Using content crits to help redevelop the undergraduate study site

As part of our work redeveloping the undergraduate study site, we recently performed a series of content crits (critiques). Content crits are a method of peer reviewing content in a group setting. In this post, I’ll talk about why we held these crits and my tips for holding your own content crits.

What content crits are

A content crit (short for critique) is a session where content designers share content they are working on with a group of peers, with the aim of reviewing that content and giving the author feedback.

They are different from a content review, where we present content to Subject Matter Experts (SMEs) so they can fact-check what we’ve written. Rather, a content crit is more like a peer review where we’re assessing how well the content meets (or fails to meet) user needs.

In a nutshell, content crits work like this:

the designer/author of a piece of content shares what they’re working on, what it aims to do and if there’s anything in particular they want feedback on
the rest of the group (other content designers) are given a few minutes to read the content and leave feedback
we discuss the feedback and decide what we need to change

To many people (including me) this sounds like a daunting prospect. Receiving detailed feedback on something you’ve written or edited can feel awkward in any format, let alone watching people critique your work in real time.

However, crits are a huge benefit – both to the content itself as well as to us as content designers – and it was certainly a crucial step in getting the content right for our project redeveloping the undergraduate study site.

Why we held content crits as part of the undergraduate study site redevelopment

Simply put, we wanted to make sure the content we were drafting answered user needs and was written clearly.

Certain areas of the study site have to communicate complex ideas. For example, the information we need to communicate around fee status and costs of our programmes can be hard to understand and often depends on the individual circumstances of the prospective student. This information is also highly important to prospective students, so it was crucial we took the time to get it right.

Having structured crits in place as part of the drafting process gave us the chance to share our work with each other early on. In our team, crits happen well before the content goes anywhere near the website, and before we’ve spent lots of time on (or got too attached to) what we’ve written.

This meant if changes were needed based on feedback received during the crit, we had space to make those changes (and maybe even hold another crit) in plenty of time before the content needed to be published. The crits also helped us identify areas where we needed more input from our subject matter experts (SMEs) to make sure our content was correct.

Finally, sometimes it takes two (or more) people to find the best solution to a problem, and content crits at their heart are a form of collaboration.

How to run a crit

Crits can be run online or in person. We usually hold our crits online using the whiteboard app Miro.

What we used to do and why it didn’t work

In the most basic form of content crit, you would be given two instructions:

read the content
leave comments

While this captures the essence of what a crit is, we’ve found that this lack of detailed instruction makes it difficult for participants to know what to do.

It doesn’t give any indication of the type of thing they should be commenting on, nor does it explain how they should communicate their feedback. This adds an extra layer of awkwardness to an already awkward situation, and that just isn’t conducive to a collaborative environment where people feel safe to share and receive feedback.

To help foster this safe space, our team has found that it helps to take a more structured approach to the crit.

Rose, thorn and bud: a more structured way to run crits

We were first introduced to the ‘rose, thorn and bud’ method by Olivia Hall, a content designer at the Department for Work and Pensions. My manager Lauren Tormey learned about this method at a conference, and we’ve used it ever since.

Read about the rose, thorn and bud method

Using this method, participants leave comments using this structure:

roses (pink post-its) are comments about things you think work well (‘I like that…’)
thorns (blue post-its) are constructive comments (‘I think that…’)
buds (green post-its) are suggestions of opportunities to make the content better (‘I wish…’)
we add an extra category (yellow post-its) for questions we have about the content or general comments

We make comments only using these prompts. This makes the critique much more constructive and means we’re not solely focusing on the negative.

Digital post-its illustrating the Rose, Bud and Thorn method of content crits.

Crit participants use colour-coded post-it notes to leave comments about the content.

Once participants understand what they need to do, the author of the piece of content we’re looking at will talk us through the content, covering:

any background or context around why this is being worked on/critiqued
the purpose of the content we’re looking at (discussing associated user needs)
anything in particular they want participants to pay attention to, usually because they are unsure or stuck

We then set a timer (usually for 15 to 20 minutes) and ask the participants to leave post-it notes on the document with their rose, bud or thorn comments.

Once everyone has had the chance to leave their comments, we go around the group and ask everyone to talk through their feedback.

We use Miro to view screenshots of the content and let participants leave comments using colour-coded post-its.

We then collectively decide on any changes we want to make to the content based on the feedback and discussion and assign a list of actions for participants to take after the crit if necessary.

Tips for a successful crit

Set the scene for your crit, so that participants know what to do and what to expect:
- What is the purpose of this crit and the content we’re looking at?
- What type of things should we comment on?
- How should we make our comments?
Use a structured method like the rose, thorn and bud to provide a framework for how feedback is delivered.
Be constructive and make sure all comments are about the content, and not addressed to the person:
- For example, instead of saying, “Why did you use a feature box here? It looks awful”, say, “Maybe the feature box makes the content too prominent, could we try it in a paragraph?” Or instead of saying, “You made a mistake with the date format”, try “The style guide says we should present dates in Day Month Year format.”
Think of a crit as a way of collaborating on content or tackling a content challenge together, rather than a critique of individual peoples’ work.

To sum up on the necessity of critiquing our work, I really like this quote from a blog post by Department of Education content designer Virginia Brown:

The words don’t belong to you. The ideas need to work for the users so there is no point working away in isolation to present something untested that doesn’t work.

Read Virginia’s post ‘Content crits: they’re not scary!’