A refund page explains eligibility, required account details, expected timing, and the confirmation in the order a claimant needs them. A localized version uses familiar date and account formats.
Chapter 02 / 14
Design content around a person's question
Plan, write, and maintain content that answers a real question at the point of use.
Your goalChoose a consequential page. Write three questions a first-time visitor brings, place each answer in the task sequence, and specify one content fact that needs periodic review.
01 / Begin with the task
The principle
A person reads an interface to decide what an action means, what information to provide, and what happens next. Content design begins with that person's question and follows it through the whole service.
- Content model
- A repeatable structure for facts, explanations, actions, and ownership across pages.
- Plain language
- Words and sentence structures that help the intended audience act on the first useful reading.
- Localization
- Adapting language, examples, formats, and layout to a specific locale and its conventions.
Collect the questions people ask while trying to finish a task. Place the answer beside the decision it informs: eligibility before an application, a fee before payment, and a consequence before confirmation. Give each page one clear purpose and connect it to the next step in the journey. Record an owner and a review trigger for facts that change.
Test the words as part of the interface. Ask a participant to explain what a label predicts, what a message asks them to do, and what they expect after submission. For each locale, review examples, dates, names, number formats, text expansion, and reading direction with people familiar with that context. Treat translated content as part of the design and test it in the complete task.
02 / Follow a method
Apply it in four steps
- Write the person's question and the decision they need to make.
- Place the answer before the action that depends on it.
- Use a repeatable content model with an owner and review trigger.
- Test comprehension and task completion in each intended locale.
03 / Compare outcomes
Strong and weak execution
A refund page opens with organizational language, spreads eligibility across several links, and uses one date format for every locale. Claimants need extra visits to interpret the next step.
Why the outcome changes
The strong version answers each question before the related action and adapts the format of the answer to its audience. The weak version follows the organization chart and creates interpretation work during an important decision. Observe comprehension before measuring the final submission.
04 / Use the method
Practice on a real screen
Choose a consequential page. Write three questions a first-time visitor brings, place each answer in the task sequence, and specify one content fact that needs periodic review.
Review your work
- Every major claim serves a named visitor question.
- The answer appears before its dependent action.
- Locale-specific examples and formats work in the full task.
Keep your observation, interpretation, and proposed change together. Use the related patterns to inspect complete interaction states.