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From mindset to practice: Designing for inclusion and accessibility
Everything we build should be as inclusive, legible and readable as possible. If we have to sacrifice elegance – so be it… The people who most need our services are often the people who find them hardest to use. Let’s think about those people from the start. — UK Government Digital Service, principle number 6…
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Making readability and accessibility guidelines a non-negotiable requirement
Plain language and clear structure help everyone, including people with disabilities. Readability is a primary goal that guides all digital productions, from reports to social media content to presentations. Readable, accessible content is particularly necessary in public-facing communication. Plain language with common words helps more people to understand and make informed decisions. Clear structure and…
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Meaning, messaging, and creativity in the world of positive impact
Big Blue Content and Communications Specialist Zarif Faiaz talks with Director Sajid Chowdhury. They discuss meaning, messaging, and carving space for creativity in the world of positive impact. They explore the cynicism of the mob, cultural innovation, and the future of storytelling. Where does the work feel exciting right now? Definitely the international nature of…
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“Where is it?” Good filenaming improves search and efficiency
Big Blue uses a simple file naming convention. It works well for our particular environment. Teammates are from varying professional backgrounds, so we had varying opinions on good filenames. However, we all agreed that one system is better than several. Below is our file naming system. Risks of poor file naming Good file naming has…
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Big Blue Writing Style Guide 2022
This writing style guide applies to all content produced by Big Blue. To the extent possible, this writing style guide should be promoted to our clients for their own content, too. This applies to emails, social media posts, slide presentations, animation scripts, video scripts, blog posts, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, MailChimp, and our website. Public content…
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Empathy and diligence: Good design reviews foster creativity
What is a design review? Feedback processes are an important part of digital projects. These include websites, mobile apps, publications, animation, film, and branding projects. Good design reviews are productive, swift, and even enjoyable. Unstructured design reviews can waste resources and cause delays. They are among the large risks to good results. Design review participants…
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Big Blue’s Writing Style Guide 2021
Content influences thoughts, emotions, and actions. Big Blue’s writing style guide helps teammates to create clear, compelling content. This guide governs our writing for reports, stories, website and social content, scripts, and communication with partners. We often work with communications experts who manage complex content needs. We share our writing style guide here to help…
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Making moving messages: Visual storytelling insights
Animation and film productions can be hugely enjoyable and even life-changing. Below are insights that we have gathered to assist visual storytelling productions. These apply to life, too! Story and script Accessibility, inclusion, and being a sensitive person How to be an awesome person The more difficult stuff A final word You are a cool,…
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Order, order: Guidelines for visual storytelling productions
Create a collaborative workflow Stage 1: Script and concept Stage 2: Storyboards Stage 3: Production Stage 4: Deploy
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Context matters: Insights from challenge fund promotions
Grant funds, or innovation funds, are one way for the aid sector to distribute money. They may be large, long-term, international challenges, or they may be very localized grant opportunities for researchers or businesses in specific sectors. Awareness-raising among your target market can increase the number of quality applications and amount of industry interest in…
