Before you rewrite anything:  
the real work of content optimisation 

Page last updated: 14 November 2025

Contents

Introduction: why optimise before rewriting

The difference between content editing and optimising

Let's be honest. Rewrites, while being stressful, can also be stimulating. Just hear me out. 

The idea of correcting a subpar text has long appealed to those of us passionate about writing, and we often jump at the chance to scratch that editorial itch. 

And why shouldn't we? Rewrites make us feel productive, creative and in control. But here's the thing—most "copy issues" aren't really about the words. They're about a lack of clarity, structure and purpose. It’s these parts of the re-write process that take time to understand. Before content designers touch a single line, they look for what's there and what's missing. In other words, they optimise the content; they don’t just edit it. 

Content optimisation is the deliberate process of improving how content performs—for users, products and organisations—before writing something new. 
"In the discipline of UX and content design, content optimisation isn't about rewriting faster; it's about understanding better."
- Anupriy Kanti.

The history of content optimisation

1997

To see where the thinking of content optimisation comes from, let's take a short stroll down history lane. The idea of optimisation traces back to usability and information design. When Jakob Nielsen and John Morkes (1997) showed that web readers scan more than they read, they set the foundation for a practice rooted in efficiency, comprehension and clarity. 

2000s

As the Web matured, the focus widened. In the 2000s, Kristina Halvorson's Content Strategy for the Web reframed editing as something broader, prioritising governance and process, establishing optimisation as a lifecycle and not just a quick fix. 

2010s

By the 2010s, Gerry McGovern's Top Tasks model and the team working on GOV.UK under Sarah Winters made optimisation measurable and inclusive. They linked web optimisation directly to task success and accessibility by design. 

2020s

Throughout the 2020s, as content design matured in organisations like Atlassian, Intuit, and the Australian Government, optimisation became baked into design systems, tone frameworks and cross-functional workflows. It evolved into a shared responsibility across disciplines, rather than a single step in the process. 

Content optimisation and AI

Now, you might think, “Today, AI can create polished text in seconds—so do we really need to spend time thinking about optimisation, when we can ask the tool to do it?” 

Well, you can. But the real, and more complex, task is deciding what deserves to exist. Content optimisation is not a trivial post-edit step that we should delegate to machines. It's an act of prioritisation that demands perspective and sense-making—tasks that, for now, still belong to humans. 

The better we optimise content—its meaning, purpose, and structure—the less rewriting we'll need. 

What "content optimisation" really means (beyond copy tweaks)

In the design contexts, content optimisation has always been about making content work for those who create it and for those who consume it. 

That brings us to the next natural question: “What is it about 'the content' that we are optimising?” 

Building on decades of UX evolution, we can understand optimisation through 5 key parameters. 

Parameter 1. Information

By information, we're talking about the data, knowledge or material we pass on—and make sense of—when we receive it. It asks what users actually need to complete their task —an insight that comes from research, analytics and feedback.

Parameter 2. Language

By language, we mean the shared system and syntax we use to communicate clearly. Here, we refine wording, tone and voice so that content not only informs but also guides action. 

Parameter 3. Personality

By personality, we mean the traits expressed through content—the emotional and cultural fingerprint of a product. It's not just about sounding friendly; it's about being culturally sensitive and context-aware across channels.

Parameter 4. Architecture

Architecture gives language a home. It expands "structure" into how information is organised, surfaced and sequenced. From headers and sub-headers to navigation labels and body copy, every design choice shapes comprehension and flow. 

Parameter 5. Accessibility

Accessibility is the base of any inclusive content. It goes beyond compliance to embrace cognitive ease.  

From a content perspective, accessibility includes:
  • clear layouts
  • readable text
  • descriptive alt text
  • equitable access for everyone.

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Writing accessible content doesn’t just mean hitting a high readability score. It means writing for devices, screens and controls that are used by people with disabilities.

From parameters to principles

The 5 parameters keep content optimisation holistic rather than just a quick rewrite of a word. They help connect words to systems and intentions. Together, they form the frame that ensures optimised content is not only what sounds good but also what embodies other essential qualities.

To understand how, we need to shift our lens and ask, “What should content become when it’s optimised?” 

While there's no single answer, I often return to 6 core qualities that my teams and I have relied on—rooted in UX writing heuristics and best practices (Heuristics, here, are mental shortcuts that help us make practical assessments).

The 6 qualities of optimised content

For ease of remembering, I call this the 2CUE Quality Framework—two C’s, two U’s, and two E’s.
1. Concise
2. Clear
3. Usable
4. Useful
5. Ethical
6. Empowering
The first 4, Concise, Clear, Usable, Useful, come from long-standing UX writing principles and appear across many content design systems and style guides. 

For example, UX writer Maria Juwita, in her piece, Understanding the Basic Principles in UX Writing: Clear, Concise, and Useful, explains how these 3 traits make digital communication more efficient and empathetic.  

Similarly, the Content Design Principles article from the UX Design Institute highlights clarity and conciseness as foundations for user trust and comprehension. 

