By Adrián Ortega, content designer at the Centre for Digital Public Services in Wales.

⬅️ Read my previous weeknotes

Another week, another round of testing on the horizon.

A few quick related and unrelated thoughts about what’s been happening since my last weeknotes:

• We’re testing the service manual prototype again next week. I’m excited after working on it with my interaction designer and user researcher, I think it’s starting to feel in an okay place to show people. I’m also hoping to have a live beta sooner than originally expected!
• A couple of months ago, I co-designed considerations about including the Welsh language in research. It’ll be incorporated into the service manual when the time is right, but Considering the Welsh language in your research is now live.
• Our team has run a few design and content crits within the organisation now to show the service manual prototype and content. It’s great that we’re putting my ideas into practice: they’re enjoyed and appreciated by people across the organisation. And that we can be the ones to show and encourage more collaborative and open ways of working.
• But I’ve also realised that, as the only content designer in the team, I’m forced to focus on the writing and miss out on the strategic and collaborative parts of my job which are the ones I enjoy the most: planning, facilitating workshops, running crits and testing content, etc.
• I need a regular reminder from my colleague Liam that I can only do my best with what I’m given, and if that’s what I do, that’s ‘a bloody good job’ regardless of the outcome. It does take a village to do some things, and it can be pretty exhausting.
• Have been thinking a lot lately about trust and people who are a safe pair of hands: those who can be relied on, and they just get things done without supervision, nudging or checking.
• This week I published the blog post Beyond trio writing: other ways to collaborate with translators. I talk about different ways that I’ve involved translators and other people in the development of content in the service manual project to improve information in both Welsh and English.
• I enjoyed my time away at the end of last month. We spent it in Copenhagen, and visited a couple of places around, including Lund and Malmo in Sweden, and the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art. (We also sailed for a bit in a Viking ship).
• Nia and I’ve been writing about ‘communication debt’ or ‘information debt’ for the next newsletter. It’s something that I’ll look to expand in future, but I thought I’d give it a start. Like technical and (more closely) design debt, what we communicate or don’t may create a debt that will need repaying in future.
• A good example of this is the alarming lack of context information when onboarding someone into an organisation, team or project. Especially when someone proactive, enthustiastic and new joins, assuming that they know how things work.
• There’s plenty of value in bringing fresh eyes to things, but also to know there’s a shared understanding and history developed together which explains why decisions were made, how we got here, why we didn’t go that other route you’re suggesting and so on. Context is king, and onboarding people with the right information at the right time is fundamental but often overlooked.
• Content is the currency of knowledge and information in any organisation (especially remote ones). We’re all creating it all the time, generally without much thought. It’s seen as something that anyone can do well yet there’s a reason why it causes so many problems. Communicating well is a mindset as well as a skillset that unfortunately that takes more than a 2-day course.

⬅️ Read my previous week notes