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Content designer

Find out what a content designer in government does and the skills you need to do the role at each level.

Last updated 17 March 2021 — See all updates

What a content designer does

Content designers make things easier for people to understand and use. This can involve working on a single piece of content or on the end-to-end journey of a service to help users complete their goal and government deliver a policy intent. In this role your work may involve the creation of, or change to, a transaction, product or single piece of content that stretches across digital and offline channels.

In this role, you will:

  • make sure appropriate content is shown to a user in the right place and in the best format
  • start from discovery and work closely with user researchers, service designers and interaction designers

Content designer role levels

There are 6 content designer role levels, from associate content designer to head of content design.

The typical responsibilities and skills for each role level are described in the sections below. You can use this to identify the skills you need to progress in your career, or simply to learn more about each role in the Government Digital and Data profession.

1. Associate content designer

As a trainee in an entry-level position, working under supervision, you need aptitude, potential and an understanding of the role. You will perform basic standard checks and copy edits.

This role level is often performed at the Civil Service job grade of:

  • AO (Administrative Officer)
  • EO (Executive Officer)
Skill Description

Agile working (content design)

Level: working

Working is the second of 4 ascending skill levels

You can:

  • demonstrate experience of working in Agile teams, including an awareness of Agile tools and how to use them
  • advise colleagues on how and why Agile methods are used and provide a clear, open and transparent framework in which teams can deliver
  • adapt and reflect and be responsive to feedback
  • see outside of the process

Content concepts and prototyping

Level: awareness

Awareness is the first of 4 ascending skill levels

You can:

  • show an awareness of prototyping and explain why and when to use it
  • understand how to work in an open and collaborative environment (by pair working, for example)

Stakeholder relationship management (content design)

Level: awareness

Awareness is the first of 4 ascending skill levels

You can:

  • understand who your stakeholders are, what evidence is relevant to them and the importance of managing relationships with them

Strategic thinking (content design)

Level: awareness

Awareness is the first of 4 ascending skill levels

You can:

  • show an awareness of the strategic context of your work and understand why it is important
  • support strategic planning in an administrative capacity

User focus (content design)

Level: awareness

Awareness is the first of 4 ascending skill levels

You can:

  • show an awareness or understanding of user experience analysis and its principles
  • see the purpose of user stories and focus on user needs

User-centred content design

Level: awareness

Awareness is the first of 4 ascending skill levels

You can:

  • demonstrate basic but decent editorial standards
  • show an awareness of style standards
  • work well under supervision

2. Junior content designer

A junior content designer is a graduate with a degree in a relevant subject or an individual with some relevant work experience in content creation.

At this role level, you will:

  • explain content decisions
  • work collaboratively
  • work independently after being given direction by more senior content designers
  • independently identify user issues and needs
  • support content team administration and publishing processes
  • engage with and contribute to the cross-government content community

This role level is often performed at the Civil Service job grade of:

  • EO (Executive Officer)
  • HEO (Higher Executive Officer)
Skill Description

Agile working (content design)

Level: working

Working is the second of 4 ascending skill levels

You can:

  • demonstrate experience of working in Agile teams, including an awareness of Agile tools and how to use them
  • advise colleagues on how and why Agile methods are used and provide a clear, open and transparent framework in which teams can deliver
  • adapt and reflect and be responsive to feedback
  • see outside of the process

Content concepts and prototyping

Level: awareness

Awareness is the first of 4 ascending skill levels

You can:

  • show an awareness of prototyping and explain why and when to use it
  • understand how to work in an open and collaborative environment (by pair working, for example)

Stakeholder relationship management (content design)

Level: awareness

Awareness is the first of 4 ascending skill levels

You can:

  • understand who your stakeholders are, what evidence is relevant to them and the importance of managing relationships with them

Strategic thinking (content design)

Level: working

Working is the second of 4 ascending skill levels

You can:

  • support the creation and development of strategies and policies
  • contribute to iterating and improving processes and guidelines
  • understand how activities meet strategic goals

User focus (content design)

Level: awareness

Awareness is the first of 4 ascending skill levels

You can:

  • show an awareness or understanding of user experience analysis and its principles
  • see the purpose of user stories and focus on user needs

User-centred content design

Level: awareness

Awareness is the first of 4 ascending skill levels

You can:

  • demonstrate basic but decent editorial standards
  • show an awareness of style standards
  • work well under supervision

3. Content designer

A content designer is responsible for creating, evaluating, updating and reviewing content at all stages of the end-to-end user journey.