The last 2, Ethical and Empowering, are my personal additions, shaped by today's realities:
  • Ethical: in an age of misinformation, optimisation must ensure content is not only helpful but also honest and beneficial. 
  • Empowering: in a world of digital fatigue, content should help people feel capable, confident, and in control. 

How to use the 6 content optimisation qualities

These 6 qualities serve as a quick sense-check before rewriting begins. But a word of caution: the goal of optimisation shouldn't be to chase these qualities as abstract ideals, it's to make content naturally embody them. Validation comes not from a checklist, but from observing users succeed. 

In today's AI-driven landscape, these checks are even more critical. While tools can fast-track output, every AI-generated line still inherits human bias and systemic assumptions. Good content optimisation helps us spot those blind spots. It prevents the unintentional scaling of hidden content debt hardening into the product experience. 

And of course, these 6 qualities are not exhaustive. There are several thoughtful frameworks for what good content design looks like (such as Nikki Fiedler's), which detail how clarity, purpose and inclusivity come together in practice. It's essential to treat such frameworks as a compass, not as commandments. Use them as starting points, and then refine, remix and adapt them for your own context. 

But before we apply any of this, let's look at where the need for content optimisation actually shows up.

Types of content optimisation projects

Not all content optimisation projects look the same.  

They vary in scale, scope and complexity. However, they do share one goal: to make existing content work smarter without having to start entirely from scratch (though sometimes, a complete rewrite is the wiser choice). 

Across teams and products, 3 broad types of optimisation efforts emerge: 

  1. Focused Fixes.
  2. Deep Overhauls.
  3. Continuous Refinements.

1. Focused Fixes

Focused Fixes are targeted interventions in high-impact areas such as:
  • onboarding screens 
  • pricing pages
  • help centres
  • account setup flows. 
Fixes are quick with improvements that address friction where users most often stumble. Data is your best ally here. Analytics, heatmaps, support logs and user feedback point to patterns you can act on.  

Since these projects have a contained scope, they are ideal for AI-assisted exploration.  

You can use AI to:
  • generate alternative phrasings
  • test content variations 
  • identify readability gaps.  
The key is evidence, not instinct. Measure the results through task completion, conversion or reduced support tickets. 

When done well, a Focused Fix proves that small changes can create significant improvements. For example, you can build momentum (and stakeholder confidence) for larger optimisation work.

2. Deep Overhauls

Deep Overhaul projects happen during redesigns, rebrands or migrations. It’s the kind of content optimisation project where years of accumulated content are suddenly under scrutiny.  

As the content designer or product team, you inherit everything: valuable material mixed with duplication, redundancy and inconsistency. The goal here is not only to trim volume but to restore coherence and meaning. 

The groundwork comes from:
  • auditing
  • content mapping
  • redirect planning
  • information architecture testing 
  • utilisation of structured content models (CMS templates, taxonomy clean-ups, component libraries).
All of this work helps to future-proof the digital ecosystem. 

You can use AI to support the heavy lifting by asking it to:
  • cluster duplicate pages
  • summarise large content sets
  • detect tone inconsistencies.  
But remember, decisions about what to retain, rewrite or retire still require human judgment, empathy and context. 

Deep Overhauls are rarely quick wins, yet they exhibit organisational design maturity: whether an organisation values actual sense-making over surface polish.

3. Continuous Refinements

When optimisation becomes a recurring practice rather than a one-off performance, it shows up as regular content reviews. These reviews include checking accessibility, updating examples or evolving tone as user needs shift. 

In mature teams, this work is built into quarterly or biannual cadences and often tied to metrics such as search accuracy, satisfaction scores or reductions in cognitive load.

Tip

The best organisations treat content optimisation as hygiene — ongoing maintenance that prevents any debt rather than something requiring an emergency clean-up. 

Continuous Refinements are the ideal content optimisation project where humans can collaborate with AI sustainably. 

Use AI to:
  • flag readability drift
  • identify accessibility errors
  • provide content improvement recommendations by referring to design system guidance.
UX writers and content designers review AI outputs and can decide how to fix content issues with intent. Think of this type of work as tuning, not rewriting. It’s all about small, steady calibrations that keep the experience relevant and reliable.

Content optimisation is about conviction 

Across all 3 types, the same realities persist: inherited content, organisational resistance, and the pressure for visible results.  

In less UX-mature environments, UX writers and content designers often have to prove the worth of doing UX content before optimisation (read: Show evidence of impact on the business) before they earn the space and time to do it properly. That's why content optimisation isn't just about craft but also about conviction. 

Levels of content optimisation practice

How you apply optimisation depends on your level of influence—and, to some degree, your role.  

No matter where you work or where you are in the hierarchy, the same principles for content apply. What changes is how you put them into practice.

Level 1: Craft control: (content optimisation as an individual practice)

If you're a UX writer or content designer early in your career, your focus is usually on the minute details. That level of focus means not limiting yourself to single-copy line fixes, but improving content at a screen, module or flow level. 

To optimise content, you can start by:
  • shaping content around user goals
  • using evidence-based writing: what has worked before, what research or feedback shows, and what the task needs
  • experimenting with AI for speed—but not as a replacement. However, use prompting only to explore ideas, not to let AI make the final decisions.
The aim at this level is to make minor, quick improvements so you can test, learn and adjust before involving others (though that is not required).

