Designing content with empathy

Citizens Advice helps millions of people solve their benefits problems each year

I developed the content strategy for a team focused on redesigning Income Support, Jobseeker's Allowance and Tax Credits advice.

We distilled a sprawling and complex topic into a small number of logical user journeys. We then designed concise, user-focused content to meet user needs.

Before: Dense and technical

After: Clear and user-friendly

What we did

Practically, this meant we had to:

• get to know our users and understand their problems
• audit hundreds of pages of existing content
• define existing and emerging user needs
• design new content based on evidence and testing

To do this, we needed a deep understanding of our audience and their problems.

Getting to know our users

We knew from research that, on the whole, Citizens Advice users have lower-than-average levels of digital literacy. And those who visit the site often do so during stressful and emotional times in their lives.

At the start of the project, we set out to observe as many in-person advice sessions as possible—both in and outside London.

I used this time to observe the way our users talked about their benefits problems, and to see how experienced advisers navigated these complex, nuanced journeys.

These experiences helped shape a content plan that reflected real-life user journeys, and a tone of voice that supported our users.

The team visited local offices to observe advice sessions across the country.

Understanding the existing content

Before we could redesign an expansive area of content, we first needed to understand the key areas covered.

We couldn't read through and process hundreds of pages of advice content, so I developed a system to summarise lengthy user journeys.

Using this technique, we skimmed through long sections as a group, quickly noting down the key advice offered on each page.

This technique helped us quickly break down and audit a large volume of existing content

Identifying user needs

Based on our of the existing content, and our experience in local Citizens Advice offices, I worked with user researchers, subject matter experts, and content designers to develop a content plan.

This kept us on track throughout development, and broke up content into logical pages, making sure we covered each key journey we identified.

As we progressed through the project, we added key findings from testing and research

Designing actionable content

I'd familiarised myself with our users' vocabulary during discovery, by observing face-to-face advice sessions, and through online forum research.

Using this vocabulary, and the Citizens Advice brand, I designed optimistic, friendly and supportive advice content that resonated with users.

To test the new content, we revisited local offices and observed sessions as advisers walked users through different problems. This pointed out potential pain points in the new content, and gave us great feedback to iterate.

We also put the content through testing in a lab setting, asking members of the public to walk through the content and solve various problems. Again, this proved invaluable in shaping the final product.