Ella Stoner: A three-step-tool to help designers break down the barriers of technical jargon

Are your users engaged in your website? The success of your website will largely depend on your answer. After all, engaged users are valuable users; they keep coming back and will recommend your site to colleagues, friends, and family. So, if you’re not sure if your users are engaged or not, consider looking into your user engagement metrics.

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User engagement can be measured using a number of key metrics provided by website analytics platforms. Metrics such as bounce rate, time on page, and click-through rate all provide clues to user engagement and therefore overall website user experience.

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This article will help you understand user engagement and why it’s important to measure. We’ll also discuss how to apply user engagement insights to improve website success. Combining a little bit of data with some user research is a powerful thing, so let’s get into it.

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Understanding User Engagement Metrics 📐

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User engagement metrics provide valuable insight for both new and existing websites. They should be checked regularly as a sort of ‘pulse check’ for website user experience and performance. So, what metrics should you be looking at? Website metrics can be overwhelming; there are hundreds if not thousands to analyze, so let’s focus on three:

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Bounce rate

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Measures the percentage of users that visit just one page on your site before leaving. If your bounce rate is high it suggests that users aren’t finding the content relevant, engaging, or useful. It points to a poor initial reaction to your site and means that users are arriving, making a judgment about your design or content, and then leaving.

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Time on page

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Calculated by the time difference between the point when a person lands on the page and when they move on to the next one. It indicates how engaging or relevant individual pages on your website are. Low time on page figures suggest that users aren’t getting what they need from a certain page, either in terms of the content, the aesthetics, or both.

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Click-through rate

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Click-through rate compares the number of times someone clicks on your content, to the number of impressions you get (how many times an internal link or ad was viewed). The higher the rate, the better the engagement and performance of that element. User experience design can influence click-through rates through copywriting, button contrasts, heading structure, navigation, etc.

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Conversion rate

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Conversion rates are perhaps the pinnacle of user engagement metrics. Conversion rate is the percentage of users that perform specific tasks you define. They are therefore dictated by your goals, which could include form submissions, transactions, etc. If your website has high conversion rates, you can be fairly confident that your website is matching your users’ needs, requirements, and expectations.

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But how do these metrics help? Well, they don’t give you an answer directly. The metrics point to potential issues with website user experience. They guide further research and subsequent updates that lead to website improvement. In the next section, we’ll discuss how these and others can support better website user experiences.

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Identifying Areas for Improvement 💡

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So, you’ve looked at your website’s user engagement metrics and discovered some good, and some bad. The good news is, there’s value in discovering both! The catch? You just need to find it. Remember, the metrics on their own don’t give you answers; they provide you direction.

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The ‘clues’ that user engagement metrics provide are the starting point for further research. Remember, we want to make data-driven decisions. We want to avoid making assumptions and jumping to conclusions about why our website is reporting certain metrics. Fortunately, there are a bunch of different ways to do this.

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User research data can be gathered by using both qualitative and quantitative research techniques. Insights into user behavior and needs can reveal why your website might be performing in certain ways. Research can include both qualitative and quantitative techniques.

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Qualitative research techniques

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• Usability test – Test a product with people by observing them as they attempt to complete various tasks.
• User interview – Sit down with a user to learn more about their background, motivations and pain points.
• Contextual inquiry – Learn more about your users in their own environment by asking them questions before moving onto an observation activity.
• Focus group – Gather 6 to 10 people for a forum-like session to get feedback on a product.

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Quantitate research techniques

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• Card sorts – Find out how people categorize and sort information on your website.
• First-click tests – See where people click first when tasked with completing an action.
• A/B tests – Compare 2 versions of a design in order to work out which is more effective.
• Clickstream analysis – Analyze aggregate data about website visits.
• Tree-testing - Test your site structure using text-only categorization and labels

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The type of research depends on what question you want to answer. Being specific about your question will help you identify what research technique(s) to deploy and ultimately the quality of your answer. If you’re serious about website improvement; identify problem areas with user engagement metrics, and investigate how to fix them with user research.

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Optimizing Content and Design

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If you have conducted user research and found weak areas on your website, there are many things to consider. Three good places to start are navigation, content, and website layout. Combined, these have a huge impact on user experience and can be leveraged to address disappointing engagement metrics.

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Navigation

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Navigation is a crucial aspect of creating a good user experience since it fundamentally connects pages and content which allows users to find what they need. Navigation should be simple and easy to follow, with important information/actions at the top of menus. Observing the results of card sorting, tree testing, and user testing can be particularly useful in website optimization efforts. You may find that search bars, breadcrumb trails, and internal links can also help overcome navigation issues.

