Workshop: applying GOV.UK’s award-winning content strategy to intranets, London March 5th

February 28, 2014 by

Synopsis: At the DWG Member Forum meeting on March 5th join Sarah Richards, Head of Content Design for gov.UK, in a workshop exploring how the site’s award-winning redesign cut out 75% of previous content and made online transactions 60% faster.

Can you really say what makes good intranet content?

Isn’t website or intranet content very subjective? Can you really say what’s good and what’s not?

Yes. Yes, you definitely can.

The first question to ask: is the content fit for purpose?

This then begs the question: what is the purpose of any particular bit of content?

This requires a final question: for which audience does this content serve a purpose?

So, here’s the basic formula for good content:

Formula for good intranet content

Sarah Richards explains the universal lessons

At the March 5th event Sarah Richards will lead a workshop rooted in her team’s effort to completely rethink the content for the gov.UK website. This project included designing a new navigation structure, setting content layout standards for the entire site and rewriting virtually all the content.

This project is a shining example of putting audience needs and content purpose up on pedestals. Even Sarah’s approach to site analytics steered away from stock measures.

To look beyond “vanity metrics” for the new site, such as site traffic and page views, Sarah’s team put in place a sophisticated measurement framework. The core of this was to look at task completion and user satisfaction rather than simple site analytics. In so doing they measured 60% faster speeds for completing common transactions and with much greater accuracy.

The really great thing about the project? The lessons of Sarah’s task-focused approach, content strategy and user-centred design all apply directly to intranets, enterprise mobile apps and many other aspects of digital workplaces.

Read more about Sarah’s lessons learned from the gov.UK site redesign.

DWG Member Forum meetings bring together large companies

Sarah will be giving leading this workshop at a meeting of the Digital Workplace Group (DWG) Member Forum in London on March 5th.

The DWG Member Forum helps large organizations advance their intranets and broader digital workplaces. It does this through world-class benchmarking evaluations, peer learning and expert research.

DWG members include major global organizations such as Adobe, Citi, EY, IKEA and ExxonMobil.

DWG Member Meetings bring intranet and digital workplace teams together in close-knit, honest, confidential settings. Participants share live site tours, discuss real challenges and learn from each other and DWG’s expert benchmarkers and researchers.

Who can attend the March 5th meeting?

DWG Member Meetings are private and confidential events designed for DWG member companies. For each meeting we reserve a few seats for guests who can actively contribute to discussions and the meeting’s overall content.

If you work on the intranet, collaboration platform, enterprise mobile strategy, or broader digital workplace strategy at a large organization you can contact our team about joining this meeting as a special guest.

To enquire about a special guest seat, contact Nancy Goebel.

Categorised in: Content management, Metrics & measurement, Search & findability, Usability & design

Ephraim Freed

Ephraim is a communicator, community builder, digital strategist and employee experience leader. He helps innovative, growing organizations provide meaningful experiences of work that enrich employees' lives, grow strong, positive organizational cultures, build community, drive productivity and performance, and bring employer brands to life.

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