By Kylie Howard, Editors Victoria events officer
The term “content design” is familiar to many editors, yet a lot of us are bewildered by what it actually is, not to mention the role that editors can play in it. And so, on 20 August 2024, we were delighted to have Carrie de Haan, science content specialist at Biotext, speak at an Editors Victoria Zoom event on “Content design – using evidence from users to develop content”.
Carrie started by explaining what content design is, quoting Sarah Winters in her book Content Design (2017): “It’s about using data and evidence to give the audience what they need, at the time they need it and in a way they expect.” She then took us through some common content design terms, noting that the audience is more likely to consist of “users” as opposed to “readers”.
Carrie then spoke about the “rules” of content design, starting with rule number one: “Users are number one”. She noted that while “content design” usually applies to web content, its principles can also be useful when creating printed material. She emphasised that editors “absolutely” have a role to play, reminding us that “good content is consistent and error-free”.
Carrie then showed us some great examples of content design in action. One example was addressing a user need to convert Celsius to Fahrenheit. You could choose to set it out as a complicated mathematical equation, but a far more user-friendly approach would be to provide a simple calculator.
If you missed this informative event, the recording will be available for purchase shortly. The recording will come with helpful links and resources generously provided by Carrie.