Introducing content design principles to BBC HR

Challenge

BBC HR was receiving negative feedback about its online services and guidance.

I led a project to explore how we might lead users to useful solutions and support.

CLIENT

BBC 

INDUSTRY

Media

TEAM

HR SMEs, Internal Communications

MY SERVICES

Content Strategy, Information Architecture, Stakeholder Management, Facilitation, Prototyping

What I did

  • Audited HR core services and workflows
  • Defined user needs and pain points
  • Defined user journeys
  • Analysed term sets and plain language
  • Designed templates and style guidance

Take time to learn

Our discovery focused on how HR teams completed tasks and why.

I arranged interviews and workshops with subject experts and stakeholders to explore their opinions and how they contributed to specific use cases.

I also audited pages, user feedback, site analytics, and Service Centre data to put the user's needs into context.

Explore the blockers

I worked with subject experts to define the current workflows as blueprints.

This helped me visualise our pain points and define their impact on the service.

maternity-leave-blueprint

Define user needs

Design is a team sport!

Definition and Ideation were delivered in a series of workshops.

I led teams through design thinking to explore how we identify needs, define requirements, and use patterns to solve blockers.

By socialising this design thinking editors and stakeholders had a stake in the way content was reviewed and improved. 

Learn fast with live pages

Out workshops revealed a need for common content types to serve our use cases.

We used lofi prototypes to co-create patterns and optimise them through review sessions.

This was also a great time to explore the use of plain language and numbers and how it served our internal tone of voice.

We published the pages early to learn from real users.

I used our internal analytics and feedback functions to collect data. This data was a great way to give practical context for crits sessions and to shape how we approached continual improvement. 

Build consistency with operations

Good, early results helped me tell a positive story.

I used this opportunity to promote key principles in simple terms.

I worked with the BBC's Central Editorial team to develop an internal style guide; taking the lead from the current BBC master brand.

Results

This project delivered structured and simple ways for BBC HR to put users first.

This resulted in their online guidance gaining a 20% like-for-like increase in positive feedback.

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