Design standard

The standard we use when designing content to help people interact with the council.

The design standard is made up of 7 steps, which help the council to:

• serve the needs of everyone in Leeds
• deliver quality services
• comply with data protection and accessibility duties
• create long term change
• give clear messages in a crisis or public emergency
  

1. Do not reinvent, always add value

   If information is communicated by another organisation that is best placed to deliver a message, do not create a new version. Instead, point people to it.      

   For example, messages about government legislation are better on GOV.UK because the information may change, but also because it is trusted to deliver that type of information. Sending people to one trusted source reduces disinformation and the cost of maintenance.     

        
2. Identify people's needs

   It's important to understand who you are designing for and what they’re trying to do. The decisions you make in your project should be led by their needs.     

   To make sure you don't exclude anyone from using your service or design, think about the needs of:     

   • people with disabilities
   • people with low digital skills
   • council staff, if they will use the product or service as part of their role

   Once you know what people's needs are, these can be referred back to if a design or process needs to be changed.     

        
3. Design based on research into people's behaviour

   So that you can make design decisions that work for the people using your product, try to learn about:     

   • the problems they face
   • what they are trying to do
   • the context in which they might use your design
   • what already works well

   It's important to understand these points before thinking about potential solutions.     

   Once you have something that you think meets people's needs, test that it works by:      

   • speaking to your audience
   • using analytics
   • reviewing it with colleagues

   Use the findings from research and testing to keep reviewing your design, and to inform your decisions about what to keep and what to change.      

        
4. Make information clear, easy to use and act on

   Content should always be easy to read so people can scan the page to quickly find the information they need.    

   Easy to read text means more people understand it and can find it useful.    

   We use content standards to make information easy to read across the website and it helps create a reliable and consistent experience to our users.     

   Find out how to:    

   • write content so it is easy to read
   • structure content to make it easy to find
   • write in a way that is in keeping with our house style

        
5. Use the right tools and formats to meet people's needs

   Our content types and components sections contain all the styles, components and patterns available to make sure we use accessible tools and formats consistently.     

   Choosing the best way to deliver information should be decided based on the needs of people needing the information of service. For example, don’t plan to build a new webpage if your users aren’t looking for the information on the web to begin with.       

        
6. Be consistent across all channels

   When you are designing your content, think about people's experience. Are they aware of it already? If so, how? Have they seen it on social media or through council letters or emails? Have they already used part or all of it?       

   Make sure that your design is consistent in terms of information, language and style across all the communication channels we are using as a council.       

         
7. Maintain information

   Maintaining information means:      

   • making sure you have only the things you need or that add value
   • everything has a specific place and is regularly tidied up

   It's very much like maintaining personal possessions. Like possessions, it's often easier just to add new information. This leads to the amount of information getting out of control, making the useful content hard to find. If we imagined information as physical files left in cupboards or garages, we’d do something about it if we ran out of space.      

   If you need inspiration about keeping information tidy read our blog article on GOV.UK: cleaning our way to accessibility.