Looking back on 2024

Laura Copestake, 17 December 2024, Content design

2024 has been a busy year working on projects with clients, training hundreds of professionals and attending and speaking at conferences around the country.

Along the way we've met many interesting people in different roles and industries, all with valuable perspectives on content.

Through these conversations a few clear themes have stood out, which will likely remain important as we move into 2025.

December is always a good time to reflect, so I asked the content team at CDL to share their top content topics of the year.

The case for content design

In 2024 content design has been finding its way into many corners of different industries, including product management and marketing. We've had people with a wide range of job roles connect with us and attend our courses.

Some of these people are senior stakeholders wanting to be proactive and change the way content is being created in their organisation. Some are practitioners trying to bring content design practices into their organisation from the bottom up.

Practitioners often find themselves in situations where they're having to sell the value of content design and their work to people higher up in decision-making positions. And they're not alone - at CDL we're always meeting content people in this position.

Changing the approach to content at an organisation can be exciting to some, but also scary to others, and I think as the profession keeps growing this task might become a bit easier.

If you're in this position, some of our blog posts might help:

User-centred design is still undervalued

Our senior content designer Nia attended GovCamp Cymru this year and ran a session on accountability in the Welsh public sector. Practitioners want to do better work, but well-intentioned senior leaders can become blockers.

During the session, they discussed accountability mechanisms for senior leaders, and why more user-centred design practitioners do not end up in leadership positions.

Practitioners are fighting the good fight, but it's clear there's still a long way to go to get senior leaders to value and use the expertise in their organisations.

Sarah Winters shared what change she would like to see for maintaining and designing content in government in our blog post 'Digital centre for government: content for all'. These practices could be extended to all organisations.

We also recommend reading Sara Wachter-Boettcher’s blog post 'Hey designers, they're gaslighting you'.

Why everyone's still talking about AI

One of the biggest talking points in the industry this year has been the growth of artificial intelligence (AI).

It's unlikely that you went a week in 2024 without seeing a webinar, article, or LinkedIn post about AI. It's become a part of many people's everyday lives - whether it's using ChatGPT at work, or using new AI features on your mobile phone.

The main thing we've noticed is more and more people using AI to create content. Whether that's using it as a starting point for a first draft, or as a supporting tool when stuck on tricky sentences.

It's fair to say that AI has split the industry. Some see the potential in how it could support them with their jobs. Some are cautious of the dangers and challenges it creates, for example:

its accuracy,
the environmental impact,
how it collects data,
the potential replacement of jobs currently done by humans.

At this point it's still unclear where AI is heading, and it's by no means perfect. But as Sarah Winters said in a recent LinkedIn post, "it's still going to happen and we're still going to have to crack on with it. It's going to be a lot better with us than without us."

The content community continues to grow

The Content Club has also had some great achievements this year. It reached a thousand members and has continued to become a hub of content activity - from supporting each other with job applications to working together to solve challenging content questions.

Content club is also a place to share and celebrate personal achievements.

For example, Carlota set up a localisation practice in their organisation. This meant changing design processes, training people, hiring an agency to do translations and hiring a localisation manager. The results are that localisation and content design now have more importance at their organisation.

This year Sadie had the opportunity to work on and shape a generative AI chat experience. As part of that they were able to take a hands-on approach in developing large language models for future AI-focused projects. They even placed first and second in this year's hackathon!

If you're not already a member but want to get involved, you can join the Content Club through our website.

Our plans for 2025

We've got lots of plans for next year - too many to include in this post! Here's a round up of what we're looking forward to the most in 2025.

Events

Next year we're planning to launch a new programme of training to support content designers as they develop in their careers.

We'll also continue to deliver some of our new courses, including Accessible Content Fundamentals.

Find out more about our courses.

Books

Next year, we plan to expand our selection of books. Coming out in spring 2025, we have 'Considerate Content: How to make your content more inclusive and accessible', with a focus on neurodivergence and health conditions. Combining tips, guidance, and research, Rebekah Barry explains what you can do to make your content more inclusive.

Then later in the year, we'll be publishing a practical guide to Content Delivery from Fiona Roberto.