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.
The eight decisions a content governance model has to make
Content governance for Australian government is eight decisions, not a document. Who owns, who approves, what standard, what triggers retirement, and who answers.
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.
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.
Working with policy subject matter experts: a content design guide for Australian government
Most Australian government content design fails at the SME relationship, not the writing. A practical guide for working with policy experts across APS contexts.
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.
How to refresh your content audit for the AI era
Most content audit templates predate AI. Add five columns for the AI era, and learn to test how AI systems read and cite your government content. No paid tools.
Keeping government website content up to date: build a currency system, not another audit
Keeping government website content up to date takes a system, not another audit. Set review dates, name one owner per page, and retire stale content by default.
Content design scope of work template: what to include so procurement can actually buy it
A content design scope of work template for Australian practitioners. Named deliverables, exclusions, sign-off points, and wording a procurement team signs off.
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.
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.
How to measure the impact of content design in Australian government
How to measure content design impact in Australian government: four practical metrics that match how agencies fund the work and report on its delivery outcomes.
Web content governance for Australian government websites
The minimum viable governance model for an Australian government website: three roles, six decisions, a review cadence, and an escalation path. Free download.
A content audit is not your first step
A content audit is the third step. Before you review a single page, you need both a content inventory and an impact assessment. Here is what all three steps do.
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.
Content engineering: the discipline content designers should know about
Content engineering is the discipline that sits between content design and software engineering. Most Australian government CMS and AI projects fail without it.