Last month (January 2025), we had an animated session (you’ll get some clues in this post about why that was!) We reviewed a prototype, discussed some prototyping tools and briefly started discussing sustainable content.
For our icebreaker we shared our Christmas and New Years highlights (including a Wallace and Gromit-inspired tangent)
Then, we:
- suggested topics we wanted to talk about
- voted on what we wanted to talk about the most
- discussed the topics with most votes
Prototype review
Claire, who is part of the team exploring how digital solutions can make planning services in Wales more sustainable and effective, showed the in-progress content on the planning pre-application service to the community.
The content refers to a fictional local authority called Pontypandy. Cue Fireman Sam side-chat – I told you it was animated..!
This was part content critique, part peer review but it worked great. We spoke about:
- using the active voice (with this guide about active voice by Defra)
- good link text
- plain language
- avoiding negative contractions
- page structure and flow
The members gave constructive feedback and advice. And it was helpful and educational for us to practice giving feedback and hear about best practice.
If you’re a member and want to use some time to show something you’re working on and get feedback and advice, get in touch and we can arrange this.
Sharing prototyping tools
We also spoke about more advanced prototyping tools. This wasn’t an area we had much advice on. We managed to put a member in touch with the interaction designer at CDPS to follow up some of the more technical aspects of advanced prototyping software.
Sustainability in content
This was sparked by recently reading the Sustainable content book. I already believed that good design is inherently sustainable design (things like fewer steps in the journey and fewer, smaller page loads).
What struck me was the opportunity to use sustainability as another lens to measure the impact of good design and good content.
In the book there are sophisticated (but easy to follow) formulas and frameworks to work out this impact in real terms (such as an equivalent number of cars on the road).
Members also shared links to other resources and work done in this area:
- The website carbon calculator
- Making a positive change: PDF to HTML on the Government Communication Service website
What we didn't get time to discuss:
- Sharing our thoughts on eligibility when the criteria are all of one list then one item from the following list
- Continued use of X as a primary communications channel
- Architecture and content designing confliction - how to ensure both voices are heard
Join the Content Design Cymru community to be part of future sessions like these and get to know other members.
