Learn by making.

Data-driven content design tips

On-page searches

Have a look at what people are typing into the search box on the page they’re on. This will show you what could be missing from that page, and what information the user is expecting to see on that page but hasn’t found.

Call centre data and logs

What are people calling about and how many people are calling? Do the call centre ask if the person has already been on your website? If not, can you change the script to find that out?

Using the language your users use

Away from your website, are there other places your users gather and chat? Online forums and social media can be great places to see what kind of language your users are using. It might be that they call specific things something different from the ‘official term’. If you’re always using the official term, when they search for something on your site using the language they use every day, this means they won’t find the information they need. Where possible, always mirror your users’ language.

Evaluation techniques

As well as looking at feedback from your users, and doing usability testing, you can also use highlighter testing to check new content quickly. In person, print out your content and give users a green and red pen each. Ask them to highlight parts of the content that do and don’t make sense to them. This is a bit trickier to do virtually but you can screenshare or send users a doc ahead of time to highlight.

Improve your content with data - from Content Design London

Using data for content design - a blog post from the Office for National Statistics

A simple technique for evaluating content - a blog post from GOV.UK

Designing remote content testing - from content designer Lexie Claridge

How we redesigned our website - from Content Design London

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