At this role level, you will:

  • be comfortable using evidence, data and research to make content decisions
  • build relationships across government to focus on the needs of the user and to influence stakeholders
  • contribute to and use the style guides and content patterns
  • engage with and contribute to the cross-government content community

This role level is often performed at the Civil Service job grade of:

  • HEO (Higher Executive Officer)
  • SEO (Senior Executive Officer)
Skill Description

Agile working (content design)

Level: practitioner

Practitioner is the third of 4 ascending skill levels

You can:

  • understand and demonstrate awareness of Agile methodology, and can apply an Agile mindset to your work
  • work in a fast-paced, evolving environment and use an iterative and flexible approach to enable rapid delivery
  • appreciate the importance of Agile project delivery to digital projects in government
  • be unafraid to take risks and willing to learn from mistakes
  • ensure the team has a situational awareness of one other’s work and how it relates to objectives and user needs
  • use a range of tools and platforms to plan and manage your work

Content concepts and prototyping

Level: working

Working is the second of 4 ascending skill levels

You can:

  • understand different prototyping techniques, from paper sketches to coded prototypes, and can use them to visualise content in context
  • choose the best option to make content understandable to different audiences and to demonstrate a proposed approach to content changes or improvements
  • show the value of prototyping to the team

Stakeholder relationship management (content design)

Level: working

Working is the second of 4 ascending skill levels

You can:

  • identify important stakeholders and communicate with them clearly and regularly
  • tailor communication to stakeholders' needs and work with them to build relationships, while also meeting user needs
  • build and reach consensus
  • work to improve stakeholder relationships, using evidence to explain decisions made

Strategic thinking (content design)

Level: practitioner

Practitioner is the third of 4 ascending skill levels

You can:

  • contribute to content strategies and policies
  • create content patterns or standards
  • provide support for content improvement projects
  • effectively focus on outcomes rather than solutions and activities

User focus (content design)

Level: working

Working is the second of 4 ascending skill levels

You can:

  • identify tasks that will provide insights into a problem
  • formulate hypotheses, gain insights from data and user research and make decisions on findings
  • understand the range of different users who might access content and services, and can identify their needs based on evidence
  • translate user stories into content that meets users’ needs, and propose suitable design approaches
  • use quantitative and qualitative data about users to turn user insights into outcomes

User-centred content design

Level: working

Working is the second of 4 ascending skill levels

You can:

  • design content to meet user needs and make complex language and processes easy to understand
  • present the right information in the right format for what users need
  • show robust experience in writing, editing and publishing digital content, and experience in using content management systems and content production processes to publish content
  • write in plain language in a way that users understand, making information accessible to all
  • understand government accessibility requirements and design content that works with common assistive technologies
  • use data, research and evidence to review and evaluate content to make improvements
  • consistently and effectively apply content standards and style guidelines to your work
  • work to continuously improve content, and understand why content life cycle management is important
  • work autonomously

4. Senior content designer

A senior content designer is an expert practitioner who develops content strategy and solutions for large-scale problems and high-profile events.

At this role level, you will:

  • take responsibility for content quality, manage small teams and mentor content colleagues
  • write and map user stories
  • review the work of others to assure quality
  • lead on cross-government content projects
  • engage with and contribute to the cross-government content community

This role level is often performed at the Civil Service job grade of:

  • SEO (Senior Executive Officer)
  • G7 (Grade 7)
Skill Description

Agile working (content design)

Level: practitioner

Practitioner is the third of 4 ascending skill levels

You can:

  • understand and demonstrate awareness of Agile methodology, and can apply an Agile mindset to your work
  • work in a fast-paced, evolving environment and use an iterative and flexible approach to enable rapid delivery
  • appreciate the importance of Agile project delivery to digital projects in government
  • be unafraid to take risks and willing to learn from mistakes
  • ensure the team has a situational awareness of one other’s work and how it relates to objectives and user needs
  • use a range of tools and platforms to plan and manage your work

Content concepts and prototyping

Level: practitioner

Practitioner is the third of 4 ascending skill levels

You can:

  • build and create a variety of different prototypes, from paper sketches to coded prototypes
  • choose the most appropriate option to visualise content in context for different audiences
  • effectively combine prototypes with other content and design outputs to test with users and show to stakeholders
  • establish content patterns, and test and iterate them

