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Plain English is plain English
Years ago, I was working in an agency, doing some discovery user research. A user was trying to make sense of a webpage. The page was full of bureaucratic language and jargon. The user frowned, squinted at the screen and tried again. Then, exasperated, they threw their hands in the air and said, “Plain English Continue reading
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Comms and content are not the same thing
Comms and content might seem like interchangeable terms, but they’re different in purpose, audience, and execution. If you’re wondering why I’m wondering why I’m wearing a t-shirt that tells you this in 2 words and a symbol, read T-Shirts, slogans and universal truths of content design. Comms: Speaking outwards Comms is about broadcasting messages from Continue reading
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The harder I work, the less I produce: The irony of content design
“I didn’t have time to write a short letter, so I wrote a long one instead.” This phrase, attributed to Mark Twain, Winston Churchill, Henry David Thoreau, Ben Franklin (who knows who actually said it originally) perfectly encapsulates the paradox of content design. The better the content, the less you notice the effort behind it. Continue reading
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Bring me your content problems, not your solutions
I devised a way of saving myself hours (well, possibly minutes) by wearing t-shirts with slogans of things I say often enough in meetings, that I think of them as ‘Sarah-isms’. For example, a very common on is ‘have you thought about the content?’ Almost as common is when someone comes to me with a Continue reading
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T-shirts, slogans and universal truths of content design
Recently, I attended a talk where the presenter wore a t-shirt that read: “You should pay your writers more.” I loved this. Partly because I agreed with the sentiment (no surprise there), but also because of the idea that you can wear your philosophies — or politics — as t-shirt slogans, even in a professional setting. That Continue reading
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Unpopular opinion: Lorem Ipsum has a place in design
It seems to be popular to engage in Lorem ipsum-bashing. There are a lot of well-written, well-reasoned articles out there about why we shouldn’t use Lorem Ipsum. These articles for instance: These articles espouse this general design philosophy: Content precedes design. Design in the absence of content is not design, it’s decoration. — Jeffrey Zeldman Continue reading
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On saying the same thing many times, without sounding like a robot.
This whole thing started when I was at the chiropractor, and she was describing how the spine works. She probably learned it during her first week of Chiropractor school and it was clear she had said it a thousand times. She sounded rote. At first I was miffed. How dare she roll our her ‘tried Continue reading
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When it comes to content, the writing’s not the hard part.
Being a content specialist, the word ‘writer’ often sits as part of my job title. I’ve been a web writer, a UX writer, a copywriter. I usually work for the government and usually on websites. Part of any job description that I look at says that I need to be able to ‘write for the Continue reading
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Voice and tone post
Like a lot of things pertaining to content, you only notice voice and tone when it’s done badly. When it’s done well, you don’t notice. What this means, is that you’ll never hear content consumers say, ‘well I wasn’t prepared to buy from this online store before, but now that this brand has consistent voice Continue reading
About Me
I love wrangling the content in large organisations so clients and customers can find the information that they need.
Content philosophy 