Content design for behavior change

, a 10 min read
Screenshot of SF.gov's holiday page, with introductory text on top and a 'What's allowed and not allowed' heading following

“Content design” as a discipline is becoming more and more popular. Not only is its importance felt in government spaces, but it’s also now the default job title for content jobs at Facebook.

Content design focuses on user needs and tasks

Why this shift to content design specifically? According to content design pioneer Sarah Winters, “Content design is answering a user need in the best way for the user to consume it.”

For product and service-focused content, it seems like a natural progression for what content can do. It’s all about the user and what they need.

For me in non-pandemic times working at San Francisco Digital Services, content design usually means explaining a government process in a task-based way. I help explain how a program works, just enough so that someone can successfully apply for it. No more, no less.

Enter COVID-19

But for COVID-19 response communications, I had another layer added on top.

We had to encourage certain behaviors in our constituents. Not just how to do something, but to introduce the idea to them in the first place. We had to get people to mask up, get tested, and avoid gathering with others. And later, we had to encourage people to get vaccinated for COVID-19.

It’s not quite as simple as explaining what to do! We have to embed little nudges for behavior change, while informing our readers about how to get something done.

It’s even harder when it’s something that people are not used to doing!

In the past year, I did a lot of reading about how to do this with content. Here are some of the things I put into practice for SF.gov.

Know what your medium is capable of

“Content is king.”

A nice thought for anyone who content designs for screens, but unfortunately, inadequate for the job at hand. Words on a screen does not make the biggest difference in encouraging a change in behavior.

What does? Personal relationships, making connections face to face, and using emotions to connect with people.

Websites are not good for that. Websites are words on a page. You can’t relate to that. It comes off as extremely disingenuous. There is absolutely nothing I could write on SF.gov that connects to people like others telling their personal stories.

What SF.gov could do was tell the general public what they could do right away. It could empower people with information. SF.gov could also be used as a tool for partners and the public, to support them while they have those conversations with people they know.

SF.gov could step in for support, once someone’s found the internal motivation to change their behavior. Help your partners help you.

Communicate mental models, not just facts

Your users have to understand the why, and find it compelling, before they develop the motivation to try something new.

For people to understand why they should do something new, you need to explain the new state of things, and how it’s different from the former state of things. What has changed in general, and what that means for them.

Content design already puts us halfway there. Good content design inherently avoids listing a bunch of information at random. That’s part of its impact. It takes a lot of mental effort to pull out actionable items from a set of detailed facts.

Content design is also inherently a BS-free zone. You have to cut the fluff and be as direct as you can. That matters even more when you have to explain why people should do something.

I always make the effort to learn about what I was writing, inside and out. I’ve always said, “If I don’t know it, I can’t write it.”

Talk, or at least listen, to the experts

The best way to get the correct framing is to talk to subject matter experts (SMEs). Really understand where their heads are at. In all likelihood, you do not have the technical expertise to understand what a list of written facts truly means.

I have a molecular biology background. Understanding the nuances and limitations of scientific studies came naturally to me. But I (still!) am not an expert in public health, or respiratory illnesses, or even infectious diseases in general. If you gave me facts or a paper to read, I wouldn’t know how to frame it in a way that was most useful, or necessarily consistent with the experts’ conclusions.

My colleagues at SF Department of Public Health (SFDPH) were invaluable. Over the past year, I asked them many questions about various situations, so I could truly understand what any public health guidelines meant. Talking it out ensured that everyone was on the same page too.

If you don’t have colleagues who can help with this, reading or listening to other experts can give you some idea.

Upon California’s lauded reopening on June 15, 2021, I knew that we couldn’t have “Stay home” as a headline anymore on the main webpage that talked about the public health order. It would be drastically inconsistent with the new mental model, that the state would be reopening. But we still had to have something, and my SFDPH colleagues were looking to me for the content ideas!

When I have a block like this, I do more research. I listen to COVID-related podcasts like In the Bubble and This Week in Virology, where experts communicate their thoughts directly to the public. And I noticed all the hosts had a similar farewell at the end of each episode: “Be safe.”

I realized that’s what I could use instead: “Stay safe” instead of “Stay home.” It was both pithy and consistent with our new mental model.

