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"Sometimes when we join an organisation we find that, beyond hiring you, it has made absolutely no other changes to allow you to actually do the work it expects you to do." Literally 90% of my career, tbh. 😆😭

Another year has passed with neither a content or interaction designer coming within touching distance of HMRC's online self-assessment service. 😔

95% of orgs are not prepared for (or even aware of) the future web landscape. They're still thinking of, and creating, websites like it's 2005. Despite the very obvious fact that "websites" will become less and less of a thing. Browsers without address bars? They're already here.

#ContentDesign is more than words. This is still so misunderstood. As well as making text relevant, clear, readable and accessible, it's about: • the presentation of information: layout, format • content usability, inc interaction, pattern and component design • backend data • IA • a holistic view

Service design gripe: why do car tax rates shown on the reminder letter not align with what I'm charged online? I get the letter, it shows X amount. Go online to pay and the actual amount is ~10% more. Every time. Why? Annoying.

There is so much to unpack here.

Is Digital ID the same as GOV.UK One Login? Which is both a cross-service system and a native phone app. Is it the same as the "GOV.UK ID Check" app? Which itself is neither of the "GOV.UK One Login", "GOV.UK" or "UKVI ID Document Check" apps. Is it Government Gateway? Is it your NI number? 🤷‍♂️😵‍💫

I enjoy pointing out to SEO folk that the introduction of the alt attribute (HTML 1.2, June 1993) predates the introduction of the first modern search engine (JumpStation, December 1993). It was always designed and intended as an accessibility feature.

Is gov.uk/prepare supposed to redirect to gov.uk/alerts?

This is why a strong content model and governance are vital. What are the *things* your users care about? How do you represent and standardise them? What is a service? What is guidance? Why might you create a website for one and not another? Without that model, you slide into chaos like this.

Are we still giving candidates the "rewrite this source material" task during content design interviews? This has been a red flag for a long time. Even more so in 2025.

But to add re evolving, #ContentDesign is supposed to be a disruptor, it’s meant to question internal processes, connect silos, create change in an org. Orgs don’t like change. And they do like hierarchy. So it’s very hard for what’s often a lone CD to do much more than a good web editor would…

Do you think that the discipline of content design has evolved beyond it's formative roots? Do you think it is evolving at the required rate? Faster or slower than other UX disciplines?

"But we rely on search traffic! What will we do if people don't click our links?!" Been warning all my employers for the past decade that this was coming, and how to prepare for it. None of them wanted to listen. Sigh. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

The Content Management industry is doomed to chase flash in the pan feature trends until it recognizes the fact that its job isn’t producing artifacts, but facilitating communication. Assessing the effectiveness of a message is difficult, so we’re buried in terrible proxy metrics.

Why do I need a GOV.UK app? I interact with government a handful of times a year, at the very most. Am I not the intended audience? Confused.

No amount of copy editing will save you if your content ecosystem is structurally broken.

Are you "paying attention to detail" or are you "bikeshedding the things that are easy to change to avoid dealing with your fundamentally flawed UX"

This is an issue if your organisation's business model and KPIs are based on vanity metrics, rather than helping people. And it's only going to get more pronounced. pressgazette.co.uk/publishers/d...

All of this. But also, getting your org to thrive in an AI-centric future-web landscape, requires that more than just your content team understand this stuff. There are still far, far too many people in positions of "leadership" and power who don't know what they don't know.

Lists are the best, and I just published one about what I think makes a good design team today. It’s not complete, and only a snapshot in time, but I need it to take sensible decisions things at work, and you might find it interesting 📋 www.kubabartwicki.com/posts/whats-...

The single biggest way to improve UX delivery in your org, is not to train everyone in Figma. It's to get agreed and standardised lists of things, definitions and relationships.

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"Good design is a multi-disciplinary effort." 💯

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"AI works best when it’s trained on solid data. Setting it loose on a poorly structured website is a recipe for poor UX and user frustration." Yes, and yes. 🎯

At the very least, this service needs a good going over by a team of strong content and interaction designers. I was shocked how sloppy it was for such a high profile service. The content is unclear, pattern usage across questions and inputs is inconsistent, it doesn't adhere to the design system.

Organisations who can barely manage a single effective version of their content will obsess fanatically over trying to implement and deliver "personalisation" and AI functionality. 🤷‍♂️ A total lack of self awareness will prevent them from realising that this is a fallacy.

Drawing pictures in Figma is the easy part.

Honestly, it's astonishing what happens when you include everyone in the design process. People light up ... they're so used to having things inflicted on them that when you invite them in they are delighted. It works. And it feels good. #servicedesign

The single biggest way to improve UX delivery in your org, is not to train everyone in Figma. It's to get agreed and standardised lists of things, definitions and relationships.

However long your org thinks it will take to create good, user-centred content, they should double that. Then double it again.

Your new card component will not solve your content problems.

Yes, you should be worried about AI taking your job if "content design" in your org is a clichéd, paint-by-numbers process that basically amounts to "take this pre-existing thing and make it Hemingway grade 8."

Your org cannot design or deliver functioning ecosystems because it does not have controlled lists of things, types, what each thing is, standards, definitions and naming conventions. Boring to many, in comparison to fancy Figma doodles, but you can't do anything meaningful without them.

Good content costs. Bad content costs more.

UX fact #25: It's not a user experience until it's experienced by a user. The consumer of most of your outputs is not the user, but a stakeholder.

Designing a custom taxonomy for my collection of UX and content memes.

UCD-immature orgs love creating design principles as an early deliverable because they're fairly vacuous things that can be created quickly. They also like that they give an impression of authority & having delivered a thing. "We know what we're doing, we have design principles."

Own up. Who let Marketing create another "campaign" site? www.workplacepensions.gov.uk/tool/

Nerding out on a custom CMS build this afternoon. 🤓 Long way to go, but user needs as structured, reference-able entities, giving a live report of which needs are not being met. Had to blur details for privacy reasons, but you get the idea.

Hi. The *minimum* salaries you should be paying content designers in 2023 are as follows; - Junior: £35k+ - Mid: £45k+ - Senior: £55k+ - Lead: £65k+ - Head: £75k+ Add 10% if the employee is mandated to attend an office at any time. Add a further 10% if that office is in London.

*taps mic* Does this thing work?