User-centric content to drive sustainable change

When the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) embarked on their first web redesign in over a decade, the Responsible Business Conduct (RBC) team brought The Distillery on board to rethink messaging and create content that would resonate with audiences. 

Considering the OECD's scope and complex ambitions, it was no surprise that the existing website was a relatively complex maze of overly technical and inconsistent messaging. So the first thing we did with the RBC team was take everything back to the drawing board and start fresh to reestablish a clear and concise value proposition.

Reestablish your organisational goals

It's easy to talk about what your organisation does while losing sight of what your goals really are. Existing RBC pages were a prime example of this: they presented the activities of the team at length without conveying a clear, overarching objective nor how these activities contributed to reaching it.

To re-establish this critical information, I interviewed each of the team’s leaders in finance, technology, minerals, fashion and agriculture. We explored not only what they did, but more importantly, what they hoped to achieve and why they thought this was important for audiences.

What came out of the interviews:

1. Our first goal is to set international standards. We work with policymakers to set standards ranging from legally binding decisions and international agreements to non-binding recommendations and declarations.

2. Our second goal is to educate business leaders. We share information with corporates to help them comply with regulations, meet expectations, mitigate risks and improve their sustainability performance.  

3. Our third and ultimate goal is to change the way enterprises do business - and to have a positive impact on people and the planet. We help industries reduce their negative impacts on society. 

   
   

Put yourself in the shoes of your audience

The foundation of user-first content is based on a deep understanding of your audience. During the interview process, we therefore took time to analyse their target audience’s goals, preferences, pain points, interests and aspirations. This would help us to create content and navigation that spoke directly to audiences, increase audience engagement and drive the kind of sustainability transformation the RBC team was ultimately after.

What came out of the interviews:

	Policy makers	Corporates	Investors	Society
Aspirations	Policymakers aim to create and implement policies that address societal needs, promote stability, and drive progress.	Business leaders aim to achieve a mix of financial success, innovation, and long-term impact.	Investors focused on sustainability aim to align financial returns with positive environmental, social, and governance (ESG) impacts.	Its in the best interests of society for businesses to focus on sustainable development, ethical practices, and overall well-being.
Pain points	Lack of Corporate Compliance & Accountability, Weak or Inconsistent Regulations, Resistance from Businesses, Balancing Economic Growth & Social Responsibility, Globalization & Supply Chain Challenges...	High Costs & Financial Pressure, Measuring CSR Impact & ROI, Compliance & Regulatory Complexity, Greenwashing Accusations, Supply Chain Challenges, Balancing Stakeholder Expectations...	Lack of Standardized CSR Metrics, Greenwashing & Misleading CSR Claims, Balancing Profitability & Social Impact, Regulatory Uncertainty & Policy Changes, Lack of Transparency in Supply Chains...	Greenwashing & False CSR Claims, Lack of Accountability & Enforcement, Ethical Choices vs. Affordability, Mismatch Between CSR and Local Needs...

Refine your value proposition

Once organisational goals were established and audience needs analysed, it was time to lay out a clear and concise value proposition. We focused on keeping messages concise and consistent across industry-specific pages. And by breaking down complex concepts into digestible chunks, we made it easier for users to grasp the gist of content quickly.

With this in mind, we broke the RBC value proposition into three key points:

1. We help you understand how businesses impact people and the planet.

2. We help businesses take steps to reach RBC standards and comply with rules and regulations.

3. We create conditions where businesses can improve performance in ways that align with societal and environmental needs.

Create your information architecture

In UX design, the information architecture (IA) of a website refers to two things:

1. The practice of deciding how to organise and maintain your content, what the relationships are between each piece of content, and how content is visibly displayed on your website’s navigation.

2. The website’s structure, its organisation, and the nomenclature of its navigation elements. The website’s IA refers to how information is organised, structured, and presented on that website.

   
   

Our information architecture focused first on clearly presenting the refined OECD-RBC value proposition. In other words, landing pages were designed to help audiences grasp core RBC concepts and understand how the OECD could help tackle pain points and achieve goals.

Then pages were designed to offer seamless pathways for audiences to follow, allowing them to dive deeper into the information that was most relevant to them - from key messages and context to tools for practitioners by sector. Calls to action were designed to empower users to access actionable information: step-by-step instructions, practical tips, or interactive tools and resources.

results and takeaways

We created content that speaks to the needs of target audiences: While drafting new content for the OECD website, we focused our efforts on delivering valuable insights that target audiences could apply. Best practice: Speak to your audience's true pain points to create better audience engagement and build a sense of trust and loyalty.

We created content that's clear and concise: We focused on simplifying content by removing industry jargon and providing practical examples. Best practice: Avoid unclear, jargon-heavy, ambiguous or inconsistent messages which may confuse visitors and diminish trust.

We gave audiences intuitive access to tools and resources: Our aim was to explain core concepts and then facilitate deeper dives. Best practice: Ensure audiences can quickly comprehend the purpose of your site and how to navigate it.

By investing time in enhancing the clarity of RBC content, we weren't just improving aesthetic or navigational elements; we were improving the ability of the RBC team to drive impact.

Project details

Project: OECD - RBC web content redesign

Role: The Distillery was brought on as a "Content Strategy Consultant" to assist the Responsible Business Conduct team in reimagine their web content

Timeline: 3 months

Budget: €6 000

Launch date: July 2024