When setting out to create content – a report, a webpage, a brochure – it’s common to think first about your own aims and processes. How should I write this? What information do I want people to know? What do I need to include?
But a key thing to remember is that effective content development goes beyond these questions.
Content is the essential link between you and your audience. For it to be effective, the presentation of the information must be shaped by audience needs and capacity.
By knowing your audiences, you can tailor your content to meet their needs, and increase their understanding and engagement.
Seeing from your audience’s point of view
Throughout content development, it’s important to step back and see your content from the audience’s point of view. Think about your audience in terms of:
- What they want to know
- What they already know
- How they might feel about this information
- Where they want, or expect, to find this information
- What they might need to do with the information you are providing
- What questions they might have
Putting yourself in the audience’s shoes can shape what you include in the content and how you structure it.
There’s no one right way to meet your audience needs. But thinking about a few key areas and the strategies you might use can help:
- Information
– What do your audiences want to know and what do they already know? For example, if you are developing content about the government’s vaccination programs
– Content for health professionals might include demographic information about the uptake of vaccines, and details about vaccine effectiveness and vaccine side effects
– Content for parents might be the ages at which their children should have each type of vaccination, the diseases that vaccines protect against and why vaccination is important.
- Language
– What is the language and educational level of your audience? What level of readability should you aim for?
Government content generally aims for a reading level of Year 7, but you may need a higher or lower level depending on your audience. - Pathways and products
Do you need to present the same information to different audiences? You can:
– ‘Layer’ the same information in different formats within the same piece of content (eg a summary box at the start of a chapter or webpage, and more detailed information further down)
– Develop separate pieces of content (eg a fact sheet for the general public and a more detailed report for researchers)
– Develop separate navigation pathways (eg labelling online content as ‘For patients’ and ‘For practitioners’).
Testing with your audience is also critical to ensure that your content suits your users. Check the structure, words and visuals with members of your audience and adjust until they all work – that is, until the users are engaged and can easily understand the information.
Meeting diverse needs
Australian audiences come from a wide variety of cultural and educational backgrounds. These must be considered to create content that meets the needs of a diverse society. Content that is clear and understandable, using plain language, is critical to help people access information about things that matter to them.
For example, consider those who may have lower levels of English competency. Although Australia is officially an English-speaking country, about 1 in 5 Australian families speak another language at home. In addition, the average level of literacy in Australia is lower than you might expect.
On a scale of 0 to 5 (set by the Programme for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies), almost half of people surveyed (45%) registered below the minimum comprehension level needed for adult everyday reading.
You should also consider whether members of your audiences have special needs. For example, you can adjust your text and visuals to better support people with visual impairment.
Plain language also supports accessibility because it works well with assistive devices and is easier to translate.
Building audience trust
Users tend to trust content that provides the information they need in a way they can understand. Well-designed content using plain language will connect with your users.
Plain English is more than just avoiding technical words, long sentences and passive voice. When you want your message to be understood and acted on, more subjective elements like tone and familiar language also have an impact.
These less-talked-about aspects of plain English can improve your communication and help build trust with your audience.
The tone of your content can be:
- Formal (abstract and impersonal), such as Voting papers must be submitted by postal voters at least 5 working days before the election day
- Neutral (familiar words, impersonal but direct), such as Postal voters should send in their voting forms at least 1 week before the election
- Conversational (simple language talking directly to the user), such as If you’re sending in a postal vote, don’t wait until the last minute – send it at least 1 week before the election.
For government organisations, the best-practice guidance for most content is to use neutral or conversational voice and style.
Avoiding unfamiliar words and phrases will help your audience understand your message. Sometimes it’s easy to get too close to a topic, and think that everyone understands the terms that are familiar to you.
Jargon is the main type of unfamiliar term that plain English tries to avoid. The reasons for this are clear – most of the time, audiences are not technically trained in the subject matter of a piece of writing.
But even common phrases can be further simplified to be really clear to a general audience (eg compare ‘healthcare practitioner’ with ‘doctor’ – which is easier to understand if English is not your first language?).
Other types of unfamiliar terms can also make writing difficult to understand and relate to, such as cultural phrases. ‘Bring a plate’ is understood in many Australian communities to mean ‘bring a plate of food to share’, but that is not what the words actually say, and people from other cultural backgrounds may interpret it literally.
Read your content carefully to find pitfalls in terminology. Test terms with friends, colleagues and, if possible, your target audience.
Remember..
Think about:
- What your audience wants to know (not just what you want to tell them)
- What your audience understands (not what you understand)
- What language your audience uses (not what you or your organisation use).
Learn more
- Find more guidance on communicating complex content in Biotext’s Quick guide to effective content.
- Keep an eye on Biotext training courses, we run short online workshops on writing and editing complex content, and data literacy and data visualisation.
- Subscribe to the Australian manual of style to access detailed guidance on clearly communicating complex and technical information.