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Content

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Are users seeing compelling or relevant content when they arrive on your site? Is your content organized in a way that encourages further exploration? Card sorting and content audits are useful in answering these questions and can help provide you with the insights required to optimize your content. You should identify what content might be redundant, out of date, or repetitive, as well as any gaps that may need filling.

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Layout

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A well-designed layout can improve the overall usability of a website, making it easier for users to find what they're looking for, understand the content, and engage with it. Consider how consistent your heading structures are and be sure to use consistent styling throughout the site, such as similar font sizes and colors. Don’t be afraid to use white space; it’s great at breaking up sections and making content more readable.

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An additional factor related to layout is mobile optimization. Mobile-first design is necessary for apps, but it should also factor into your website design. How responsive is your website? How easy is it to navigate on mobile? Is your font size appropriate? You might find that poor mobile experience is negatively impacting user engagement metrics.

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Measuring Success 🔎

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User experience design is an iterative, ongoing process, so it’s important to keep a record of your website’s user experience metrics at various points of development. Fortunately, website analytics platforms will provide you with historic user data and key metrics; but be sure to keep a separate record of what improvements you make along the way. This will help you pinpoint what changes impacted different metrics.

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Define your goals and create a website optimization checklist that monitors key metrics on your site. For example, whenever you make an update, ensure bounce rates don’t exceed a certain number during the days following; check that your conversion rates are performing as they should be; check your time on sites hasn’t dropped. Be sure to compare metrics between desktop and mobile too.

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User’s needs and expectations change over time, so keep an eye on how new content is performing. For example, which new blog posts have attracted the most attention? What pages or topics have had the most page views compared to the previous period? Tracking such changes can help to inform what your users are currently engaged in, and will help guide your user experience improvements.

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Conclusion 🤗

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User engagement metrics allow you to put clear parameters around user experience. They allow you to measure where your website is performing well, and where your website might need improving. Their main strength is in how accessible they are; you can access key metrics on website analytics platforms in moments. However, user engagement metrics on their own may not reveal how and why certain website improvements should be made. In order to understand what’s going on, you often need to dig a little deeper.

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Time on page, bounce rate, click-through rate, and conversion rates are all great starting points to understand your next steps toward website improvement. Use them to define where further research may be needed. Not sure why your average pages per session is two? Try conducting first-click testing; where are they heading that seems to be a dead end? Is your bounce rate too high? Conduct a content audit to find out if your information is still relevant, or look into navigation roadblocks. Whatever the question; keep searching for the answer.

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User engagement metrics will keep you on your toes, but that’s a good thing. They empower you to make ongoing website improvements and ensure that users are at the heart of your website design. 

This is Part 1 of our series, The System Behind Better Content, co-authored by Content Design Hub.

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This piece is a collaboration between Optimal and Content Design Hub, exploring how a content specification, or “content spec”, grounded in user research can give your team and AI tools the guardrails they need to create appropriate, consistent, and user-centered content at scale. A content spec ensures your content is structured the way your users think, making it easier for them to find what they need, understand it, and take action.

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In this article:

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• The difference between a content spec and a style guide, plus persistent vs. local specs
• Why discovery research is the input layer for every spec
• How to translate findings into explicit, testable rules, examples, and formats

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What is a spec, and how does it relate to content?

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Words and language are core to product design. Like any design decision, content needs a specification that gives your team—and your AI tools—the rules for creating consistent, user-centered content. This is known as a content spec.

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Defining a content spec

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A content spec is a structured document that defines how content should look, sound, and behave across a product.

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There are 2 types of content specs:

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• Persistent (global) specs:
  
  • rules that apply across every product, service, and channel you have. These rules cover things like approved terminology, grammar and accessibility standards. They don't change from product to product; they live at the brand level or in your design system.

• Local (contextual) specs:
  
  • rules for a specific product, feature, or user flow. They may include the words you use in your app’s navigation, how error messages are worded, or specific eligibility requirements users need to know. They inherit the rules from the global spec, adding the detail that's unique to that product.

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Definition

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Content spec: a structured, testable document that defines content rules, guidelines, templates and behaviours. It allows design teams to create repeatable content patterns that are consistent and can scale across different products and channels.

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What happens without a spec

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At a small scale, vague content guidance is manageable. You can run tests to validate your decisions, and you can make changes on the fly. However, when you’re working on products within a larger system, without a spec, your content won’t scale (with humans or AI).

