Consultants help Natural Resources Wales boost user-driven content

Natural Resources Wales decided to boost its design and strategy capabilities, to help accelerate user-centred content and help boost engagement in its environmental activities. To do this, it brought in user research, content design, content strategy and service delivery expertise from three professional services firms: dxw, Crocstar and Basis.

As the largest Welsh Government sponsored body, Natural Resources Wales (NRW) advises on the country’s environment, helping to ensure that all natural resources are sustainably maintained and used now, and in the future. One of NRW’s major roles is managing the Welsh Government-owned woodland estate, which covers 6% of land in Wales and plays a vital role in the country’s environment and economy.

The estate helps to tackle climate change by locking up carbon, it provides valuable habitats for plants and great spaces for recreation. It provides a good supply of timber, which supports employment and rural livelihoods. This includes advice and regulatory guidance for businesses, landowners, farmers, schools and policy specialists – all of which needs to be updated to reflect the legislative landscape. 

With an array of different users and a relatively small digital team, NRW wanted to find a partner to boost its content design and strategy capabilities. Using its woodland creation content as a testbed, NRW wanted to accelerate the creation of more user-centred content and embed content design practices throughout the organisation.

Heledd Evans, Digital Services Team Leader at Natural Resources Wales, explained, “Although we already had content design capabilities in-house, demand far outweighed capacity. We also found there was a disconnect between the needs of our users and some of the guidance being produced by internal contributors. There was a culture of creating content and using the website as a library, which meant our website saw little engagement. We see a huge impact on the organisation as a result - as resources go into dealing with calls from customers who can’t find or apply for the right thing online.”

NRW needed a multidisciplinary team with a range of skills including user research, content design, content strategy and service delivery. They appointed a group of specialists from dxw, Crocstar and Basis who shared the same user-centred values, brought agile skills and could work on the project bilingually.

At the time, agile working was still in its infancy at NRW but the digital service team were keen to use the woodland creation project as a means of demonstrating itsvalue. dxw – an employee-owned digital design and strategy consultancy formed in 2008 – led the delivery and established a fortnightly cycle of sprints to effectively manage the project, increase transparency and build a continuous learning environment. By actively testing, learning and iterating the team were able to gain a better understanding of the service and the needs of users.

Going into the project, the specification focused on content design and delivery to support the in-house digital team and accelerate the creation of content. However, it soon became clear that additional user research would be required to understand the different motivations and needs of users.

Basis – a London-based business consultancy – carried out the user research and gathered insights to gain a deeper understanding of the issues with the current website and how it could be improved. Given the technical and complex nature of the content, Basis also engaged with subject matter experts and policy specialists throughout the project.

A new approach to creating bilingual content

Crocstar – a design and strategy agency founded in 2007 – provided content design and content strategy for the project to ensure NRW’s woodland creation services met the needs of all users. All user research and content design activities were carried out bilingually to not only serve the Welsh speaking community but also NRW’s English-speaking users.

It’s very common for services and content to be designed and created in English, then translated into Welsh. The user research highlighted that certain technical terms would resonate in one language, better than the other. So as part of the content design process, Basis and Crocstar developed a new approach to creating bilingual content – trio writing.

Traditional approaches often see translation towards the end of the content workflow. This means the ‘first’ language gets more attention and leaves little to no time to iterate and improve the ‘second’ language. Turning this on its head, the team formed a content writing trio made up of a content designer, user researcher and translator. User needs were prioritised and married together with insights from the research and examples of where the translated content hadn’t quite hit the mark with Welsh speaking users. This meant the right language was selected for the content – not just the perfect translation.

Through a series of meetings and workshops, subject matter experts and other key stakeholders were given an insight into user-centred and agile approaches, so they understood their value not just for the project but also across the organisation.

Crocstar developed a content and publishing manual that explained how content should be created, signed off and managed. The manual provided the digital services team at NRW with a streamlined and consistent way of creating content, but also increased transparency around the content creation process. To ensure the long-term sustainability and standards of the content strategy, Crocstar trained subject matter experts and internal content contributors in basic content design methodology.

Creating the right conditions

The work carried out by Basis, Crocstar and dxw has laid the foundations for NRW’s service transformation and the delivery of user-centred services. By working openly and collaboratively, the team built a foundation of trust, positioning themselves as independent and positive agents of change. Establishing an agile working rhythm that made the most of everyone’s expertise and shared progress through show and tells, helped subject matter experts at NRW gain more understanding of the work and motivations of the digital service team. While also reinforcing the digital skills and capabilities of the in-house content designers and building their confidence.

Heledd concludes, “Initially we engaged with the team to improve our content design and strategy capabilities, but the work they did for us was beyond our expectations. There were various key stakeholders and subject matter experts who needed to be bought into the project. The Basis, Crocstar and dxw team facilitated interactions, creating a safe space that allowed people with different mindsets and objectives to understand and listen to one another, work together, and come to a consensus. The expertise and care they brought to the project helped us to achieve those lightbulb moments and commit to agile user centred practices”.

Following the project, the Natural Resources Wales team has been sharing best practice amongst the Welsh digital and content creation communities. Trio writing has been established as a methodology for designing and creating bilingual content, and the Centre for Digital Public Services Wales has since released a book called Trio Writing, by Joanna Goodwin and Adrián Ortega, to help spread the use of the practice across the public sector in Wales.