Work · BBC

Intro to content design training

Creating the BBC's first content design course, for a department with far more designers than content designers.

Organisation
BBC
Year
2023
In a word
Iterating

The challenge

Our content design team was small: 6 content designers in a UX department of over 150 people. That meant most product teams didn't have a content designer.

So another senior content designer and I set out to help our fellow designers tackle problems the way a content designer would, and feel more confident writing clear, accessible and consistent content. The result was "Intro to content design", the BBC's first content design training course.

My contribution

We created and delivered the course together.

  • Making it official: we worked with BBC Academy to get the course formally signed off, so anyone could apply through the BBC's learning portal.
  • Launching it: we unveiled the course on an all-department call, and got 85 sign-ups in 5 minutes.
  • Piloting and improving: we ran a pilot with 15 participants, gathered feedback during and after, and used it to develop a second version of the course.

The outcome

The pilot got overwhelmingly positive feedback, and we iterated on the course quickly. The plan was to work through the waiting list, then open enrolment to anyone across the BBC through the learning portal.

In the end, the course didn't go further than the pilot. But the demand was clear, with 85 people signing up in 5 minutes, and we took what we learned with us.