I was going to write a post about Search Engine Optimisation and Generative Engine Optimisation but we’ll all just have to hold our breath for my thoughts on that, as I find myself instead drawn back to rehashing old ground.
In a recent post I reflected on how there still seemed to be a need to grasp the basics of digital design for most of local government, and apply it consistently well. This reflection is partly an extension of that, and certainly an extension of my recognition that 21 years on from my start in local government digital content (and a few more than that in digital overall) I’m still having many of the same conversations.
How important is content?
Pick any website, or App, and consider this: if all the content was removed, could you still use it?
No more long-form content where you might deep dive into a topic, get in depth advice, or connect with others around a subject. Goodbye to the short-form content like product descriptions, or key information about eligibility or accepted payment methods. Ta-ra a bit ducky (as we say round these parts) to your news, your events, your carousels, images, video and audio. So long to the UX content – every field label, button, contact details for other channels, or navigation link. No thank you to any user generated content. Every chatbot is silenced, every search result is a no return, and let’s us really go for it: your logo is GONE.
What do you have left?
I bet it is a series of boxes and lines between which you have very little ability to move. I mean, without content do you even know where you are? How did you even end up here as without content of any kind your site not only lacks authority but any way for a search engine (or generative engine) to find you, categorise you, recommend you.
Without content, do you even exist?
Stop it now, don’t be silly
This is, of course, a deliberately exaggerated proposition. So, let’s walk it back a bit.
Having content is important, so how important is the right content? What is the right content?
This is where other areas of User Centred Design can enter the stage – working to understand from data and users what it is they need and how they need it, understanding and optimising those back office processes to make sure the promises of a digital experience are translated throughout the journey. Actioning the insight and creating exactly the right touchpoint is about content though.
During a stint in eCommerce I spent lots of time agonising over the design detail of seemingly tiny elements. Such as a form field. One such task meant testing different versions of the same field: the label wording, the exact rounding of the corners, the focus state colour, the help text and its positioning, the breadcrumbing to this field from earlier content. The reason? We wanted the exact combination which resulted in a higher success rate (in this case, sign ups).
In gaming the content – story-telling in part, UX content in another – was about the immersive, the intriguing and the addictive. In government it was the opposite – being concise, being clear, not taking up the user’s time and energy unnecessarily. Across it all spending time understanding the needs of others and who I could so easily get the content wrong for simply because their lived experience is different to my own.
In other roles I’ve spent a lot of time on strategic content – looking at how we could structure content to free it from being ‘website’ content and instead part of a knowledge base, device agnostic, trauma-informed, and tiered for translation. I’ve looked at everything from long-form medically detailed advice, to most effective subject lines on your email newsletter, to social media posts, navigation wording and scannable headings.
The ideal in all these roles: every piece of content was designed with a measurable output identified, and (in the best organisations) then optimised to make sure we kept meeting user needs and organisational goals.
If content is important, should we place importance on the disciplines around it?
This is a rhetorical question. I believe strongly we should. It’s a view that has only become firmer over a quarter century of doing this sort of thing but also one which is commonly challenged.
In nearly every content-related role there is an expectation time is spent justifying the need for content roles. Some of this is down to the classic ‘everyone can create content’. And while this is mostly true, not everyone can create every type of content, or do any of it well (in a measurable way, not a subjective way). Of those that can create content not all will be tasked with spending as much time as is needed to do this.
Which is why organisations that invest in specialists, and empower them to do what they do best, prosper. They are trusted, they are respected, they are chosen by the customer. They use the right tone to resonate exactly as needed with their customer, they do the tests to understand whether ‘apply’ or ‘request’ is the right phase to optimise click throughs (or know exactly when and how the ‘Buy’ button shows up in the product copy to make the sale), they know how much content is needed where and what format works best at different points in the journey.
What’s the alternative? Empty sites? I think something worse – unkind, inconsiderate content. The load put on you as the user to navigate through poor content, discard what is unneeded, figure out what you have to do at every point. And in doing all this still bring yourself to choose or trust the organisation that has so little respect for you – their customer. Still choose (where the choice exists) to fumble through online rather than take a direct route where there is less room for an organisation to avoid the care it should be taking with your experience.
Shall we keep talking about this?
My real objective is to get to a point where none of this needs saying. I’m aiming for no more need for content about the importance of content. If you want to get there too then let’s definitely keep this conversation going.