It’s not a trivial pursuit: 5 reasons why high-quality content design matters
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By Helen Lippell
Helen is an information architect, specialising in taxonomies, search, metadata and semantics.
She is the editor of the best-selling book, ‘Taxonomies - Practical Approaches to Developing and Managing Vocabularies for Digital Information’ and is the programme chair for the popular Taxonomy Boot Camp Online webinar series.
She’s also an expert quizzer and has been a contestant on shows including Mastermind, Eggheads, Only Connect and Brain of Britain.
What links quizzes and content design?
I love quizzes. I can’t really overstate this - anyone who knows me in real life will know that given half an opportunity, I will talk for England about all the excitement, challenges, ups, downs, controversies and different quiz events that I fill up my free time with. I can usually be found in a pub or occasionally on a television screen, showcasing my knowledge of obscure pop hits or the capital of Vanuatu*.
In my professional life, I am a taxonomist, which means I develop controlled vocabularies for digital products and services. Categorising and organising content makes it findable, usable, reusable and useful. I’ve been lucky enough to work with some outstanding content designers as a Scrollie, and in other roles. Taxonomists and content designers have a symbiotic relationship and a shared passion for making things easy for users. We both know it’s so much more than just being about the words; content should be logical, clear, accurate and tailored to user needs.
As well as doing quizzes, I also set them for other people. Here I will share some insights into the thought processes of quiz-setting, and some parallels with the practice of crafting high-quality content for other purposes, such as for supporting public services or to drive engagement.
Readability
When I set a quiz for one of the competitive quiz leagues, I have to bear in mind that the questions will be read out loud by people who have not seen them in advance. Therefore, it is important to ensure, just as with any digital content, that it is easy to read and understand at a glance. It can be tempting to shove lots of extra clues into a quiz question, but that might make the question so long that the quizzer can’t work out what they’re being asked for, and the question master runs out of breath before the end.
Less is more - it is preferable to ask the question, then maybe provide some supplementary clues if appropriate. Equally, content designers shouldn’t ‘demand’ of readers that they have to wade through paragraphs of text to get to the main point. This is even more pertinent for task-focussed content - it should be easy for a user to get what they need.
Accuracy
Quizzing is less materially important than, say, government information (even if I might not feel this when I am in the thick of competition) but it spoils the experience if obvious errors or out-of-date information get into a question. Real-world events can render a question’s facts obsolete - for example, the death of a major figure or the UK Education Minister who was only in post for 35 hours in 2022*!
A good setter will check multiple reputable sources and try to be aware of the news. Equally, I know from my time as a Scrollie that content does not just pop into existence by itself. A lot of work goes on behind the scenes to ensure the accuracy of draft content, verify facts and check links and supporting resources. Marketing teams, policy people and subject matter experts may all be involved to ensure that the final output is as accurate as it can be.
Structure
A quiz question might have only 2 or 3 sentences compared to a detailed service guide on a government website, or a product page for e-commerce. Yet structure is crucial to the content’s success, regardless of whether you’re writing about the Battle of Agincourt* or applying for a passport. There should be a logical flow and it should be straightforward to identify the key points being communicated.
Good content structure also enables content adaptation. For a quiz question, this could entail making it easy to add supplementary clues to remove ambiguity, while for long-form content this could mean being able to reuse components in different ways to serve different needs, or to be viewed on different types of devices.
Audience-appropriate
People are sometimes surprised that I say I am not good at pub quizzes because of how different they are to the competitive league quizzes I specialise in. They are designed for different audiences - the former, for groups who want a whole fun night out, the latter for individuals who want to showcase a depth of knowledge across both highbrow and lowbrow topics. So the setter should be aware of the interests and levels of their audience, just as anyone designing content for GOV.UK would be cognisant of whether the main audience for the text was the general public or subject matter experts.
Tone of voice and style guide
All reputable quiz leagues have style guides for setters, for exactly the same reasons that organisations do. There is value in consistency and clarity, in defining grammar and formatting standards, and so on.
Quiz-setters will also get guidance on the range of topics they should and should not include. All this should result in high-quality output every single time, written to a consistent standard by a large group of people, exactly what content designers in government or corporate settings aspire to as well.
Conclusion
So there you have it. Maybe you had never considered before that there could be a link between setting quizzes and professional content design. But both are worth doing well and will deliver value and even enjoyment to your audiences. The answers to the asterisked questions in the text are below. Happy quizzing!
* Port Vila
* Michelle Donelan
* Fought in 1415 between the English and the French
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