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How to identify that your content is not scalable:

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• Different team members make different calls.
• AI tools fill in the gaps with generic defaults.
• Research findings show high levels of user confusion, misunderstanding and frustration
• Content decisions have no rationale and are not defensible.

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The fix already exists (just not in content design)

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Engineers solved this problem decades ago. Engineers work from specifications so that anyone on the team can build the same thing the same way. Content design needs to make the same shift.

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A content spec is the missing piece in most content design systems. And, it all starts with user research. Let us walk you through how to build, use, and maintain it.

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“Content is not a finishing touch; it’s the foundation of all digital products.” – Content Design Hub.

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Start with research: know your users before you write a word

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The content spec starts with research. Before you create a standard or pattern, you need to understand who your users are and what they need. That's the difference user research makes. It shows you how users really talk about their problems and needs, in their own words, so you can build the right solution and write content that sounds like your users. 

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Here’s an example:

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An Australian bank is building a money management app for young people aged 18 to 24. The app will help users track things like part-time income, savings, debt and scholarships. It aims to improve financial literacy and planning.

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Financial terminology is shaped by a country's legal, regulatory and tax systems. We can’t always simplify or eliminate those terms like “Low Income Tax Offset” (tax reduction) and “HECS-HELP” (student loan scheme), but the content should make them understandable and help users navigate confidently

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Terms all need to appear in the right context and with the right explanation.

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Discovery research is the input layer

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Before any content is written, the team runs discovery research. This is the input layer for the content spec. It will give your team the evidence base that everything else is built on. 

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The research mix might include: 

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• Interviews: understand how young people currently manage money. Identify how they think and talk about budgeting and spending. Explore what challenges they face, and what tools or habits they already use to stay on top of their finances.
• Card sorting: understand how young people naturally group and label financial content and get valuable insights to optimize navigation, menus, content, and information architecture.
• Live site testing: observe real behaviour on competitor apps to understand how young people currently navigate financial products.
• Surveys: get a deeper understanding of your users' needs, preferences, and pain points 
• Tree Testing: see where users get stuck in your current website or app and which labels cause confusion.

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Discovery research surfaces answers to four foundational questions that will guide your approach to content spec design: 

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1. Who are your users? 
2. What is their context?
3. What language do they use naturally?
4. What words do they use to describe the topic? 

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While these findings are genuinely interesting, they are also the raw material of your content specs.

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Turn research into a working document

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Once you have your research findings, the next step is to turn them into explicit, testable rules. This phase is where a content spec becomes distinct from a style guide.

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What a content spec includes 

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A content spec is a working document that defines: 

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• Tone and voice rules: how the product speaks to its users.
• Approved and prohibited language: specific terms to use, and specific terms to avoid.
• Label conventions: how navigation items, buttons, form fields, and error messages are named.
• Best and worst practice examples: concrete, side-by-side comparisons that leave no room for interpretation.
• Explicit rules: content that can be consistently applied and tested.

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Aspirational versus explicit rules

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There is a differentiation between a content style guide and a content spec. Most content style guides are broad and aspirational, not specific. A style guide has good principles, but they are not necessarily rules AI can consistently apply or test against. 

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Here are two of the same rules, but expressed differently in a style guide and a content spec.

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Example of a content style guide rule

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Our tone of voice is warm and helpful. 

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Example of a content spec: persistent (global)

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Our tone of voice is warm and helpful. 

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We:

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• Use contractions (you're, we've, let's).
• Keep sentences under 20 words.
• Address the user as "you," not "the user".
• Lead with what the user can do, not what the system can't.
• Never use passive voice in error messages.

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Example:

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Do not write: ‘Your application has been received and is pending review.’

Write: ‘We've got your application. We'll let you know within 2 business days.’

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Exceptions:

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This tone does not apply to terms and conditions, privacy policy, or legal disclosures. These sections must follow the language required by Australian financial services regulations and cannot be rewritten for style. Content that introduces this information must be written in plain language (words 2 syllables or less, with definitions of complex words).

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Example of a content spec: local (app contextual)

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• Use ‘superannuation’ on first mention, then ‘super’.
• Never use ‘retirement savings fund’.
• Always explain HECS-HELP on first use within a product flow as: ‘the government's interest-free student loan scheme’.
• Use ‘Centrelink payment’, not ‘government benefit’ or ‘welfare’.
• Use ‘part-time income’, not ‘gig income’ or ‘casual earnings’.

