Behind the scenes at Accessava: how we create our content
By Miriam Valencia, ASC’s Head of Digital Content
Every user who comes to AccessAva is on a journey, often a difficult one. Behind every piece of content on AccessAva is a real story. A family navigating an unfair charge, a person fighting for a wheelchair, or a carer trying to secure an assessment. Our development process begins with insights from these real-life experiences.
Social care is a complex area. There are many services and functions, laws and practices that affect the lives of people who draw on social care. We know, however, that people who draw on social care, their families, carers and supporters, often feel lost and unsure what their rights are or how to access them. They are looking for clear guidance about their specific problem which helps to move their issue forward. Our users want to create change for themselves, and we want to create content on AccessAva that will help them do this.
So how do we decide what the priorities for content development are, and how do we go about creating that content? In this post we will describe how we research, write, quality assure and publish content for the service.
How We Decide What to Write About Next?
The first step in developing new content can come from both internal and external sources. Examples of prompts to consider a new topic include:
new legislation that changes the way social care is delivered,
our partners tell us that they are seeing a rise in enquiries on a given topic, or
our casework team report that our clients are experiencing difficulty enforcing their rights in a certain area.
our users can leave in-product feedback which includes information about what they came to AccessAva hoping to find.
We also proactively seek input from our user research panel which is made up of people who represent the different groups of people we hope will use AccessAva, for example people who draw on social care, unpaid family carers, social care professionals, and advice providers. Along with stakeholders from our partner organisations, the panel helps us understand what we need to add to AccessAva next.
Talking to users with lived experience
Once we know the topic we want to focus on, the next step is to understand the issue from the user’s point of view. We want the information and resources that we add to AccessAva to respond to the real-life problems that people face and so we need to talk to people who draw on social care and understand what their experiences of the topic have been.
We are very grateful to the many people who have given their time to talk to us about the problems they have experienced with issues such as delays to Disabled Facilities Grants, requesting carers’ assessments, unaffordable charges, family members being detained in inpatient units, or difficulties securing a wheelchair. Reflecting on past and present challenges with social care can be painful and emotional, and we hope that the gift of their stories that people have made will result in useful content being developed that will help others avoid that pain and stress.
As well as identifying the problems that we need to help people resolve, we are also privileged to hear inspirational stories of when social care goes right, and the difference it can make to people’s lives.
Mapping user journeys
Example of an AccessAva ‘mind map’.
The next step is to work with our legal team to map the topic that the users have talked to us about, grouping issues together and working out how these relate to each other, and what the legal remedy is. As a virtual organisation, we have escaped the pitfalls of sticky-notes on office walls, but we do end up with very complex ‘mind maps’ like this one.
Drafting the legal content
The next phase of content development is for our legal team to make sense of the user journey map and draft the content of the AccessAva conversation and the letters that the user will be guided to.
Our legal team use the following principles to do this:
Focus on common legal issues faced by people who draw on social care and their family carers.
Address problems that are straightforward enough to unpick using a simple online ‘conversation’.
Prioritise areas where early legal help can add the most value (i.e. where a letter to the local authority is likely to move things forward for the user).
Making sure we are clear when a situation is likely to need legal advice and is too complex for AccessAva’s guidance is an important part of the service.
All of our legal team have experience doing casework for individuals who draw on social care, and so they are well placed to understand what actions are needed when, and the most effective messaging for our legal template letters.
Ensuring clarity as well as accuracy
It is really important that we get the balance between providing enough information about people’s rights to allow them to take action and being accessible enough that people will read on. So, the next phase is where we look at the content from different perspectives to ensure it works well for our users.
We review the drafts using our style guide, to make sure that it is in plain English, is relevant to the user’s situation, and that key concepts are identified when they are first introduced.
All new content is reviewed by an experienced member of our legal team, and where it is specialised or particularly complex, we have been lucky enough to have support from barristers’ chambers to quality assure this work.
Our user research panel and partner organisations also help us review and, where needed, revise the content drafts to improve their accessibility and relevance. This is particularly important for our easy read content, which is designed to convey information to users who have a learning disability.
Implementation (aka Loading the content on to AccessAva)
Next, our technical colleagues add the new content to our Content Management System, which works with AccessAva’s bespoke architecture to offer a selection of different user interface features, such as buttons, menus, and links to external sources. We create multiple versions of the content depending on whether the user is a person who draws on social care, a family carer, or a professional, so that the letters that are served make sense?.
Testing with you: making sure it works in the real world
User testing is the final step before we release the content to the public. We conduct detailed tests using scenarios which can be made up or might come from a real life issue the user has faced. This allows us to see if the user can find the information needed, and mirrors real life use of AccessAva, as well as helping us check for any errors in the implementation, such as missed connections, misspellings, or duplication.
Going live
Once any corrections or improvements are made, content is then released to the live version of AccessAva with the help of our Tech Team, at which point our users can access the information, resources, and template letters.
That’s not all…our commitment to staying up to date
As a service providing information about the law, we cannot be complacent about the content that we provide. We have a regular cycle of review of all content developed for AccessAva, including the conversations, factsheets, easy read documents, videos and template letters. These are checked by our legal team on a rolling basis, or when case law results in a need to change the text on AccessAva. We also welcome feedback from our users and our partners and regularly review feedback that our users submit.
Developing content for AccessAva is an exciting, interactive, and collaborative process, involving stakeholders, legal colleagues, our technical colleagues, and most importantly, people who draw on social care, their families, carers and supporters. We would not be able to create our service without their assistance.
Join us!
We are always looking for more participants to make sure we have a broad and diverse range of voices contributing to this process. If you think you could assist, please submit your details to join our user research panel.