Weeknote: looking beyond the form

One thing that continues to surprise me about content design is how little of it is actually about writing content.

A few weeks ago I was chatting to a few people at a Meetup about whether the title content designer really captures what we do. This week has definitely made me think about that again.

I've been working on forms, but I've also been looking at analytics, setting up user research testing, questioning service processes, running workshops and thinking about all the communications that sit around a service, not just the website.

It's one of the things I enjoy most about the job. You start with a page or a form, but you almost always end up asking much bigger questions.

Looking beyond the brief

This week I've been working on a new complaints, comments and compliments form.

During conversations with the complaints team, it became clear that many of the complaints they receive aren't really complaints at all. They're service requests. Someone's bin hasn't been collected, someone wants to appeal a benefits decision, or someone disagrees with the outcome of a Blue Badge application.

Those journeys already exist elsewhere on the website, so it made me wonder why people weren't finding them.

I then looked at the analytics. Pages about appeals and disputes had received very little traffic, while the Contact us page had been viewed around 20,000 times over the last few months. The page itself didn't really do much beyond giving people a phone number.

That raised more questions than answers. Are people unable to find the right information? Do they simply think it's easier to phone? Or are we missing something earlier in the journey?

For now, we're making it much clearer on the complaints page and within the form that people should contact the service first where appropriate, before making a formal complaint. Longer term, I'd love to make the form itself a bit smarter so it can help people find the right route before they submit it.

The website isn't the whole service

If someone wants to appeal a benefits decision, the first thing they'll probably receive is a letter or an email telling them about that decision. That communication should already explain what happens next and where they need to go. If it doesn't, it's no surprise people end up searching for "Contact us" or trying to make a complaint instead.

I think this is one of the areas content designers don't always get to work on. We're often brought in to improve a website or redesign a form, but we don't always get visibility of the emails, letters, text messages and other communications that surround that journey.

It's easy to assume the website is the problem because that's the part we've been asked to improve. But if we don't understand the whole service journey, how can we be sure that's where the problem actually is?

I've seen the same thing with automated emails sent after people submit forms. They often do the job, but they're not always as clear, helpful or reassuring as they could be. Sometimes it's those touchpoints that make the biggest difference to someone's experience.

To me, this is where the lines between content design and service design start to blur. If we really want to improve services, we need to understand every communication someone receives, not just the web pages.

Quick user testing

We're also planning to do some quick usability testing before the new complaint landing pages and form goes live.

Nothing fancy. Just a handful of 20-minute sessions with people from across the council who aren't familiar with the process. We'll give them a scenario, ask them to share their screen and simply watch what happens.

I'd always recommend involving a user researcher where possible. They bring so much expertise in understanding user needs and planning meaningful research. But the reality is that many organisations don't have dedicated user researchers or the time to run a large discovery phase.

I think it's important to show that doing some testing is far better than doing none. Even a few short sessions can uncover issues you'd never spot yourself, and they can help build a case for doing more research in future. The aim isn't to prove the design is right. It's to uncover anything we've missed before it goes live.

Other work

I've also started working on Freedom of Information and Subject Access Request forms. Again, the interesting part isn't just improving the forms themselves, it's helping people find the information they need before they need to submit a request. We're looking at making the publication scheme and disclosure log much easier to search and use.

Alongside client work, I’ve continued migrating the LocalGov Drupal documentation into its new home. It's been nice building on the conversations we started at Drupal Camp and beginning to shape what will hopefully become a shared design system for the LocalGov Drupal community.

That’s it for this week

This week has reminded me that the page you're asked to work on is rarely the whole problem. And that's probably my favourite part of being a content designer.

Things I've been reading

I've just finished Dark Matter by Blake Crouch.

It's one of those books that sticks with you because it makes you think about the tiny decisions that shape your life. The premise is based on parallel universes, where every decision creates a different version of your future. It's a real page-turner, but it also leaves you wondering how different life might have looked if you'd made different choices along the way.

I've now started The Last Tudor by Philippa Gregory. After all the sci-fi, I fancied a bit of Tudor history.