Ask good questions
Trauma-informed design, good user research questions, unconscious bias, how to name a service, and content design at Scope.
This is the first edition of the Plain English Weekly newsletter sent in 2025. I hope you've got off to a good start, despite... everything.
I would have sent this sooner but I decided to write a review of my 2024 that got a bit out of hand. It's mostly a rundown of the content projects I worked on throughout the year with a sprinkling of thoughts on freelancing.
Oh, I also updated my freelance website too, almost entirely to avoid paying another £150 to Squarespace. It's a one-pager, but I quite like it.
No more waffling. Enjoy the links below.
Iain
I heartily recommend you listen to this episode of the Accessible Numbers podcast from Laura Parker. It features a chat with content designers and trauma-informed content specialists, Jane McFadyen and Rachel Edwards.
I think I have mentioned it before, but I have spent the last few months working on a project where trauma-informed design is essential. It's been very challenging but also hugely rewarding and I have learned an awful lot in the process.
This conversation is a brilliant introduction to the idea and principles of designing content for people who have experienced trauma. And to be honest, it's a great listen no matter who you typically design content for.
Asking good user research interview questions
This is a very concise and therefore rather handy guide on how to ask good research questions from The National Council for Voluntary Organisations (NCVO):
Don’t just ask people what they want. Instead ask why they want it. That has much more value. Even better is asking about past behaviour. Behaviour is more reliable than predictions or views and opinions.
There is also a similar guide to planning user research.
You know what, I'm going to go ahead and share this piece on unconscious bias too, which is also from NCVO:
Unconscious bias is also known as ‘implicit bias’. It's the social stereotypes we have about people who are different to us. For instance because of their race, gender, cultural background, body shape, sexual orientation and class or because they are disabled. It’s one of the biggest obstacles we face when creating digital content, software and services.
Along with some content colleagues, I am currently doing everything in my power to make sure we do not use the word 'portal' or 'hub' or anything similar to describe the service we are building. In the public sector world, this is largely a solved problem! Just follow these guidelines in the GOV.UK service manual.
How the team do content at...Scope
I've linked to lots of great pieces and guidance from Scope in this newsletter. Stephanie Coulshed leads the content design team and this (written) interview with Lauren Pope is full of fascinating insights. I too am a fan of the simple Kanban board for managing and working on content!
"Thinking about support and advice content specifically, I would hope to see more research into people’s information needs and the context in which they are searching for content. Content should be about what people need to know, not what we want to tell them!"
Stephanie Coulshed, Scope
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