Our publishing principles

Our seven principles

We have seven principles we check when we receive a request to add or improve content on cumberland.gov.uk.

1. We will publish information that reflects user needs

We will:

• work with services to understand what the top priorities are for users
• work with user research to demonstrate the demand and added value the content will provide
• check if the information would be more appropriately held outside of the main website

2. We won’t publish information that is already 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By repeating information that is not owned by the council, we risk the content becoming out of date quickly.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.

3. We will structure content to ensure users can access transactions and important information at the right moment

We will:

• structure the content so users get the information when it is needed in the process – for example, see registering a birth: step by step
• talk to services and review data to see what the top tasks are in the service
• make sure that the top actions are clearly defined and given focus in the content
• ensure links are made with any relevant online transactions
• ensure links to relevant services and other sources of information are in place
• ensure the most important information is in the opening paragraph
• We will also monitor the actions overtime and change it according to users' needs.

4. We will ensure the language and style of content is targeted at the user

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

5. We will always ensure content is in the optimum format

It’s important to choose the format that fits the user need of the content – the decision should not be based on how a format looks. If content is in the wrong format, users will not be able to find it.

For example, if the content is about how to apply for something, we would either use a guide or a step by step format to display the information instead of a campaign page, which is used to promote or market a service.

6. We will use user feedback to continuously review the website

We will:

• ensure we understand any problems and identify any opportunities to test content with users
• check common search terms people use to find content on the site and use this to drive search engine optimisation
• check whether visitors to a web page are entering the site in the wrong area
• ensure keywords, metadata and page titles are correct and in the right format
• check what pages people are resorting to search in order to find the information
• use feedback that has been made about content from website users to identify and drive improvements
• ensure each web page will have a clear review date which will be a maximum of 6 months but shorter where a service may be changing

We will engage with services to see if any relevant feedback about offline content and use this to drive improvement to online content.

7. We will ensure all content is in an accessible format

All content must adhere to the 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.

To find out more, read our accessibility statement.

Exceptions to the rules

Any exceptions to these rules will be considered by the content designers on a case by case basis. Where a matter cannot be agreed between the service and a content designer, it will be escalated.

Exceptions may include emergency cases where the ability to give information as fast as possible overrides the standard guides.