The information on the NBA website needs to walk the line between technical detail and readability. Getting it wrong could affect access to a much-needed product.
The challenge
The NBA came to True North Content, via Doghouse Agency, to upgrade its ageing website, posted on Drupal 7 and no longer supported by GovCMS. The website had little-to-no content governance around information architecture, audiences, readability or content lifecycle. This led to several major issues that needed addressing as part of the upgrade:
- The website had become overly large: With nearly 500 web pages and more than 1,000 attached files, many of which were out of date, the website had become overgrown. There were multiple versions of some key documents, such as the organisation chart and the blood product price list. None of the PDFs complied with the latest Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG), so duplicate DOCX files were also supplied.
- Disparate information about single issues was spread across several pages: No consideration was given to the user journey and little strategic thinking was given to the target audience and their needs. As one health professional from Perth described it, ‘People have to do a lot of reading to find key facts’.
- Pages did not clearly target a specific audience: Pages had little engagement. Google Analytics showed that many URLs received fewer than 100 views in a year.
- Much of the content had a postgraduate or above reading level: Global user research tells us that even highly educated people working in the health sector find it easier to read and understand information that’s written more simply.
- The website had a high overall bounce rate: Many pages were not attracting the most relevant web traffic, and the content wasn’t providing adequate signposts to more relevant information when people landed on a page from a search engine.
Poor content governance can create a lack of credibility, as well as the risk of incorrect information circulating in the community. This is of particular concern in such a technical and regulated industry.
Put simply, the content did not meet audience needs in a clear and simple way. It needed to be condensed and improved.
Our approach
The complexity of this project meant that before we dived into content development, we needed to understand the overall website objectives in the Discovery stage.
We worked alongside Doghouse’s business analyst and designer to review the key material so we could focus on information that met user needs and business goals, rather than migrate all the content.
This stage included:
- a desktop document review
- a content audit
- interviews with staff and key users
- face-to-face focus groups with staff
- website survey and top tasks analysis
- a review of Google Analytics and other website performance data.
By working closely with Doghouse, we could follow a content-early design approach, which meant the content was considered from the start in parallel with the functionality review and information architecture.
It also meant our insights from the Discovery stage fed into Doghouse’s design process. This helped the designers determine what information and content components to include on different templates – like the homepage or resource pages – and the priority order, based on the most popular tasks for users, as well as the client’s own business goals.
From this stage, we could develop a user journey and content plan.
Once we were ready to write content, we set up fortnightly sprints based on the pages we needed to write and the capacity of NBA’s business areas. For example, a few managers were responsible for most of the pages, and we wanted to avoid overloading them with too many pages to review at once.
Each sprint had 3 weeks of briefing and 3 weeks of drafting (writing and revising). The goal of each sprint was to deliver an accurate page to the content owner for sign-off.
Five things worked really well on this project:
- Content removal plan: Instead of migrating everything, we agreed on a content removal plan with the client. From this, we developed an archiving policy and identified which files to migrate to the new website.
- Clear briefing: A senior content designer worked with SMEs to create clear writer’s briefs. This involved gathering all relevant source material, including attached files, and developing a page outline. This gave our writers a good understanding of what we needed, saving them time they would otherwise have spent searching for source material.
- Assigning writers to topics: We assigned the same writer to pages about the same complex topic over multiple sprints. For example, one writer concentrated on all content about immunoglobulin.
- Pair writing: We worked with the client on pair writing sessions for complex topics. These sessions allowed a senior True North Content writer, or a lead writer, to work with an NBA subject matter expert via Microsoft Teams to refine content.
- Consistent editorial: A senior content designer worked as the sole editor throughout the project, ensuring all content was written to style and met readability standards.
This process gave everyone a clear role and allowed us to save time in the workflow.
Outside the writing process, we also met weekly with the NBA project team to address concerns and ensure flexibility. For example, we occasionally needed to juggle the pages in a fortnightly sprint due to illness or holidays.
The result
We delivered a significantly better website experience for both staff and users. By the end of the project, we’d delivered:
This work reduced the NBA website from more than 500 pages, ensuring less cognitive overload for the audience.
In most cases, we improved page readability by at least 3 grade levels. For example, we wrote:
- a technical page about immunoglobulin governance to a Grade 9 reading level, as opposed to Grade 14+ for its source pages
- the technical page about transfusion-related adverse events (haemovigilance) to a Grade 9 reading level, as opposed to Grade 16+ for its source pages
- a page about the role of the NBA to a Grade 6 reading level, as opposed to Grade 10 for the source page
- a page about how to apply for a job at the NBA to a Grade 7 reading level, as opposed to Grade 10 for the source page.
Data and research page: content before and after
Bleeding disorders page: content before and after
In the month after launching the new website, Google Analytics shows that key engagement metrics increased significantly – average engagement time by 27%, engaged sessions by 15% and average engagement time per session by 14%.
