Before everyone goes away for a well earned break, I thought I would summarise 10 months of blog posts into 8 bitesize tips.
Warning: this post may contain puns, tenuous festive references and cheesy rhymes.
1. Avoid giving an unwanted gift…
Create user stories and give your content a lift
Try and have a user or job story for each page of your website to ensure all your content is wanted.
Related post
2. Write out your cards and put up your tree…
A card sort or tree test with users is neat
Card sorting is a great way to get your users involved and to give you an idea of how they think and group content.
Related posts
3. Making a list and checking it twice…
Carry out an audit of your pages is nice
When you are planning a website redesign you should always audit your current site to see what you have to work with.
Related posts
4. You don’t have to pull a cracker on your own…
Write with someone else and set the tone
Pair writing with a subject matter expert will help you to understand their subject and you can help them explain it to more a general audience.
Read more about pair writing
5. golden things!
Before you write any new content, ask yourself these 5 important questions:
- Who is my audience?
- Why am I writing this document?
- How will my reader use this information?
- How should I present the information?
- How am I going to measure success?
6. It’s beginning to look a lot like…
A competitor analysis
As part of your research, It’s useful to look at how your direct competitors are communicating to similar audiences.
Related post
Techniques: competitor analysis
7. Make sure you are on his good list…
Have accessible content. You get the gist!
Use descriptive headings and links in your copy and alternative text for your images.
Read more about accessible content
8. Deck the halls with Imperial photography!
Did you know that there are over 150,000 images on Imperial’s Asset Library? Use these to enhance your web pages.
I wish everyone a lovely break, and a happy new year!
Animated image via GIPHY showing Santa flying through a snowy scene on his sleigh pulled by his reindeer.