I'm Iain Broome and Very Meta is my freelance content design studio. I’ve been writing and designing with words for more than 20 years. I’m currently working on an important, challenging project with the team at Public Digital. I also recently developed two guides on how to create accessible green and blue spaces for The Wildlife Trusts.Email: [email protected]
LinkedIn: @iainbroome

Recent projects

Content strategy for a brand new area of GOV.UK

Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities

The culmination of a year’s worth of research into the local plan-making process, I wrote a content strategy for a new area of GOV.UK dedicated to local plans. Specifically, these pages will feature guidance that helps local planning authorities create and update their plan.The strategy includes user and business needs, content principles, governance processes and workflows, and a narrow selection of content types. It will provide the foundations for policymakers to work closely with a small team of user-centred designers as they collaborate on content.Agency: TPXimpact

Redesigning the local plan-making process

Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities

For most of 2023 and early 2024, I was lead content designer on a series of alpha and discovery projects.Part of a larger programme of digital transformation work, the aim was to make creating and publishing Local Plans faster and more accessible. I worked alongside service designers, interaction designers and subject matter experts from a specialist planning consultancy.I mapped existing processes, developed multiple user journeys, defined and prioritised user needs, prototyped new concepts, and carried out user research with dozens of local planning authorities, proptech companies and residents.Agency: TPXimpact

Producing the Kinship Together podcast

Kinship

I produced a new podcast for the charity, Kinship, which features interviews with six kinship carers. I did the whole shebang, from planning and interviewing to editing and publishing. To help promote the show, I took some of the best audio clips and turned them into short video content ideal for Kinship’s social channels.Listen to Kinship Together

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About me

I am a freelance content designer and occasional podcast producer. I founded Very Meta in 2017 and since then I’ve worked on projects for a diverse collection of lovely clients. Most recently, I’ve taken senior and lead content design roles working on projects typically in the public and charity sectors.I’m a big fan of making complex things sound simple and I’m a plain English specialist. But as you probably know, content design is about far more than words. So it’s handy that I also enjoy getting my teeth into user research, prototyping, journey mapping and all the other gubbins needed to make services work well.One of the great things about working with public sector teams is I often get to pass on the stuff I know, so they can do it themselves. That might mean some good listening on my part to make sure they get the right content strategy, guidelines or even people in place. But it can also mean hands-on content work or plain English training that helps build their practical skills.What am I like to work with? The feedback I often receive suggests I’m calm, positive, always open and generally very optimistic about designing content that really helps people.

Kind words

Clients and colleagues

In no particular order, here’s a list of organisations I’ve written, designed and produced content both for and with over the years

Previous projects

Advice and guidance content for kinship carers

Kinship

Over seven months, I researched and wrote detailed advice content for a new website from Kinship, the leading charity for kinship carers in England and Wales. I had to work closely with Kinship’s fantastic team of advisers to make sure the guidance was accurate and legally sound, but also written in clear language.Visit the guidance section of the Kinship website

Content strategy to embed human-centred design principles

NHS Blood and Transplant

I spent two months working with NHS Blood and Transplant to produce a content and communications plan that would help the organisation make human-centred design (HCD) a key part of its strategy over the next five years. The plan included new information architecture and content to be published on NHS Blood and Transplant’s internal Sharepoint site. It also featured recommendations and a roadmap for developing content designed to build colleagues’ HCD skills and understanding.Agency: TPXimpact

Alpha user-centred, open intranet

Essex County Council

I was lead content designer on a project to create an alpha version of an open intranet. The idea was to test the feasibility of an open-by-default platform available for anyone to see at any time, on any device.Working with Essex’s in-house content design team, we prioritised key user journeys and developed riskiest assumptions to test with council staff. We then prototyped new information architecture and content for pages that showed an updated user journey for booking annual leave.Our work passed its GDS service assessment and the intranet is well into its beta phase of development.Agency: TPXimpact

Guidance and support website for special guardians

Buckinghamshire Council

I was part of a team that created a dedicated website featuring information and support for special guardians.Working closely with the council’s advice team and a group of special guardians, we co-designed both the site’s information architecture and support content. I wrote more than 70 pages of plain English advice across nine common themes.Since the site went live, the council has seen four times as many people seeking support over the previous year. Crucially, those guardians are making contact earlier too – before they are at crisis point.Agency: TPXimpact

Platform to help people build digital skills

Good Things Foundation

Funded by Google.org, Make It Click was a new platform that helps people independently improve their digital skills.Good Things Foundation is the UK’s leading digital inclusion charity. It has Online Centres across the country and a fantastic online platform called Learn My Way, which helps people gain basic computer skills. Where Learn My Way is for people new to technology, Make It Click was about helping people build on what they know and make a positive change in their career.As lead content designer, I developed the initial concept and tested it with learners to gather initial user needs. I went on to research, write and test all content on Make It Click.The platform was one of a handful featured on GOV.UK at the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic as a recommended source of digital skills learning content.Sadly, Make It Click is no longer updated or maintained.

Podcasting the Trans Pyrenees race

Lost Dot

In 2022, I travelled to the Pyrenees mountains where I carried out on-location interviews, wrote daily scripts, recorded an overarching narrative and essentially produced the official podcast for the second Trans Pyrenees ultra-distance cycling race (TPR).I’ve since produced the podcast for the third edition of the TPR, as well as the ninth Transcontinental Race (TCR), the world’s toughest and best-known ultra-distance cycling event.Listen to the Lost Dot podcast

Turning eight council websites into two

North and West Northamptonshire Councils

A six-month project to turn eight borough council websites into two new unitary sites.As part of a large, multidisciplinary team, I developed and tested content and wireframes for the new sites. That work included content types and patterns that would later form part of a new content strategy and style guide for both councils to follow.Once the two sites went live, I continued to support two content designers, one from each council, to develop the strategy and systems that would see them migrate hundreds of pages of content.As well as writing a new content strategy for the team, I developed training materials, including introductory workshops on plain English and content design.Agency: Futuregov

A new user research insights library

HM Land Registry

I was content design lead on a six-week discovery project for HM Land Registry. We interviewed user researchers, designers and product owners to understand their process and how they currently share research. Using Airtable as a database and Carrd for the front end, we then created an alpha version of the library for the Land Registry team to start using and testing.Agency: Futuregov

Digital site notices and a planning playbook

Camden Council

This alpha project saw me create and test concepts for a new digital planning site notice.I carried out user research with residents and the council’s planning team before developing a series of prototypes primarily for mobile. The aim was to create a more accessible, engaging site notice that could be used by everyone in the community.Separately, I developed and tested the information architecture and content for a new Camden ‘planning playbook’.Read more about the projectAgency: Futuregov

Eden Project Communities

Eden Project

I was senior producer and content lead on a project to build a new social action platform that celebrates communities around the UK. I ran an extensive discovery phase, which included surveying and interviewing key user groups and stakeholders across the country. I also carried out a full content audit, built wireframes and prototypes, then helped the team at Eden develop a new content strategy and systems for creating and maintaining content.Agency: Yoomee

Exciting extras

Very Meta is the freelance home of content designer, Iain Broome (👋). I’m currently using my 20 years’ experience on projects that aim to make public sector services better.

Email: [email protected]
LinkedIn: @iainbroome
Bluesky: @iainbroome.comCompany number: 09075707

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