Content Design

by Sarah Richards

Between 2010 and 2014, Sarah Richards and her team at the United Kingdom’s Government Digital Service did what many thought they took over 400 separate government websites and transformed them into a single site designed to effectively serve its users. In doing so, they defined a new content design. Content design isn’t graphic design or just copywriting under another name. Content design focuses on what content best serves the users’ needs, whether it be the written word, infographics, visuals, videos, or charts. At the core of content design are the needs of the users—and this means determining what your users want. More than this, it’s about analysing data to determine when, where, and how users want to digest information. There is no room for assumptions in content design—success or failure hinges on how well you understand your users’ needs. Discover the power of designing completely user-based content, grounded not on what organisations think their users want but on the needs, actions, and motivating forces of your site visitors.

Genres: Design, Writing, Nonfiction, Business, Professional Development, Technology, Buisness

224 pages, Paperback

First published July 1, 2017

About the author

I am Sarah—a lifelong Southern belle who will never put sugar in her grits.

I have been published in Bella Grace magazine, writersdigest.com, and my story, “The Ghoul of Whitmire Cemetery,” set in my hometown of Pensacola, Florida, was recognized as an Honorable Mention and published in The Saturday Evening Post’s “Great American Short Stories” anthology in 2016. “The Post-It Poet,” set at my alma mater of Pensacola State College (PSC), placed as an Honorable Mention in the 2019 contest, and “Office Space Cadets,” also set at PSC, placed as Honorable Mention in the 2022 contest.

My Amazon.com author page can be found here: https://www.amazon.com/-/e/B08G7PDJFV

I am a writing expert for a global proofreading company and edit academic papers for a company based in Finland—all while working towards my B.A. in English, with a concentration in Creative Writing.

I enjoy life with my husband and children in the Florida Panhandle.

Reviews

[Nina · Rating 3 out of 5]

Great ideas for designing content but completely confused why you'd pick a controversial top like 'fracking' as a case study example.

[Seyfeddin · Rating 5 out of 5]

I’ve read many books about content strategy and this book was the most consise and helpful so far. Starts with the fundamentals and the mindset on designing content. Then teaches on how to do it. It’s a very well designed book as well. I very much enjoyed reading every page.

Highly recommended to those who want to structure and plan their content, especially written content.

[Isla McKetta · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good review of content strategy in an interesting format, but I didn't really find too much about how content design is more/different than content strategy.

[Paulo Ribeiro · Rating 2 out of 5]

Perhaps I had the wrong expectations, but I found the book provided only a very high-level overview into the content design process.

As a Technical Writer, I was already familiar with most principles and processes of designing content, as most of it is similar or has an equivalent in the technical writing practice.

Although the examples throughout the book are helpful, I was expecting to find more tangible information on how to solve challenges that you end up having on your day-to-day job as a Content/UX/Technical Writer. Even pointers to more in-depth resources would be useful.

The layout and typography used in the book do look good and help get one's attention, but in my opinion I think it helps gloss over the fact that there isn't much information in the book besides what could easily fit into a well organized collection of blog posts.

[Lou Robinson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Recommended by our Head of CX at work, I thought I’d take a read of this one (although you know my usual feelings on reading non-fiction). But this was actually a very good read...and as you can imagine, the content has been exquisitely designed! I’ll be sharing this with my team.

[Michelle Leung · Rating 5 out of 5]

A work read, but very enjoyable and easy to understand. Talks about designing content on a website tailored to the end user. Far too many times, organizations and businesses lose sight of their customer and end up designing something to please an internal stakeholder. Lots of food for thought 💭 including best practices for organization, flow of information , word count , headings , subheadings etc. I agree the specific example they gave was a little strange and niche but the concepts are useful for anyone that works with online content.

[S · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not exactly what I needed, but interesting. Poorly printed and with questionable formatting, strangely enough.

[Visnja Zeljeznjak · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great starter. I wish there were even more examples.

