Content design Guides, templates and articles
Guides, templates and articles about content design, government communications, digital experience with a few case studies thrown in for fun.
Plain language does not fail at the draft. It fails after launch.
Government writers are not the problem. Readability fails after launch, because no role owns the whole site. Here are the four roles that fix it.
Agentic AI does not read your content. It acts on it.
The DTA has named website information as an input to AI systems that take actions. Four things to check in your content before an agent points at your site.
What to measure instead of a readability score
A readability score measures sentence length, not whether readers can act. Plain language vs a readability score, why they differ, and what to test instead now.
What the Digital Access Standard means for content teams
The Digital Access Standard makes one architecture decision documented and reported: does this service need its own front door? Content teams hold the evidence.
Content design training in Australia: the five things UK-built courses leave out
Content design training in Australia largely descends from UK GDS courses. Five things Australian government content work needs that imported courses leave out.
How to do a content audit without tools: a spreadsheet, 50 pages, and one question
You can do a content audit without tools. A spreadsheet, your top 50 pages by traffic, and one sharp question lands most of the decisions any audit has to make.
How to write evaluation recommendations that get actioned
Writing evaluation recommendations that get actioned means naming the owner, the action, and the date. Without those three, it is only an observation.
Information architecture vs sitemap: what the difference means for government websites
Information architecture vs sitemap: a sitemap lists the pages you publish; IA is how people find and understand them. Confusing the two breaks your navigation.
Content management vs content governance: what the difference means for Australian government teams
A CMS publishes content. Content governance decides who is accountable for it. Why Australian government teams keep confusing the two, and how to close the gap.
Accessibility overlays will not make your government website compliant
Accessibility overlays will not make a government website WCAG 2.2 or DDA compliant. The AHRC now says so. The real fix is content design, not a bolt-on widget.
Content design vs UX writing vs content strategy: the disciplines, the overlaps, the differences
Content design vs UX writing vs content strategy: what each discipline actually does, where they overlap, and why naming them right saves teams time and budget.
How to measure content design impact when there's no baseline
Measuring content design impact without a baseline: pick one defensible measure, record the diagnostic state precisely now, and your first number is the before.
A government chatbot is only as good as the content behind it
A government chatbot just repeats the content behind it. Why government chatbot content design in Australia, not the platform, decides if the answers are right.
The DTA AI impact assessment tool: what content teams should do now
The DTA AI impact assessment tool now applies to any government content team using AI to draft or edit. Run it as a self-audit before procurement or audit does.
Content audit metrics: the five measures that get executive sign-off
Content audit metrics that get executive sign-off: relevance, accuracy, accessibility, traffic, and decision-readiness, scored on one cover page they will read.
Evaluation reports need a content design layer
Content design for evaluation reports turns a 90-page PDF into a four-page decision-ready brief, so the people who hold the budget actually act on the findings.
Year 7 reading level isn't a target. It's a constraint that should change how you write everything.
The Style Manual sets the year 7 reading level for Australian government content. Most agencies miss this target because they edit the words, not the structure.
PDF/UA (ISO 14289) is the standard for accessible PDFs. Most government PDFs do not meet it.
PDF/UA (ISO 14289) is the international standard for accessible PDFs. Most Australian government PDFs do not meet it. The fix is governance, not better tooling.
AS ISO 24495 plain language is now an Australian Standard. Use it as a governance lever.
AS ISO 24495.1:2024 makes plain language a citable Australian Standard. Use it in your content governance framework, your next tender, or in your audit reports.
Evaluation is a practice. Treat it like one.
Evaluation is a practice, not a report. Like content design, it fails when bolted on at the end. Design for evaluation from day one. Methodology cannot save it.