Have you ever wondered where to even start learning content design principles, let alone applying them? Since our blog post on content design skills, we’ve had lots of questions asking just that. Vinish Garg, Firehead’s Introduction to Content Design course author, has generously responded with this post—a superlist meant for all of you starting out in content design—he’s rounded up useful resources for different skills and practices within the content design field.
Remember that the goal of content design is to bring more clarity, meaning, and context to digital product teams. A few experts define content design as valuable and usable for the audience because content design advocates user-centered content.
As a content design practitioner who works on the intersection of content and design, and product leadership, I have seen the rise of content design in building the right foundations of digital processes—of design, product, and sometimes of the organization itself.
What is Content Design?
- What is content design? By Content Design London
- What is content design? By Carrie Hane
- Principles of good content design, by ksenia cheinman
- What do content designers do, by Emily Stevens
- Understanding content design [Video], by Sarah Winters
Content Design’s Role and Need in Digital Product Teams
- Our titles and the naming problem, by Kristina Halvorson
- Content design and UX design, by Lizzie Bruce
- User research and content design support each other, by University of Southampton
- Why words matter, testing copy, by Netflix
- Why we need content design [Video], by Erin Abler
- How content design supports interaction design, by Vinish Garg
- Designers and writers should co-design experiences, by Felicia Hu
Content Metrics, ROI, and Success Criteria
- Measuring content, by Content Science
- Content Scorecard, by Content Strategy Inc.
- Understanding product metrics (to design the right content), by Future
- The ROI of content design, by Melanie Seibert
Content Supports Design and Product Metrics
- Onboarding increases customers’ willingness to pay (WTP), by Paddle
- Content driven onboarding, by Jonathon Colman
Content’s Impact on the Organization and Brand
- Content ecosystem map, by Scott Kubie
- Content maintenance framework, by Michael Andrews
Content Systems—with and for Design Systems
- Design systems making space for content, by Michael Haggerty-Villa
- Content’s role in design systems, by Michael Andrews
- A content model is not a design system, by A Mike Wills
- Modern design and content systems should support product metrics, by Vinish Garg
Big picture view of Content Design
- The past, present, and future of content design, by Kristina Halvorson
A Few Good Books on Content Design
- Writing Is Designing: Words and the User Experience (link)
- Designing Connected Content (link)
- Content Design (link)
- Strategic Writing for UX (link)
- Microcopy: The Complete Guide (link)
People to Follow
You can connect with the experts whose references I have already shared in the earlier section. Here are a few more content design practitioners you can follow, for different skills and practices within content design.
- Larry Swanson—Content Strategy Insights podcast
- Rahel Anne Bailie—Content operations, content governance
- Noz Urbina—Omnichannel content, content for customer journey, content models
- Colleen Jones—Content vision
- Marie Girard—Content for customer experience
- Margot Bloomstein—Content for message architecture and brand positioning
- Larry Swanson and Teodora Petkova—Knowledge Graphs and Semantic Web
- Heather Hedden—Taxonomy and ontology design
Events
Practice Content Design: An exercise in a Miro Board
- Naming in ecommerce product (link)
- User stories or job stories from user research findings (link)
- Write content, define its success criteria, and measure it (link)
Online Communities to Join
- Content + UX (link) (this is my favourite by miles)
- Content Design Leaders (link)
- Content Strategy Community (link)
Masters Degree Programmes
- Masters in Content Strategy (one of its kind programme in the world) (link)
Note: If you want to understand or learn any of the above topics in more depth, or want to connect with experts in that topic, leave a comment or contact us with your question and we will share the related references.
And we’d love to hear your suggestions about resources you’ve used that you would recommend adding to our growing list!
Join us at The Firehead Academy for lots of other free resources on digital communications topics and skills and first news about our upcoming courses!
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