TRAINING
Content Design Foundations - online course
In five 2-hour sessions across one week, this live course trains you to create accessible, useful content for digital products and services.
Content designers use data to understand what users need. We design content to help people complete tasks. ‘Content’ can range from text to images and any other audio-visual media. That might be words. It might also be images, audio, video, maps, diagrams and more.
On this course you will learn the approach used to design content for GOV.UK. Completing the course will give you the tools and techniques you need to give people the right content at the right time in the right place and format.
Building on the skills we give you means you can command excellent day rates because high-quality content designers are hard to find and essential to the success of every digital project
COURSE DATES 2023/24
Mon, 4 Mar 2024 – Fri, 8 Mar 2024, daily from 14:00 to 16:00 GMT. Register now
How the course works
SESSION 1: USER NEEDS
You’ll learn:
- what content strategy centred around user needs is – and why you should care
- why content design is based on giving the user what they need, not assumptions or what an organisation wants a user to do
- why needs are emotional as well as functional
- how to write well-formed user stories
- what ‘acceptance criteria’ are, what a good one looks like and why they’re vital
- how to rethink the way you approach content creation so it works for your users
SESSION 2: DESIGNING FOR ACCESSIBILITY AND THE PSYCHOLOGY OF UX
You’ll learn:
- the traditional and broader meanings of accessibility in user experience design
- why accessibility is about everyone, not ‘us’ and ‘them’
- how accessibility is built in to content design principles and activities
- tools and techniques for embedding accessibility in building content
- how the way our brains work underpins the human-centred approach to user needs
- understands basic principles, including desire paths and our primordial focus
- why cognitive overload is important and how we design to allow users to focus
- why we approach user mistakes from the perspective of solving their problems
- how the way our memory works makes it essential for us to simplify tasks
- how to design each step of the user journey to make products easy to use
SESSION 3: DESIGNING WITH DATA
You’ll learn:
- how to use freely available tools to uncover what your users search for, user behaviour and what they need from content
- how to identify and validate content requests by using the evidence-based user needs approach
- how to use data to validate user needs, and the basics of using different forms of data
- how to use user research and analytics data to create content that meets your users’ needs
SESSION 4: WRITING FOR THE WEB
You’ll learn:
- how people interact with information online
- best practice principles of writing for the web, including plain English, how to structure information and how to use tone and voice
- how to meet user needs without words – images, video and the visual language of design
- how to maximise user engagement
- how to structure your content to increase conversion rates
SESSION 5: AGILE CONTENT PRODUCTION
You’ll learn:
- the principles of agile project management
- how a content designer works in multi-disciplinary and agile environments
- practices and tools used in agile content production
- how agile roles and workflow help content designers to meet user needs
- what it’s like to work in an agile content team
Learn through a mixture of theory and practice. This includes presentations and practical exercises. You will also have plenty of opportunity to ask questions and discuss the challenges and opportunities of delivering well-designed content that meets users needs.
You’ll also get plenty of real-life examples based on more than a decade of trainer experience of working within the content design discipline.
Practical exercises and breakout discussions in every session provide a chance to practise what you learn and develop an in-depth understanding of how content design works in the real world.
Please note: this course is not designed to teach you how to sell things to people. It will teach you how to take a user needs-based approach to content, to make products and services that are usable, engaging and accessible.
COURSES AND SEMINARS
We run courses on site at your offices or in our training venue in central London.
We run a standard course in content design and we also tailor training to your needs.
Our courses cover:
- content design
- content strategy
- agile
- plain English
- optimising your content operations (ContentOps)
“Padma is clearly an expert in his field who is keen to share his knowledge with others to improve online content. Great course, thank you!” Course participant
“An excellent overview of the emerging discipline of content design. A useful course for anyone currently engaged in or starting out in content for the web.” Course participantContact us if you’d like more information.
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