[J. T. · Rating 3 out of 5]

A bit dry

Some useful stuff but the layout didn't seem to translate well to Kindle. I found the book a bit dry and corporate focused.

[Caitlin King · Rating 5 out of 5]

got me a job

[Taylor Vinson · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this book. I read the ebook and thought the design of it was very fitting for the topic and very easy to read visually. I've been writing for so many years and I have finally decided to make my pathway into being a content designer. This book gave me a lot of insight about how to think about content from a more technical perspective. It gave me tips on how to do content based user research as well as relit a fire in me for my passion for writing in conversational styles. I definitely recommend this for anyone who is new to content design or even to journalists, bloggers, or writers on the internet or print. It's a great reminder to be intentional about how content reaches people visually and emotionally which to be honest, I haven't seen much of in my previous professional experiences. I am eager to engage with new people who are deeply interested in the ways words can make people feel.

[Adam P · Rating 4 out of 5]

As a Content Designer newbie, I found this book an excellent overview of Content Design with plenty of useful examples, tips and anecdotal stories.

As someone wanting to steer into content design, I’d recommend this book as I feel much more confident talking about the content lifecycle, user research, data analysis and stakeholder management.

I refrained from giving it 5 stars as the author occasionally gives advice before writing something contradictory. For example, use high frequency words as they’re processed quicker by the reader. But then she has headers such as:
“Squishy Humans” (followed by a single paragraph about getting your content signed off)

All in all, I’d really recommend this book as a starting point. Best of all, they only print off copies that have been ordered. Major kudos.

[Stella · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is so excellent. The tone is funny and engaging (which you’d hope so considering the subject matter is literally about how to write better content) and the whole thing is so insightful. I’ve learnt so much and have told so many people about this because it’s something that’s so often overlooked. Highly recommend for anyone who has any sort of touch point with content writing / strategy

[Abby · Rating 5 out of 5]

“The most important skill for writing on the web is turning push content (what you want to say) into pull content (what your audience wants to read).”

Essential resource for content strategists who want to go beyond the traditional bounds of the profession and move into the expertise the web really needs: content design.

“People who are well read (aka not dumb) read a lot. They don’t have time to wade through jargon. They want the information quickly and easily—just like everyone else. Wanting to understand quickly has little to do with intelligence. It has a lot to do with time and respect.”

[John Collins · Rating 5 out of 5]

I think that most good writers in the ranks of content marketers, UX writers, technical writers, etc know that they’re much more than writers. This angle of “content design” addresses that reality and gives a super helpful framework to what this discipline really is. This is not a book about writing, but it’s a book that every writer needs to read ... now! The 224 pages in the paperback go by quickly, as Richards succinctly moves from point to point. (The format/design of the pages is a little different, but it works just fine!)

Richards knows her stuff, and this book helps me see the world of content much more clearly.

[Tom Kubina · Rating 4 out of 5]

The book helps people with writing background with orientation in "design thinking" field or generally with writing for (digital) products.
Content Design will not teach you, how to write. It explains to copywriters, how to do user research, how people read online, how to write user or job stories. It'll also help you with stakeholder management - how to get attention of important people, how to invite them to decision making meetings ... in general, how to avoid situation when they don't approve what you wrote. It will get a little to the writing itself in the second part "Designing" but, it again, just explain principles of prioritising and choosing right content for right situation, or how to do pair writing.
The book is perfectly readable. It's obvious that the author know how to write and doesn't hesitate to use it :-) The top of a reading experience is, when it throws a lot of a data to you, so you feel overwhelmed - to show you a few pages after it with just one precise words. So you get feeling that reading is easy again and you're turning pages in very speed.

[Aiden · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am a designer who has always gotten involved in the written aspect of whatever I am designing. So while content designers tend to start out as writers this book is just as useful to someone coming to the discipline from a design background.

(Also, I am surprised it has taken me so long to get around to reading this book.)

As we face into a likely future where much Internet content will be AI-generated and of questionable quality, the principles of clear language and intentionality in writing that are outlined in this book will become more relevant and useful.

