My content journey… so far

As of now, January 2024, I’ve been working in content for about 16 years.

I always loved reading and words, and I hoped that whatever I ended up doing would involve writing.

My first online content

My family didn’t have the internet until I was about 14. Back then, the web was mainly just ordinary people posting their words and pictures (at least, that’s what I remember).

I soon started publishing content about the things I was interested in. I mainly wrote about local rock bands I liked, and I made some good friends that way.

I studied English at university, but didn’t have a clear idea of what I wanted to do next. That uncertainty lasted for about three years after finishing my degree.

Digital marketing

Eventually I managed to get a marketing job with a tiny publishing company.

I thought marketing sounded really boring, but I liked the idea of working in publishing.

In the end, I realised that marketing wasn’t boring, especially digital marketing. I was being paid to do what I’d been doing as a hobby ever since I got online – making websites, sending emails and posting on forums.

Discovering web usability

I learned huge amounts about marketing in that role, but at some point I stumbled upon a book by Steve Krug called Don’t Make Me Think.

In some ways, it gave similar advice to the marketing books. But instead of talking about how to make your website users do what you want them to do, it focused on how to make satisfying online experiences by making websites easier to use.

I loved this way of looking at things. I gobbled up Krug’s advice and started finding out more about the field of web usability.

Local government

My next role was for a local council. At first, I was just working on web content, but eventually I did all sorts of things including magazines and email newsletters (both of which I loved).

I stayed there for about 11 years and really enjoyed the work. For most of that time, my job title was ‘Editor’, and I was responsible for the quality of the content my team put out. This included everything from proofreading to content strategy for our publications.

I think sometimes people assume working for a council is boring, but I didn’t think it was.

Councils deal with all of life, from birth to death, and a huge range of things in between – arts and culture, health, transport, education.

Ultimately, my job was about people – telling people’s stories and creating services that people need to live their lives.

GOV.UK – an unusually good government website

I remember very clearly when GOV.UK, the UK government’s website, went live.

Council websites have to link to the government for all sorts of things. Before GOV.UK, the various government websites were pretty awful. GOV.UK changed all that.

It was unusual because it was so easy to use, and we looked to it for inspiration. Its style guide became a common reference point.

Discovering content design

As I followed the work of the GOV.UK team, I started hearing about a new discipline called content design. It sounded very appealing.

It was basically everything I was interested in – a way of creating content that’s evidence-led and focuses on helping users. If you’d like to know more about how it came about, Sarah Winters has posted a history of content design in the UK government.

I managed to persuade my manager to let me go on training with Content Design London, and I loved it. It gave me tools I could use straight away to help with problems I’d been working on. I was converted.

There weren’t many content design roles in councils back then. And eventually the council I worked for decided that it didn’t need an editor either, so I was made redundant.

Before I left, I requested a meeting with the chief executive where I made a little pitch for introducing content design, and gave her my copy of Content Design by Sarah Winters. She thanked me very much, but four years later there are still no content designers in that organisation.

My role – editor and content designer

My current focus is helping organisations, especially charities, improve their content.

Charities feel like an obvious home for content design, as they’re all about helping people. But understanding of user-focused design isn’t always widespread in these organisations. I enjoy spreading the word, showing the power and value of being evidence-led and focusing on users’ needs.

I call myself a content designer and editor, and both parts of my professional practice are equally important.

Ultimately, editing is about making sure a piece of content is fit for purpose. Usually, that means ensuring it reads clearly and is relevant to the audience it’s written for. That’s a lot like content design.

But not all web content teams have a reliable editorial workflow, and this can affect quality and efficiency. These teams could learn much from the publishing world, where the focus is on getting the right type of feedback at the right time.

I’m certainly not unique in having one foot in the content design community and another in the editing community. But I’m keen to help the two disciplines learn from each other.

I love working with content, particularly using evidence to create content that meets users’ needs. I get to be an advocate for users and for creating content in a way that puts them first. It’s not always plain sailing, but I get a lot of satisfaction from making things even a little bit better for people.