Interview: Talking content design with Sarah Winters This written interview dives into details such as why Sarah wanted to work for herself and how she started setting up CDL. So what's the danger then between just calling it user experience design and then working with UX writers on these teams to say, okay, here are the needs that need to be met, here are the scenarios you need to write for. Go do that.

Sitting next to the designers while at work one day, focusing on user needs, looking at the research and everything - and I was reminded of the conversation that I'd just had with Tom Loosemore where the words 'content design' had come up - and we were like, 'that's it!'" I feel like I've fallen into everything! I think there's a 'core', where there's my family and my kids - so 'I need to have this house', 'I need to have enough money to feed them' and 'I need to get them to school'. That's my core. Everything else is possible because it doesn't wobble my core; you get near that, and I come out fighting!

Senior content designers

use journey mapping to break down silos between legal, marketing, digital and design teams (and any other team really), Job stories are a better choice if you only have one audience to deal with. You know you need to switch from user stories to job stories, if every single user story you write begins with the same thing. If you’re writing ‘As a shopper, I…’ in every user story, switch to job stories. He advocates for inclusive design, evidence-based decision-making, and best practice. He previously led content, product, and service design teams at the University of Bath. Sarah Bhatia

Content Design London was founded by Sarah in May 2017. Working with organisations large and small, everything CDL does is driven by the purpose of ensuring products and services are understood by an organisation's users - but more widely; the whole world. It doesn’t matter if you have a long list of very fine-grained user stories – the more you can break down your work into small chunks, the better. Writing user stories gives your team clarity about the work they need to do, and a useful To Do list of tasks. Job stories Our senior content designers are responsible for shaping and leading complex projects from start to finish. They are experienced trainers and speakers and help other content designers develop their practice. Rachel Edwards See? You can't see her, but she's emanating a rosy glow of good health and good intentions and warmth. Okay, that's all I got. Should we just wrap there?

Job stories

Well, and just remember that the term content design came from changing government conversations around what we as a content team should be doing. We needed to get them to stop thinking we were going to proofread their work. We were going to design that thing from end to end, whether it was a tool, a calculator, a calendar, an app, a video that we would go and commission. It is not just words. Then at some point next year, you will get the second version of my book, which is being written by me and my whole team.

The Readability Guidelines project concluded in 2020. Copies of the book went around the world, and the wiki remains available for anyone who wants to use it. 30,000 people used the Guidelines in 2021. Sarah's next role was Product Manager for Citizens Advice Bureau, where she was charged with leading its digital transformation. It was a wider remit, and involved far more than just content. She was also having to work with a new set of logistic challenges, as the organisation's offices were located all across the UK. To reduce our environmental impact, we now print all of our books on demand. This means there is less waste, as we only print what is needed. It also means we can print books closer to where they are being posted, cutting down on transport miles. Where's my book? Learn how to correctly use headings, writing and punctuation, plain language, emotional language and images for usability and accessibility. Chapter 8: Pair writingBut a content designer saying 'no, we're going to make that content a calculator and your 4 million words are now 12 words'; to get that across, we had to change the conversation - otherwise we wouldn't have been able to change the power and the relationship."

Jas is our principal content designer. He’s responsible for leading and shaping the content design team. He works with clients to understand their needs and help them achieve their goals. He also helps shape the future of Content Design London. Yeah, that is actually very well put because I often will describe content design as coming at design challenges through a content lens. And that's exactly how you've just described it. So what's interesting about that explanation is it's not unlike how I describe how I first started talking about content strategy, which is that none of these were things that I made up. If anybody's like, here's Kristina, the inventor of content strategy, I'm like, no, no, no, no. These were all practices that were already in place and it was literally just a matter of assembling them underneath a tent that people then could enter and talk about all the things at the same time. Jas has several years of experience working in the telecommunications sector. He is now focused on empowering teams to design and create user-centred products and services. Jas is dedicated to learning and helping others grow and enjoys helping organisations solve problems to create better user experiences. Senior content designers Sarah manages CDL’s training. She plans our courses and looks for ways to grow our training as the content design field evolves.Podcast: The Content Strategy Podcast (Episode #4) Sarah chats to Kristina Halvorson on her popular show.