Sweat consistent messaging, not esoteric details

The website is only a part of an overall communications strategy. Every time your product or service is mentioned by anyone anywhere, ideally, people should know what it’s about.

You have to be aligned on high-level messaging. Work with anyone who might be involved in communications. If there’s someone else creating the high-level messaging, follow their lead. Any dissonance confuses people and loses their trust. People will also lose any motivation to change their behavior for you. They won’t believe anything else you have to say.

If you need to get in front of something now, put your efforts into making sure your overall messaging is consistent, and leave the details for later. It’s better to immediately publish the right mental model with details 90% correct, than to be 100% correct on absolutely all details but a week late.

This was especially important for anything related to COVID-19. News and rumors traveled fast and furious. We had to get in front of them, and offer accurate mental models to people right away. If people don’t understand what’s going on, they will make something up (or read something unofficial) to explain what they just saw. And more often then not, they end up believing their first explanation long-term. Mental models are hard to shake!

COVID-19 messaging work in San Francisco

SF had a lot going for it during the pandemic, which helped us achieve the lowest death rate in any major city in the country. We’re a city and county in one, which streamlined many of our workflows. Our leaders worked together and listened to the science to save lives, and we already had a lot of community-level public health partnerships from the AIDS crisis decades ago.

Still, one thing that surprised me was that our local news media was usually simpatico with our overall messaging. Clickbait, contradictory headlines were few and far between, unlike what I saw with other localities.

There are likely many reasons for this. But from what I saw, SF’s COVID-19 response communications team put great efforts in making sure anyone doing COVID-19 communications had information directly from us. The team held media roundtables for reporters and community-based organizations. They fielded calls from reporters constantly. We all made sure the messaging was consistent, so everyone would say the same thing.

What I could do was make sure SF.gov was consistent with any changes in messaging. Every time there was an update about staying home or masking, I’d make sure all of those changes were reflected on all pages that mentioned staying home or masking.

When you ask people to do something they’re not used to doing, they often check to confirm what they’ve just read. If one page says one thing but another page contradicts it, you’ve completely lost people’s trust.

Frame everything as a social norm

Human beings don’t make decisions in a vacuum, nor do we have limitless mental energy to make decisions on every single action we take. Instead, we base a lot of our behaviors on external factors, including what is default, or what others are doing.

By changing our language a little, we can reframe a brand new behavior to be a new social norm. If you overexplain yourself, your readers might wonder why you’re trying so hard to convince them. Frame it as a default social norm instead.

Teaching how to have safer gatherings during the pandemic

When SFDPH wrote public health guidance about how to have safer gatherings in summer 2020, I noted that it had a lot of useful information. But it still came across as a list of facts that everyone had to find, read, and then learn from on their own. There was no indication that this would be a shared understanding.

I figured that this was information people would be clamoring for, so I content designed it to make it as task-based as possible. Not only that, but I also hinted at some social norms into the title and description of the page itself. Instead of walking people through detailed explanations of the instructions, I shortcut all of it to the conclusion:

“Have safer outdoor gatherings during the coronavirus pandemic. Reduce your risk of COVID-19 when celebrating a special occasion outside with a small group.”

By being upfront and direct about what you expect people to do, you set the expectation that others are doing it too.

Respect your users

Respect their time, and respect what experience they already bring when they come across your content. When you ask them to change their behavior, you’re really asking them to be partners with you.

When I was onsite at Moscone Center doing COVID-19 response work, I had 2 Post-Its on my monitor at all times that displayed the following (in italics):

  • BLUF (Bottom Line Up Front) so people get the info they need right off the bat
  • Explain why we’re asking people to do something
  • Options/tradeoffs so people feel they have control, and are making an educated choice
  • Acknowledge ❤️ and 😮 to ease people gently into the new mental model
View of a desktop monitor, with green stickies stuck to the bottom edge, as well as some other miscellaneous office supplies and a small gray stuffed cartoon cat.
The Post-Its, and a stuffed Pusheen because we all need joy in these times!

That list was what I came up with, after learning about crisis communications and distilling it into what I could do with SF.gov’s content. When I was writing a new piece of content, it was a good reminder to make sure I’d checked off all those boxes.

