Services
Services built around the order of things
Our services share one question: in what sequence should this material reach the person reading it? Each project answers that differently. The sections below describe the work we usually do and what you can expect to receive at the end of it.
Editorial structure
Finding the spine of a long document
We take a draft, a set of drafts or an unsorted archive and propose a structure: the sections, their sequence and the reason for each position. The structure is a working argument. We give it to you in writing so that you can test it, change it or reject it.
You receive:
- A section map with working titles and a sentence on why each section sits where it does.
- A list of material that does not fit the structure, with a suggestion for each item.
- A short note of open questions that only your team can answer.
Reviews
Information architecture reviews
Websites, intranets and digital archives all have a shape, whether anyone designed it or not. We review that shape by following real questions: finding a policy, locating a record, working out whether a program applies to a particular case. We write down each place where the path breaks, and why it breaks there.
You receive:
- A set of reader tasks drawn from the questions people actually ask your team.
- A route-by-route account of where the structure helps and where it fails.
- A recommended order of changes, starting with the ones that cost the least.
Finding aids
Indexes, glossaries and finding aids
A good index is the quiet part of a book or an archive. Readers rarely praise it, and they rely on it constantly. We build indexes, glossaries and finding aids that follow the words your readers use, not only the words in your filing system. Where the two disagree, we record both, so that nobody is left searching in the wrong vocabulary.
You receive:
- An index or finding aid written for the people who will search it.
- Cross-references that send a reader from the term they know to the term they need.
- A note on the decisions made, so that the next editor can carry the work on.
Publication design
Editions that read in the right order
We design print and screen editions around an editorial serif, measured line lengths and headings that tell a reader what is coming. We pay as much attention to the sequence of pages as to their appearance. A handsome page in the wrong place still wastes the reader's time.
You receive:
- A typographic system that works with the fonts you already hold, or with the system fonts on every device.
- A page sequence and navigation plan for the final format.
- Production notes for your printer or your web team, written in plain language.
Workshops
Working sessions for in-house teams
Some teams want to make ordering decisions themselves, and they should. We run working sessions in which your staff group, sequence and test their own material. The aim is a team that can take on the next project without us, and that knows why the last one worked.
You receive:
- Sessions built on your own documents rather than on generic examples.
- A short guide your team keeps, covering the decisions the session produced.
Process
How a project usually runs
- First conversation
- We talk about the material, the people who read it and the point where the current version fails. There is no proposal yet, only listening.
- Listing
- We write down everything we are given, including the parts you hoped to leave out.
- Proposal
- You receive a structure, the reasons for it and a short list of choices that belong to your team rather than to us.
- Testing
- We check the order with people who have not seen it before, then revise it. The test is part of the work, not an optional extra.
Limits
What we do not do
We do not write copy designed to persuade, and we do not fill pages so that they look finished. We do not promise that a document will be read. We can make it easier to read, which is a narrower claim, and the only one we are willing to make.
Next step
If a project is on your desk, tell us about it.
Write to hello@ukaia.agency with a short description of the material and the reader. We will tell you honestly whether we are the right people for it, and what a first conversation would cover.