Design thinking in digital communications

Communicating compellingly with online audiences using design thinking

This specialist course will help participants acquire a more methodical approach towards content decisions and writing copy for digital media. The course will show participants how they can create content that is of value to particular target audiences or customer segments.

The course is structured along the design thinking process:

Understand: Empathize with and define a user or customer point of view
Explore: Generate content ideas and create prototype
Materialize: Test ideas and implement improvements based on test results

Programme

Defining customer segments/user groups with personas and scenarios (goal-based information design) and other user research tools
Driving organic traffic to a website with valuable content, corporate blogging, infographics
Using low-, medium-, high-fidelity prototypes
Characteristics of interaction-based content, facilitating quick and accurate user appraisal
Concept of online authority
Concept of readability for web copywriters

Participants will listen to short lectures, develop and reflect on ideas in groups, develop and create a user point of view based on common user research methods, develop their own prototypes — using their own tool of choice — that they will test on each other. They will also create content that caters to the information needs of a specific customer segment or user group.

The course will be taught in English; however, it is also suitable for participants creating content in German. Support will be given for copywriting in English or German.

Individual support will be given during the course. After the course, participants are entitled to an hour of consulting, editorial and/or proofreading support within six months of course completion for content they created based on this course.