Stakeholder relationship management (content design)

Level: practitioner

Practitioner is the third of 4 ascending skill levels

You can:

  • negotiate with and influence stakeholders, and manage relationships effectively
  • influence decisions, deal with challenging situations and remove blockers
  • build long-term strategic relationships and communicate clearly and regularly with stakeholders, supporting mutual needs and commitments while focusing on user needs

Strategic thinking (content design)

Level: expert

Expert is the fourth of 4 ascending skill levels

You can:

  • help lead the design and implementation of strategies, evaluating their impact and progress to ensure business objectives and the needs of users are being met
  • lead and direct strategic content improvement projects, focusing effort in the areas of greatest priority and ensuring goals and objectives are met

User focus (content design)

Level: practitioner

Practitioner is the third of 4 ascending skill levels

You can:

  • collaborate with user researchers and performance analysts to advocate effectively for users
  • understand the different types of user research, evidence and data and how they’re used at different stages of product development (alpha, beta, live)
  • formulate hypotheses, gain insights from research and make decisions based on findings, clearly explaining how decisions have been made
  • evaluate quantitative and qualitative data and can prioritise and define approaches to best understand users
  • champion user research to focus on all users
  • put accessibility requirements at the heart of approaches to designing content, and encourage others to do the same
  • guide others and make recommendations on the best tools and methods to use

User-centred content design

Level: practitioner

Practitioner is the third of 4 ascending skill levels

You can:

  • show a deep understanding of end-to-end journeys and how content is affected within these journeys
  • identify where journey fixes or content improvements need to be made
  • take responsibility for assuring the quality of content from more junior colleagues, and coaching and guiding them to improve
  • ensure that content is regularly reviewed and evaluated, contributing to continuous improvements and iteration
  • encourage a continuous improvement mindset in teams and more junior content colleagues
  • deliver through others, and direct and critique their work

5. Lead content designer

A lead content designer is an expert practitioner and leader who directs a team of content designers. They assure the content quality across whole teams and make sure content aligns to strategy and objectives while meeting the needs of users.

At this role level, you will:

  • work closely with service managers, programme directors and senior stakeholders to resource teams, resolve problems and develop future projects
  • promote the content design discipline, engage with the cross-government community and keep up to date with industry changes

This role level is often performed at the Civil Service job grade of:

  • G7 (Grade 7)
  • G6 (Grade 6)
Skill Description

Agile working (content design)

Level: expert

Expert is the fourth of 4 ascending skill levels

You can:

  • coach and lead teams in Agile and Lean practices, determining the right approach for the team or the project
  • evaluate and review the approach through the life of a project and can iterate and pivot accordingly
  • think of new and innovative ways of working to achieve the right outcomes
  • act as a recognised expert and advocate the approaches proposed, continuously reflecting on the work of the team and constructively challenging them to improve processes and delivery
  • regularly assess and review capability within teams and ensure individuals have the skills needed to deliver

Content concepts and prototyping

Level: working

Working is the second of 4 ascending skill levels

You can:

  • understand different prototyping techniques, from paper sketches to coded prototypes, and can use them to visualise content in context
  • choose the best option to make content understandable to different audiences and to demonstrate a proposed approach to content changes or improvements
  • show the value of prototyping to the team

Stakeholder relationship management (content design)

Level: expert

Expert is the fourth of 4 ascending skill levels

You can:

  • manage long-term strategic relationships with stakeholders, identifying where new connections need to be made and existing ones nurtured
  • direct the strategic approach for stakeholder relationships, establishing stakeholder objectives and ensuring these are clearly represented
  • act as a point of escalation if stakeholder relationships break down or become challenging for more junior members of the team
  • influence important senior stakeholders and arbitrate when blockers are escalated
  • facilitate discussions across high risk and complex areas or projects under constrained timelines

Strategic thinking (content design)

Level: expert

Expert is the fourth of 4 ascending skill levels

You can:

  • help lead the design and implementation of strategies, evaluating their impact and progress to ensure business objectives and the needs of users are being met
  • lead and direct strategic content improvement projects, focusing effort in the areas of greatest priority and ensuring goals and objectives are met

User focus (content design)

Level: expert

Expert is the fourth of 4 ascending skill levels

You can:

