Content design

Deciding what content should exist, in what format and what order, before anyone argues about wording. Structure first, sentences second.

deciding what content should even existmore than just the wordingcontent designerdesigning content not just writing itstructure before sentencescontent desingfiguring out what should be on the page at allinformation design with words

See it

Live demo coming soon

What it is

Content design asks its question earlier than writing does: what does this person actually need, and what format answers it fastest? The answer is sometimes a paragraph, but just as often a table, a checklist, a calculator, a diagram, or nothing at all. The discipline was named and hardened at GOV.UK, where Sarah Richards' team rebuilt government content around user needs instead of departmental org charts.

Reach for it when the problem is 'nobody can find or understand this', not 'this sentence is clunky'. The usual moves: start from evidence (search logs, support tickets, research), write the user need as one sentence, pick the format, order the page so the most-asked question is answered first, then cut everything that exists only because a stakeholder wanted it there.

Gotcha: people hear 'content design' and think copywriting or content marketing. It is closer to information architecture with words attached, and its most common output is a decision to publish less.

Ask AI for it

Run a content design pass on this page, not a copy edit. Steps: (1) state the user need as 'As a X I need Y so that Z'; (2) list the questions a user arrives with, in the order they ask them; (3) pick the best format for each answer (prose, table, numbered steps, accordion, calculator, or delete); (4) reorder the page so the most-needed answer sits first; (5) output the new structure as a labeled outline with one line per block saying why it exists. Recommend cuts explicitly. Write final wording only after the structure is settled.

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