Content Design Podcast

Are you inundated with emails requesting content? Do you spend ages going through different data sources? Do you find yourself doing the same tasks again and again? Danny shares his tips and tricks for speeding up your content delivery so you spend less time on admin and repetitive tasks. From interactive dashboards and live data alerts to automation using tools like Zapier , Danny shares how to make your content life easier. Podcast host Vanessa Barlow is a Content Consultant passionate about creating content that meets user needs and aligns with organisational goals. Reach out to Vanessa on LinkedIn if there's a project you'd like her to consult on. Text the podcast

“You’re a member of the design team. As part of that team, advocate for words.” Are you the only writer in a team of visual designers? Scott Kubie , author of Writing for Designers , shares some of his techniques for collaborating with designers. As well as ways to make the most of your time, he shares ideas on how to proactively demonstrate the value of content and get stakeholders on board with your content strategy. Podcast host Vanessa Barlow is a Content Consultant passionate about creating content that meets user needs and aligns with organisational goals. Reach out to Vanessa on LinkedIn if there's a project you'd like her to consult on. Text the podcast

Need to create great content fast? Find out how Olivia Sperring-Jones, Content Lead at NHSX , rapidly created content in response to Covid-19. Olivia demonstrates how you can turn a service around in just a few weeks while still including essentials like show-and-tell reviews and user research. She shares how her team worked so effectively remotely, including how they utilised Zoom and Miro to share user journeys. Podcast host Vanessa Barlow is a Content Consultant passionate about creating content that meets user needs and aligns with organisational goals. Reach out to Vanessa on LinkedIn if there's a project you'd like her to consult on. Text the podcast

Want to introduce content design to your organisation? Jack Garfinkel chats about how he did just that at Scope . From introducing crits and journey mapping, to writing user needs and user research, Jack shares how he started a major content project. He also shares some great tips and insights into how you can involve subject matter experts and other key people in the content process. Here are some of the tools Jack mentions: Hotjar for heatmaps Trello kanban board for prioritising work and tracking progress Miro for shared mapping and diagrams Airtable for storing data and insights Podcast host Vanessa Barlow is a Content Consultant passionate about creating content that meets user needs and aligns with organisational goals. Reach out to Vanessa on LinkedIn if there's a project you'd like her to consult on. Text the podcast

We chat to Kezia Newson, co-founder of The Time Ladies and contributor to Doctor Who Magazine about how she balances her passion projects with her commercial writing. Juggling blogging and vloggling with her content roles for organisations like Penguin, Random House and WaterAid, Kezia has some great insight into how writing about what you love can make your commercial content even better. Podcast host Vanessa Barlow is a Content Consultant passionate about creating content that meets user needs and aligns with organisational goals. Reach out to Vanessa on LinkedIn if there's a project you'd like her to consult on. Text the podcast

Social media can be a quick, cheap and effective testing ground to discover the different content that resonates with your target audience. People don’t hold back either, so the comments and reactions can be a useful gauge of how your audience feels about a subject and the language they use. We chat to Head of Social at Auto Trader, Laura McNally, about how social media can be an integral part of the overall user journey. She has some great tips on how to effectively use different social media platforms, including how to get ideas for what will perform well on site too. Podcast host Vanessa Barlow is a Content Consultant passionate about creating content that meets user needs and aligns with organisational goals. Reach out to Vanessa on LinkedIn if there's a project you'd like her to consult on. Text the podcast

Sarah Richards, author of ' Content Design ' and creator of the content design discipline takes us through some of the key techniques for creating amazing content. She goes through ways to reflect users’ mental models back at them by using their language and their way of thinking. We chat about journey mapping, value mapping, job stories and other ways to ensure you're creating purposeful content and bringing your organisation with you. We also discuss the importance of accessibility and the need for some solid readability guidelines we can all use. Podcast host Vanessa Barlow is a Content Consultant passionate about creating content that meets user needs and aligns with organisational goals. Reach out to Vanessa on LinkedIn if there's a project you'd like her to consult on. Text the podcast

For all you freelance content designers out there, here's how to create a stand-out online portfolio. We chat to Owen Priestly, content designer at Google, who has some great tips on how to show off your work and amazing content design skills. Even if you're just starting out or already have a portfolio, you'll find lots of great advice on building your online presence. Podcast host Vanessa Barlow is a Content Consultant passionate about creating content that meets user needs and aligns with organisational goals. Reach out to Vanessa on LinkedIn if there's a project you'd like her to consult on. Text the podcast