  • give direction on which tools or methods are best for teams to use
  • demonstrate extensive experience in meeting the needs of users across a variety of channels
  • understand complex user journeys and can direct solutions to meet different needs within these journeys
  • bring insight and expertise in how user needs have changed over time to ensure these are still relevant and being met
  • apply strategic thinking in how to provide the best service for the user while also considering business needs and the wider cross-government context

User-centred content design

Level: expert

Expert is the fourth of 4 ascending skill levels

You can:

  • direct the approach to content life cycle management to ensure content is regularly reviewed and evaluated by teams
  • oversee teams’ work to ensure the right content is being produced to meet the needs of users
  • demonstrate extensive experience in creating, iterating, managing and overseeing content across multiple channels
  • encourage teams to review and evaluate the effectiveness of processes and systems, and support them to iterate for improvements
  • be accountable for the production of high quality, user-focused content
  • identify gaps in content design skills and capability, and can help teams to grow and develop

6. Head of content design

A head of content design is an expert practitioner with broad industry experience who can define and assure best practice while influencing, leading and mentoring others.

At this role level, you will:

  • develop a strategy for content that meets the organisation’s objectives
  • lead a team capable of executing that strategy
  • work with senior stakeholders to influence organisational strategy
  • prioritise and collaborate with counterpart colleagues across government
  • champion good content design practice within government and industry

This role level is often performed at the Civil Service job grade of:

  • G6 (Grade 6)
Skill Description

Agile working (content design)

Level: expert

Expert is the fourth of 4 ascending skill levels

You can:

  • coach and lead teams in Agile and Lean practices, determining the right approach for the team or the project
  • evaluate and review the approach through the life of a project and can iterate and pivot accordingly
  • think of new and innovative ways of working to achieve the right outcomes
  • act as a recognised expert and advocate the approaches proposed, continuously reflecting on the work of the team and constructively challenging them to improve processes and delivery
  • regularly assess and review capability within teams and ensure individuals have the skills needed to deliver

Content concepts and prototyping

Level: awareness

Awareness is the first of 4 ascending skill levels

You can:

  • show an awareness of prototyping and explain why and when to use it
  • understand how to work in an open and collaborative environment (by pair working, for example)

Stakeholder relationship management (content design)

Level: expert

Expert is the fourth of 4 ascending skill levels

You can:

  • manage long-term strategic relationships with stakeholders, identifying where new connections need to be made and existing ones nurtured
  • direct the strategic approach for stakeholder relationships, establishing stakeholder objectives and ensuring these are clearly represented
  • act as a point of escalation if stakeholder relationships break down or become challenging for more junior members of the team
  • influence important senior stakeholders and arbitrate when blockers are escalated
  • facilitate discussions across high risk and complex areas or projects under constrained timelines

Strategic thinking (content design)

Level: expert

Expert is the fourth of 4 ascending skill levels

You can:

  • help lead the design and implementation of strategies, evaluating their impact and progress to ensure business objectives and the needs of users are being met
  • lead and direct strategic content improvement projects, focusing effort in the areas of greatest priority and ensuring goals and objectives are met

User focus (content design)

Level: expert

Expert is the fourth of 4 ascending skill levels

You can:

  • give direction on which tools or methods are best for teams to use
  • demonstrate extensive experience in meeting the needs of users across a variety of channels
  • understand complex user journeys and can direct solutions to meet different needs within these journeys
  • bring insight and expertise in how user needs have changed over time to ensure these are still relevant and being met
  • apply strategic thinking in how to provide the best service for the user while also considering business needs and the wider cross-government context

User-centred content design

Level: expert

Expert is the fourth of 4 ascending skill levels

You can:

  • direct the approach to content life cycle management to ensure content is regularly reviewed and evaluated by teams
  • oversee teams’ work to ensure the right content is being produced to meet the needs of users
  • demonstrate extensive experience in creating, iterating, managing and overseeing content across multiple channels
  • encourage teams to review and evaluate the effectiveness of processes and systems, and support them to iterate for improvements
  • be accountable for the production of high quality, user-focused content
  • identify gaps in content design skills and capability, and can help teams to grow and develop
Role Shared skills
Content strategist

User-centred content design

Technical writer

User-centred content design

Updates

Published 7 January 2020

Last updated 17 March 2021

17 March 2021

  • We have updated the guidance about what a content designer does and the skills you need to do the role. This page now shows the most up to date skills needed to be a content designer in government.

7 January 2020

  • First published.