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File formats that make specs usable for humans and AI

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A content spec is most useful when it lives in a format that both humans and AI can read. You have three options to either store or export as your content spec.

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1. Markdown (.md): text-formatting language that’s easy to write, read, and version-control in tools like GitHub.
2. YAML (YAML Ain't Markup Language): a format for organizing structured data. It’s commonly used in configuration files and can be read by non-developers.
3. JSON schema: a way to define and validate the structure of content. It’s useful for automated checks and feeding rules directly into AI systems. 

For product teams, writing in these formats may seem a bit alien. So that’s where you can draft your rules as a .txt file or in a Word Document and then export it as a Markdown file.

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The format you give AI is important because AI reads plain text more reliably. A Word Document or PDF file has layers of code that can interfere with how AI tools parse (extract) content.

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Build the Content Spec

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Adding research findings to a content spec removes the barrier between user research and product decision-making.

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Instead of a product manager checking abstract rules, they can trace a rule back to the user insight that generated it. This approach gives everyone in a team more context into how and why decisions are made. And of course, all these decisions are tied back to the user.

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You can easily create a content spec using MCP and your working document. Connect your research repository to your preferred AI tool (such as Claude, ChatGPT, or Cursor) and use MCP to pull relevant insights and evidence directly from your research. From there, build a structured content spec that can live in different workspaces and tools for easy reference. 

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What your card sorting findings look like

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Participants aged 18 to 25 were given 30 cards covering financial concepts. A product team asked the participants to group the concepts and name each group in their own words.

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Findings:

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• 19 of 24 participants grouped ‘superannuation,’ ‘employer contributions,’ and ‘retirement savings’
• 8 participants renamed the category ‘superannuation’ to ‘super’.
• 10 participants renamed ‘employer contributions’ to ‘pay’, while 7 renamed it to ‘salary’.
• The most common category labels were ‘savings for the future’ (9 participants), ‘long-term savings’ (6 participants), and ‘locked funds’ (4 participants).
• No participant under 21 used the word ‘retirement’ unprompted.

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Insights:

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• Young people are familiar with ‘super’ as a shorthand, but don't connect it to retirement.
• ‘Employer contributions’ reads as income. Participants view this category in terms of payroll language ("pay," "salary") rather than savings language. 
• Institutional framing of financial terms does not match how this age group thinks about money.
• When re-labelling content, plain language was used. Pronouns and verbs were not present.

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What your Navigation label spec entry looks like

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Next in Series

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A content spec built from real research gives your team a shared source of truth, but a document sitting in a folder doesn't change anything on its own. The value comes from operationalizing it. 

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In Part 2, we cover how to operationalize a content spec in 2026 so it actually gets used. You'll get example prompt rules to help you craft guardrails for your AI tool to help you produce consistent draft content.

When you have a small design team or none at all, how do you ensure that your content is consistent, has the right tone, and is captivating? It can be difficult, but it doesn’t have to be! Julia Steffen, Principal Content Designer at Varis, spoke at UX New Zealand, the leading UX and IA conference in New Zealand hosted by Optimal Workshop, about how startups can achieve impactful content and delight users. 

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In her talk, Julia shares her most useful tips, tricks, and rules of thumb to ensure meaningful content design. She also shares some helpful tools to achieve maximum efficiency.

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Julia Steffen bio 🎤

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Julia has worked in content for 10+ years at St.Jude, Wunderman Thompson, MetaLab, and Grubhub. She is based in the United States and is the Principal Content Designer at Varis.

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Contact Details:

Email address: julia.steffen@govaris.com

You can find Julia on LinkedIn

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Content design for startups - How to work lean, have maximum impact, and get all the high-fives ✋🏽✋🏻✋🏿

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Why should you care about content design? Julia argues that “content design is product success”. Because Julia specifically talks about content design in relation to startups, she focuses on how to achieve the best results possible with a small, lean team. To that end, Julia discusses four must-haves for content design:

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1. Voice
2. Tools for efficiency
3. Words in the experience
4. Ways to check, test, and perfect your words

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Voice 🎙️

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Why is your company’s voice important? Voice tells your users who you are, creates meaningful connections, and provides valuable signals that convey whether or not your company is deserving of trust. Choosing the voice for your startup begins with a competitor audit.  Documenting who you compete against, and how you might want to differentiate your startup is crucial to finding your corner of the market. For example, is your voice welcoming, gentle, and positive, or are you more formal and technical? 