I will be keeping this book near my desk and expect to refer to it regularly.

[Sudakshina Bhattacharjee · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was given this book as a leaving gift from my colleagues and realise that my approach to content creation and marketing is largely based on the principles of Content Design without even having read the book before!
It’s a short and witty guide for content creators and aspiring content designers.
It’s to help these creative professionals:
1. efficiently help organisations with their website marketing activities
2. make the Internet more useful and enjoyable for users.
Thank you Sarah Richards for writing this!

[Lorena · Rating 4 out of 5]

A nice intro to Content Design. However, I thought the example used throughout the book was a bit basic, which made some parts of the book a bit basic as well, specifically for people who already work in the field. I would have hoped for an example covering a lot of the issues content designers deal with when working on digital products. Instead, the example focused on very basic content pages, almost like a sort of blog. Nevertheless, it has nice tips and insights. Quite fast to read through, as well.

[Eric · Rating 4 out of 5]

Just pointing out that the Sarah Richards associated with this book here on Goodreads is NOT the Sarah Richards who wrote Content Design. The real author's name is now Sarah Winters and you can learn more about her here: https://public.digital/people/sarah-r...

As for the book itself, even if you are not a content designer by trade, if you create ANY content for a webpage--whether it's for work or your own personal blog--this quick read is worth a look. It's a great intro to some key content design concepts and best practices.

[Grant · Rating 5 out of 5]

My new bible for work. Sarah Richards has impeccable bona fides and breaks the ideas down into digestible ways that demonstrate her approach. This book is a lot friendlier and more readable than the incredibly dry norm for most web-related books I've read.

While perhaps most of the ideas are not new, she has a way of putting them that reminds you how important some of those best practices that you've been neglecting are.

[Artemis · Rating 5 out of 5]

Read this to learn more about the field of content design (and for work). I found it concise, effective, and good! She clearly speaks from experience, and has many useful and practical advice to give. I like that she gave a realistic overview of the process and tells you step-by-step on what to do and look out for at every stage.

I only wished she had more case studies, perhaps... the one about fracking was not the most generalisable.

[Andres Moreira · Rating 4 out of 5]

How to design the content for your website?

A very well designed and produced book about how to create websites with content that users can easily find and consume.
Sarah has a very clear way to explain the whole process, and the writing and discovery tips can be used in everyday life.

[Elizabeth · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is essential reading for everyone in a content role. Very clear and practical. Unfortunately I found the design of the book to be quite irritating (important points in giant font, far too many pages with fewer than 10 words on them). Given the subject, it felt a bit ironic to have introduced a device that made the book harder to read!

[Eliot Graff · Rating 4 out of 5]

Richards' book is a well-written and fun read. This is a great primer or refresher for anyone who needs to polish their checklist of what a content developer needs to account for. There's very little earth-shattering insight, but what Richards does include is a rock-solid approach to the craft. Plus, the book is short, uses some big-ass fonts, and is witty.

[Pallavi · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really concise and I loved the number of examples where I could see the theory in action. I found some techniques lended themselves to limited content formats though, so it was difficult to visualise how the technique would adapt (e.g. how would you conduct a meeting where you “write” with stakeholders if the best content format was an infographic?) But overall, handy guide to content design!

[Silvana · Rating 4 out of 5]

Muy claro y de lectura básica para los que se inician.

Es un muy buen libro si estás empezando en el área de contenidos o si aún piensas en construir para la empresa y no para los usuarios. Gran punta pie inicial.

[GagaMil · Rating 5 out of 5]

Such a useful and encouraging book. There's good reason it's a classic in the content design world. It features examples, usable tips, and motivates you to keep learning, collaborating, and fighting for a better Internet for everyone.

[Vuk Trifkovic · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent primer for any contemporary product / content / design development.

[Zac Colley · Rating 5 out of 5]

practicial and interesting - a book i will keep around to reference. reall good