Everything we publish should meet a user need. A user need is what somebody wants to achieve when they visit the Office for National Statistics (ONS) website. This should be based on evidence and not assumption.
If you write with users’ needs in mind, it will be easier for people to get the information they need from your content. They will also be more likely to use your data correctly.
Consider who your users are before you start writing. User personas are evidence-based characterisations of the types of people who use the ONS website. They can help you understand who your users are. These can range from expert users to inquiring citizens.
It can be easy to make assumptions about users that may be wrong. Users will have different levels of knowledge and education, backgrounds and needs from your content. There will also often be other factors that influence their needs and behaviours, such as time constraints or the device they are using.
Remember that you are not the user. Your stakeholders may not be your primary user or make up the largest part of your audience.
To define your users’ needs, put yourself in the position of the user. Ask yourself who they are, what they need, and why they need it. This will improve your understanding of what they want or need to achieve when visiting your content.
Here is a template that can help you to define a user need:
Here is an example we could use at the ONS:
For each piece of content that you write, you might need to define a few different user needs to reflect the different types of users visiting your page. You may need to consider several needs when planning your content.
When writing and structuring your content, think about how a user need could be met. For example, the user need is met for the previous example when the user can access the weekly deaths data quickly and use the data in their article.
This allows us to explore multiple ideas for how the user may get this information.
Try not to include a solution when defining your user need. This is known as “solutionising” and can lead to assumptions about your audience. It can prevent you from finding a better way of meeting the user need.
In our example, a solutionised outcome could be:
“The user need is met when the user can download an Excel file quickly.”
In this case, we have made assumptions about how users want to access the information. Excel may not be the best format for an inquiring citizen using a mobile device.
Research shows that all users want clear, accessible, jargon-free content, written in plain English. This is regardless of their level of knowledge or expertise.
Users want to be able to find the information they need as quickly as possible. In 2021, the average user on the ONS website spent two minutes on a page, with most users leaving after reading the first section of the page.
You should prioritise the most important things your users need to know by using the inverted pyramid structure.
People do not usually read content unless they are looking for information, so if what you have written does not meet the user need, you can probably leave it out.
We find out about our users and their needs through:
Using these tools, we can find out:
Card sort exercises can also help us to understand our users’ expectations and what topics or information they find most useful. This can help to inform the structure of our content.
We have a sample of users who test our content and provide us with feedback and observations about how they found using our website. This can help us to understand what users like or find easy to use on a page, as well as what they dislike or find difficult to use.
It can also help us to identify things that may be missed or misunderstood. We can use this feedback to improve the language and design of the content to better meet the needs of users.
As a public organisation, it is important that our content is understandable and accessible to all users.
By writing content with your users in mind, you will help them have a positive experience and achieve what they set out to do when visiting your page.
Users engage more with clear and informative content. They are more likely to read more of a page or share your content on social media. Ultimately, user-centred content will better inform the public and increase trust and interest in your statistics.
If you are unsure who your users are or how to write for their needs, the Content Design team will be able to help you. Email content.design@ons.gov.uk
Next topic: Structuring content