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User research can also be really helpful when determining and monitoring your voice. Involve your research team and learn what does and doesn’t delight your audience when it comes to your messaging.

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It’s also important to map your voice to your startup’s values. Be sure to connect to your mission and your brand. Julia sums up product voice as:

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Product voice = your values + space to differentiate + what research tells you

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So, when you find your voice, where can you lean into it? There are several key areas or moments that provide opportunities to share your unique voice, such as:

• Notifications: Emails, SMS, and in-app messages are a great place to delight customers
• Success states: Celebrate with your users in your voice (and remove any anxiety that may be there)
• Empty states: They aren’t just a chance to educate, they’re a chance to add some interest or fun (or to mask a UX issue).
• Placeholder text: If a field is well labeled, you can use this section to bring joy and reduce a user’s anxiety.
• Onboarding: You never get a second chance to make a first impression. Make it count!

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Tools for efficiency ⚒️

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To remain lean and efficient as a startup, one of the best things you can do is create a style guide. This helps to keep your content and voice consistent. For example, what pronouns do you use in your interface, do you capitalize certain words, etc? There is actually a lot to consider here, so Julia points viewers to various resources that allow you to copy and paste, such as Quinn Keast’s Product Language Framework.

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A glossary or language bank is also important. Record branded words, terms that you never use, and terms that you’ve heard your users say organically. This helps to ensure that you’re using language that resonates with your audience and language that reduces cognitive load as much as possible.

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Pro tip: Use the Writer app with Figma. This integration helps to ensure that your style guide is actually used! It includes your style guide and glossary so that you’re being consistent as you work. You can also use the Hemingway app or Grammarly to look out for passive voice, hard-to-parse sentences, and overall readability.

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Words in the experience – writing for content design 📝

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The first thing Julia points out when approaching writing is the need to be user-focused. This might seem obvious to UX practitioners, but word selection can be nuanced, and subtle changes can be powerful. For example, instead of writing “[Your company] introduces a new feature”, think about how can you change the statement to be more about what the new feature means for the user, rather than your company. Here are a few rules of thumb to help refine your writing.

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• Clarity over cleverness. Unless you’re clear and the message is understood by your user, even the best jokes and wittiest phrases in the world will be wasted.
• Write like you’re having a conversation with your Grandmother. Be clear and don’t use too much jargon.
• Think like the best content designers. Writing is a process and there are several things to consider, such as the purpose of your copy, the context that it’s being read, and what emotion the reader might be feeling at that moment, etc. Julia offers the Microcopy Canvas as a useful tool for startups, which is a helpful writing template/worksheet created by Jane Ruffino.

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Ways to check, test, and perfect your words 👀

Julia suggests that design reviews are the perfect place to sense-check your words and content. Review your designs intentionally and through a content lens. Again, the Microcopy Canvas can be a useful tool when conducting this step, helping to ensure you have considered the right tone and achieved your purpose with your words.

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Following a design review process, it’s important to test for clarity and affinity. Conduct user tests frequently to ensure your words and content are clear, understood, and hitting the mark in the intended way.

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Finally, make sure your content goals are recorded in your dashboards. Be accountable to your own success measures, KPIs, and OKRs (Objectives and Key Results). Some metrics that help track success are:

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• Onboarding flows
• Notification metrics
• Feature adoption
• Conversion rates

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If you’re falling short on some metrics, review your content and try to figure out where words can be sharpened to be clearer, more friendly, or less technical, for example. Then, feed this information into your prioritization and planning. What changes are going to have the most impact on your product’s success? What changes are quick wins? 

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Why it matters 🤯

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Julia’s talk is important for UX and content designers, particularly those working in startup environments, as it highlights the critical role of content design in achieving product success. The content you share, the voice and tone you adopt, and the clarity of communication, all add to the user's overall experience with your product. Investing time into your content is critical and, as Julia explains, it doesn’t have to put too much stress on your team's workload. If time isn’t invested, however, you may find yourself with poor content, delivering poor experiences, resulting in high customer attrition. 

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Efficiency, therefore, should be a focus for startups wanting to achieve great content design without being weighed down. Julia offers pragmatic advice on maintaining consistency through tools like style guides and language banks and by leveraging apps like Hemingway and Grammarly. Tools like these are incredibly helpful when streamlining processes and ensuring a cohesive and polished user interface. 

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At the end of the day, Julia stresses the impact that content design has on user experiences and encourages startups to pay close attention to content in ways that are achievable for small teams.

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