You’ve heard of lean UX , but have you thought about applying it to content design? Owen Priestly talks about how he transformed his content design practice by adopting lean principles like hypothesis driven design and rapid prototyping. We also chat about the different specialisms in the field and whether it matters if you call yourself a content designer or UX writer. Podcast host Vanessa Barlow is a Content Consultant passionate about creating content that meets user needs and aligns with organisational goals. Reach out to Vanessa on LinkedIn if there's a project you'd like her to consult on. Text the podcast

Designing content for phones means designing for a device that's at hand 24/7. So should we be more holistic in our design thinking and consider users' mental health too? Could we be designing experiences that encourage intention and reflection? Should we be thinking beyond the most clicks to the best clicks for the user? We discuss Kate's recent research into the impacts of device usage and what it means for the future of content design. Please note these are Kate's own opinions from her research and not those of the BBC. Podcast host Vanessa Barlow is a Content Consultant passionate about creating content that meets user needs and aligns with organisational goals. Reach out to Vanessa on LinkedIn if there's a project you'd like her to consult on. Text the podcast

With more and more people using voice tech like Amazon Alexa and Google Home there are lots of new opportunities for designing great voice experiences. We ask Anna Singer, Digital Strategy Lead at Citizens Advice and Alex Rees, Head of Digital at Attest , how they think voice UI will change how we consume content and what that means for content design. https://medium.com/berlin-lean-prototyping/free-tools-to-prototype-voice-interface-without-code-6f758c1b299c Text the podcast

Here's how to run a content crit with fellow content designers or your wider team. With guest Emily Brunwin, Content Lead at Citizens Advice , we discuss the benefits of showing your work early and how it can help you collaborate across disciplines. https://contentdesign.london/content-design/content-crits/ https://insidegovuk.blog.gov.uk/2016/03/03/content-crits-conquering-through-collaboration/ Podcast host Vanessa Barlow is a Content Consultant passionate about creating content that meets user needs and aligns with organisational goals. Reach out to Vanessa on LinkedIn if there's a project you'd like her to consult on. Text the podcast

The content potential of chabots is enormous, with so many opportunities beyond customer service. We chat to Daniel Gray about designing an award-winning chatbot for WaterAid that enabled supporters to talk to Sellu from Sierra Leone. We also pick up with Anna Singer, Digital Strategy Lead at Citizens Advice , to talk about how chatbots could help support their advice services. https://thebotplatform.com/case-study/wateraid/ https://www.thirdsector.co.uk/wateraid-chatbot-connects-supporters-communities/digital/article/1456079 Podcast host Vanessa Barlow is a Content Consultant passionate about creating content that meets user needs and aligns with organisational goals. Reach out to Vanessa on LinkedIn if there's a project you'd like her to consult on. Text the podcast

We tackle the first of the topics you asked us about on Twitter: pair writing. Discover how to improve your content and agree changes faster by pair writing with stakeholders and subject matter experts. Get some tips on how to convince colleagues to take part and make pair writing an integral part of your content delivery. https://gds.blog.gov.uk/2016/09/21/it-takes-2-how-we-use-pair-writing/ Podcast host Vanessa Barlow is a Content Consultant passionate about creating content that meets user needs and aligns with organisational goals. Reach out to Vanessa on LinkedIn if there's a project you'd like her to consult on. Text the podcast

How can you tell if your content is working? What will your customers prefer, design A or B? Alex Rees, Head of Digital at Attest , shares ways to tell if your content is performing and how to effectively test your content. We chat about how to design tests based on what you want to find out and why. Plus how to measure success and get stakeholder buy-in to a rapid test and learn approach. Podcast host Vanessa Barlow is a Content Consultant passionate about creating content that meets user needs and aligns with organisational goals. Reach out to Vanessa on LinkedIn if there's a project you'd like her to consult on. Text the podcast

I talk to Emily Brunwin, Content Lead at Citizens Advice about how to design content that meets a wide range of user needs. We chat about how to turn complex processes into easy to understand, actionable content and how to test that it's working. Plus, how to use onsite-behaviour data and Google Trends to prioritise content and identify words your target audience actually use. Podcast host Vanessa Barlow is a Content Consultant passionate about creating content that meets user needs and aligns with organisational goals. Reach out to Vanessa on LinkedIn if there's a project you'd like her to consult on. Text the podcast

The Content Design Podcast is here! Ready to give you tips and tricks on how to use content design to improve your digital content. In this teaser episode we introduce you to content design: a heady mix of UX, user research and copywriting. Plus all the great interviews we've got coming up with the UK's leading Content Designers and Digital Strategists. Reach out to us on Twitter @DigiContentPod. We'd love to hear if there are any content design topics you'd like us to cover or people you'd be keen for us to talk to. Text the podcast