Answer their questions without asking the questions outright

Asking people to change their behavior is a huge ask. It’s also very stressful if it comes with a shift in mental models. When people are stressed, they don’t read. They need the answers right away.

Your users will be already asking the question in their heads. They don’t need to read it again before getting the answer they seek. It wastes your screen space and your readers’ goodwill.

It’s also not friendly to people using screenreaders, who often use headings to navigate the page.

By asking the exact question you think everyone may be asking, you may also frame the content in a way that harms your overall goal. Your users should not be setting the frame—you should. (That is also a big reason why I dislike FAQs. A lot.)

Note that when I write headings, even on this page, I’m already telling you what the answer is. You read further to get more detail about how to do it.

Stay positive, not punitive

Assume people will do the right thing. Focus on what people can do now, not what they cannot or should not do.

Motivation must come from within. We need to nurture it by encouraging action and empowerment. That’s the only way we can encourage everyone to be partners with us.

Encouraging people to stay home for the holidays

In Winter 2020, we already expected we’d have to mandate business closures again. But we were also concerned about private gatherings for the holidays, which we expected to be a big source of COVID-19 spread.

Namely, we didn’t want people to gather outside of their household. At all. This is a huge ask! The holidays are meant for gathering indoors and seeing loved ones. We didn’t want to bring people down even further.

In the introductory text of the holiday-related webpage, I walked people through the following thought process:

  1. Bottom line up front: We have to celebrate the holidays at home this year.
  2. All of us have an impact.
  3. Things are looking pretty bad, so that’s why we’re asking you to do do this. We know it isn’t normal.
  4. Here’s what you can do to help.
Screenshot of SF.gov's holiday page, with introductory text on top and a 'What's allowed and not allowed' heading following
The 'What's allowed and not allowed' heading told readers what the rules were upfront.

If something was expressly forbidden, we’d tell them not to do it. But otherwise, it was all about encouraging the behavior that we wanted to see.

Think about future implications

Avoid boxing yourself into a corner, especially when you give explanations. Make room for change.

Since content has to be as short as possible, I like to go as high-level and general as I can when it comes to explanations.

Mental models can be hard to shift, especially if they’re large, sudden changes. We have to ease users into a new world where a new behavior is encouraged.

The biggest example of keeping our options open during the pandemic was masks. Before scientists realized that masks were actually quite important to prevent the spread, “masks aren’t effective for the general public” was a message that some national official channels really claimed!

But SFDPH never went that far. Early on, they only said “there is no recommendation to wear masks” which I believe gave us a lot of room to shift later.

Again, work with your SMEs to make sure you all agree on future implications. They may want to overpromise too!

Introducing vaccines

When I was first writing vaccine content, I wanted to ease everyone into the idea of getting them. There were many talking points SFDPH was using in December 2020, but I didn’t want to overpromise based on current data. I wanted to say something that would continue to be true, no matter what new data might say.

I settled on “A safe and effective vaccine is one of the most important ways to end the pandemic.” At the end of the day, that’s the goal of everything. It’s as high-level as you can get! That statement is also something we haven’t had to change, even as efficacy continues to be studied in the face of the more-transmissible Delta variant.

Be culturally aware and stay flexible

Many of our content design standards are from GOV.UK. That isn’t surprising, since the concept of “content design” was defined and refined there. But what works in the UK may not work in SF.

Even though we’ve gotten great feedback about our content overall, it doesn’t necessarily mean it works for absolutely everyone we serve in San Francisco.

We’re still learning! Working with colleagues from diverse backgrounds and community-based organizations ensured that we were as culturally aware as possible when creating targeted campaigns.

A page featuring a genuine candlelit ofrenda with the headline 'Commemorate a safer Día de los Muertos during the pandemic.
We wrote 'commemorate' instead of 'celebrate', and avoided stock images of colorful sugar skulls.

You’re always learning how to better connect with people.

Going further with content design

As the field of content design develops and we combine knowledge from other fields, I’m excited to see where it could go next.

The following are some resources that helped me develop my COVID-19 response work principles in the past year.

Websites

Coursera courses