Things move fast, and content can too

Sarah and Rachel gave a talk at Content Folks in June. This blog post is based on that talk. You can watch the video on YouTube.

The past few years have shown us how quickly things can move and change. We know that when things emerge quickly, the reaction is often to throw away the content design practices and revert to the old methods. In practice this often means someone saying, “just publish the PDF and get something online!”

So how can you move quickly without compromising your users’ and their needs?

Here are 5 things you can do now to try and avoid this situation. You may not be able to do them all, and in a crisis all the best laid plans can go out the window. But if you can, take the time to work on these now. Then when the next unexpected event happens, you’ll be ready.

And if these steps sound like a lot of work for 1 person, or 1 team, don’t worry. We have a suggestion for you at the end.

Step 1: governance

Whatever content governance you have now, it may well fall apart when a crisis hits. Often organisations will ignore plans and concentrate on what they want to publish rather than what their users need.

Map your current governance process. Ideally, do this with your stakeholders but if there’s no time or willingness, you might want to do it alone first. 

Then think about what might need to change in a fast-moving situation. Make sure your crisis governance process involves as few people as possible. You can’t move quickly and make decisions by committee. 

Start work now to embed pair writing and crits as ways of working. It is the fastest way to sign off content, but a crisis is not the time to introduce something new.

Pick your battles

It’s unlikely you’ll get to follow your ideal process and have it all work out beautifully. This is true in everyday work, as well as a fast-moving event.

But in a crisis, you need to save your energy and manage your time. Decide what you are going to let go and what is non-negotiable. For example, you may have to forget about usability testing, but you can make sure you have transcripts for any videos.

Remember, it’s not on you to make it all perfect. You are one person, or one team, doing what you can to make things better for your users.

Step 2: user needs

In a crisis, users still have needs. But often, organisations forget about those needs and only think about their own. Usually, that organisational need is to publish something, and quickly.

If you don’t already have user needs, take the time now to create some. Make sure they are based on evidence and research. Think about what might need to change quickly, and how that might impact your user needs.

When you need to create and publish content quickly, you want to meet as many needs as you can. But you won’t be able to meet them all. Take the time now to prioritise. Consider the top tasks approach. “Top tasks” means the activities that are most important to your users. Spend your time and energy there. 

For example, you might be creating content for a museum that has just experienced a fire. You know (from your research) that 85% of visitors to your site are looking for information about opening hours and facilities. Your top tasks will probably focus on things like:

• is the museum still open?
• are the shop, exhibition, and cafe still open?
• is anything unavailable?

You can probably leave content that covers annual passes, upcoming exhibitions, or other low-traffic areas of the site until you have more time.

Step 3: user journeys

We talk about user journeys as having 3 stages: finding, doing and getting. 

In that journey, your content is never the only piece of someone’s journey. It won’t be the only thing someone looks at. They may have had a long and winding journey to get to your content, and their journey may not end with your page.

Even in a crisis, people will still go through the “finding, doing, getting” stages. Map out the important journeys in your content now. 

Again, you’ll need to prioritise - what are the essential journeys? Map them, and think about how a crisis might change those journeys. Try to document that in some way: in a fast moving situation, you’ll be glad you have your notes ready to go.

Step 4: user research

When content needs to move quickly, the first thought is probably not to stop and do user research. After all, user research can take time and if you’re talking about setting up interviews, it can take weeks.

But formal user interviews are just 1 technique to use. There’s a lot of different desk research you can do, and quickly. 

Google trends can help you find the language your users are using. You can use social media, blogs, and forums to understand your users' mental models. You can do these activities in a couple of hours, if that’s all you have.

And if you think you don’t have a couple of hours, try and find it. Having evidence will help you make quick decisions on what will work for your users, and can often speed up sign-off processes.

Step 5: less is more

The best thing you can do for your users is to have clear, organised content. Take the time now to know what content you have and where it is. 

Avoid having the same information in more than 1 place. The more places you have the same information, the more you have to update. Multiple pages also means a risk of inconsistent information. 

Check that you aren’t competing within your own search results. If you have every press release from the past 20 years, will your users be able to find the relevant ones? If you have 6 pages with the same name, will they know which one is accurate?

Out of date content wastes time, confuses search, and breaks trust. It means more for you to update, and more for your users to work through. Map out what is variable so you know where it is, and delete anything that is out of date.

You (probably) can’t do it all…

If you can do nothing else, remember the basics:

• use short sentences and clear formatting,
• front load the important information,
• make it accessible.

Keep a list of the content you change. After the crisis, you can go back and review it, or restore it if the information is no longer needed. You may want to run a retro, if that feels right.

Remember, you are 1 person, and it’s not on you to fix everything. In a crisis, everyone panics, and it’s not your problem or fault. You are also in the crisis, doing the best you can with what you have at the time.

…but you can do more together

User needs, user journeys, and user research all take time. Many content designers are working on their own, and time is scarce. 

But we are a big industry, and we like to help each other out. So can you get together, within your sectors or areas, and share the work?

When Covid hit, we did just that with our bank of Covid user needs. Because it turned out that people had the same needs whatever the information. For example:

• understanding lockdown information,
• getting food,
• accessing support.

So if you’re a small team, or working on your own, can you share user journeys with another team? Can you do user research with another organisation in your sector and share the findings? 

If you want to try this and aren’t sure how to start, tag us on LinkedIn. We’ll do our best to promote your work and help you find other colleagues or teams.