Example of craft control

When refining onboarding screens, you, as a UX writer, might check drop-off data, test shorter phrases with an AI assistant, and validate improvements with a few quick usability sessions.

The focus at this level is on positive change through iteration.

Level 2: Collaborative influence (content optimisation as a team function) 

Ideally, anyone can bring about change, but it's usually leaders and managers who shape the process to enforce it.  

If you lead or manage a content team, your goal should be to make content optimisation visible and repeatable. 

You can optimise content by:
  • starting small by running quick exercises, finding patterns and sharing early wins
  • building prompt libraries, sharing taxonomies and running regular content optimisation sprints
  • using AI tools (like Cursor, Lovable, or Figma Make) to create quick prototypes that help get early feedback and buy-in from Product and Engineering.
Collaboration is the key. AI can act as a co-pilot for speed, but you need to pilot the project. Work with UX Designers to adjust layouts that support your optimised content.

Showing precise results (like fewer user errors, fewer support tickets or faster task completion) is more important than the volume of copies rewritten.   

Aim to show not just an output, but a visible outcome. 

Example of collaborative influence

When my role expanded from UX Design Lead to managing a content team, I found the writers overworked and unsure where to start. The backlog felt impossible. Realising that the issue wasn't skill but coordination, we ran quick "content design sprints"—like design & engineering sprints—auditing content across flows, one parameter at a time. 

The task of optimising content was not just doable but also made easier by having Product, Engineering, and Marketing teams join the session. What started as a catch-up became collective progress, turning optimisation into a shared and valued effort.

Level 3: Strategic investment (content optimisation as an organisational enabler)

Junior and mid-level content designers often do the optimisation, but middle managers make it sustainable. They embed content optimisation into the organisational culture and processes. 

You can lead content optimisation by:
  • defining content-health metrics that reflect your organisation's goals and maturity
  • embedding accessibility and readability into your team's "definition of done"
  • using AI to build and maintain your content design system.
But even as AI manages the mechanics, leaders must keep ethics, inclusion and accountability at the centre. 

As a content design director or vice president, your work on content optimisation is about helping leadership see it as more than an operational activity, but as a strategic investment. You need to demonstrate how content optimisation strengthens how the organisation communicates and delivers its products and services.

Example of strategic investment

In another instance, I led an initiative to bring content reviews into our product design governance process. Earlier, content checks only happened at the end—after design approval. By integrating a "content optimisation checkpoint" before sign-off, we reduced redundant rewrites and ensured accessibility compliance became standard practice rather than a post-launch patch.  

Over time, team culture shifted. Optimisation was no longer seen as a "nice-to-have"; it became a shared accountability built into how we shipped products. 

A summary of content optimisation strategy

If there's one thread running through every level of content optimisation, it’s that clarity of thought comes before changes to the text.  

Whether you're refining a sentence or reshaping an entire system, the most valuable work happens before you start rewriting. 

Content optimisation begins not with action, but with inquiry. It’s the habit of asking better questions.

Before you rewrite anything, ask:
  • Why is a rewrite needed?
  • What type of rework is this? A Focused Fix, Deep Overhaul, or Continuous Refinement? 
  • Which level can I drive today? As an Individual Practice, Team Function, or Strategic Investment? 
  • Where should I focus first? On information, language, personality, information architecture or accessibility? 
  • How can I measure the impact of content? Is it concise, clear, usable, useful, ethical and empowering? 
These questions keep you grounded in purpose before momentum takes over. They turn optimisation from a reactive clean-up into an intentional practice. They remind you that rewriting is rarely the beginning, and almost always the result of clearer understanding.

The real work of optimisation

No matter your level, the real work of optimisation lies in sense-making, not status. It's about aligning meaning across every layer of the organisation—whether by rewriting a sentence, refining a process or reshaping how teams think about content altogether. 

For all its frameworks and processes, content optimisation begins with a simple moment: looking closer before moving faster. 

Think through the problem and the process before you draft the deliverable. Align what already exists with what's actually needed, instead of starting over by default.  

When done well, optimisation:
  • reduces friction for users
  • prevents rework for teams
  • builds lasting trust in the product.
When you feel the urge to "fix the copy" or "rewrite the flow," remember that words don't stand alone but function within systems of decisions and experiences.  

In the age of AI, content optimisation isn't about humans correcting machine output. It's about human intention guiding machine direction — ensuring that technology accelerates clarity, not confusion. 

And, most importantly, enjoy the process.
"The true joy of rewriting is the learning it brings. While good UX writing may fix copy, it’s good content optimisation that elevates communication—and the experience it lives in."
- Anupriy Kanti.
Anupriy Kanti

Author bio

Anupriy Kanti is a UX and Content Design Leader with over 13 years of experience shaping product experiences across design agencies and unicorn product companies. Alongside leading end-to-end UX, he has built and scaled content design practices into independent yet integrated functions, advocating for content as a strategic force within product teams.

His work has led to the creation of tested frameworks, processes, and rituals, many of which now live on as adaptable playbooks for organisations.
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