Content principles

Rules to follow when designing content, how we manage and publish content, accessibility.

These principles outline how we:

  • manage web content
  • publish web content
  • work with services to ensure web content is accurate and adheres to user needs
  • ensure web content is user-friendly and adheres to the accessibility standard
  • protect personal data

TO ADD

  • how to request content
  • content lifecyle and yearly review process

Who owns the content

The digital team (?) own the content on the website.

Different departments own the accuracy of the information. 

Information that is owned and managed by others

We do not publish content owned and managed by others.

By repeating information that is not owned by the council, we risk the content becoming out of date quickly. If the information is owned and maintained elsewhere, we should be signposting to the main source of information, not repeating the content.

We will only signpost to to central, regional or government agencies or approved organisations.

User centred design

We will:

  • ensure brand guidelines are followed
  • always use plain English to clearly explain information
  • only use technical terms if absolutely needed and ensure where they are used that they are appropriate to the audience
  • design content around specific user needs

Accessibility

All content must meet accessibility standards.

For example: we should avoid having guidance and information in PDFs, because it's difficult for some users to access this information and hard to read on mobiles. We will instead provide this information in the webpage itself.

Images and videos should be used sparingly – they should only be used if it adds to the user understanding the content.

WCAG

The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (known as WCAG) are an internationally recognised set of recommendations for improving web accessibility.

This site is built to WCAG AA standards.

Understanding WCAG – GOV.UK

WCAG in plain English – Aaardvark Accessibility

You can also read our accessibility statement.

Optimum content types and formats

We will assess any new content requests and decide what content type is most appropriate.

This includes creating accessible versions of downloadable documents.