, we aim not only to explain how to use an application or product but to help users build a comprehensive mental model. This is achieved through diverse content formats, including infographics, imagery, and multimedia, all designed to support effective learning and engagement.
Workshop
Workshop structure and objectives
We used a knowledge scaffolding* approach in the workshop. First, we provided information about how people read and the ways that content design can be used to support information acquisition. Then we guided the learners through a 3-step framework for critiquing content. The participants were then asked to apply their learnings.
*In teaching, knowledge scaffolding is a practice that provides temporary support to help students learn new skills or tasks. The support is gradually removed as students become more competent, shifting the responsibility of learning from the teacher to the student.
3-step framework
The 3-step framework we leveraged for the workshop was developed by Sarah Winters.
The framework identifies how to create content in terms of headings, structure, and scannability. For instance, we explored using a lawn mower pattern with succinct headings and subheadings to support scanning.
We also provided examples to demonstrate how inverted pyramids, line length, plain language, and the use of a variety of content forms (imagery and multimedia) support end users’ engagement.
Typography (how people read and how content design supports reading)
As part of our discussion on typography, we examined how people scan text in Western languages, moving from left to right and top to bottom. When reading, your eyes quickly jump from word to word. At times, you pause to reread parts of the text. Ascenders — the parts of letters that extend upward, like in f, l, and t — and descenders — the parts that extend downward, as in g, y, and j — are key elements in typography and content design. Since we cognitively recognize edges, the shapes of the letters play a key role in understandability.
Workshop activity
We divided participants into groups to read and critique an article using the framework provided. It allowed participants to discuss and apply the newly learned principles. The group came back together and shared their analysis.
Participant feedback
Participants were a mix of designers, technical writers, and business intelligence analysts. The workshop was well received for the content, structure, and interactive practice sessions. Participants expressed interest in learning more about writing techniques and content structuring for different formats.
Onward
The User and Knowledge Experience (UKE) team at Guidewire is on a journey of discovery, experimentation, and development. Our goal is to provide end users with information that is engaging and to support their learning journey.
When content creators take the perspective of designing learning experiences, we have the opportunity to put ourselves into the mindset of the end user. What do they need? In what format? At what point in time? How do we write and structure the content to align with the natural ways that end users consume information? Is the content designed so that it leverages best practices and up-and-coming technologies? We are excited to be on this journey and happy to share some of what we’ve learned so far.
The workshop and this article were accomplished in collaboration with Kanika Singh (Lead Instructional Designer), Cormac Curtis (Senior Technical Writer) and myself, Michelle Bacigalupi (Lead Information Experience Designer).
