NSW Automation Guide
Content Design, Copywriting, UX design, UX writing, Web production
1. Context
In 2023, Digital NSW identified the need to support all-of-government understand and safely adopt automation technologies. As content designer, I collaborated in a cross-functional team to design and deliver the NSW Automation Guide.
2. Challenges
When I joined the project team, the content spanned more than 120 pages. It reflected essential yet multiple voices of industry SMEs, researchers and government stakeholders: rich in information, but not reader-ready. The high-level content challenges included:
- Inconsistent voice, style and convention.
- Absence of user needs/job stories in the content creation process.
- Absence of purposeful structure and navigation.
3. My goals
- Remove repetition and content without purpose..
- Align the voice, tone, brand, and accessibility standards to the Australian Government Style Manual.
- Introduce user needs and job stories, retroactively.
- Define content patterns and information architecture.
- Leverage the NSW Government Design System to define a structured, purposeful resource.
4. My process
- Conducted extensive content edits and rewrites with SMEs.
- Implemented active voice, structure, logic and content usability concepts.
- Educated content owners about how people read online.
- Optimised content for SEO.
- Advocated for the user throughout team reviews.
- Introduced job stories at the beginning of modules and restructured the guide into need-based modules.
- Aligned project with the NSW Government Digital Service Toolkit and the Australian Government Style Manual.
- Checked sources and formatted references, ensuring credibility.
- Collaborated with UX and graphic design on all Figma designs using the NSW Government Design System.
- Worked with the front-end engineer to publish in the Digital NSW Drupal CMS.
