Communication Untangled Sookio

Iain Boyd and Adam Robertson from GOV.UK Forms at the Government Digital Service join us to share best practice in designing online forms to capture information efficiently and ethically. Plus, discover the dark patterns on the web which set out to trick us into doing things we never set out to do.
Online forms. They’re either so intuitive you hardly notice you’ve filled them in. Or they take so long to complete that you just lose the will to live.
Or maybe you’re the one creating the form and trying to gather the information. People just don’t fill them in properly! How can you work with data that’s incomplete?
An organisation dealing with this issue on a massive scale is Government Digital Service, who are behind GOV.UK, the website for the UK Government.
More than 13m people use GOV.UK weekly, and more than 1bn transactions are completed a year – things like filing a tax return or renewing your passport. GDS are introducing their new Forms Builder to make Government forms more accessible.
Our two guests on this episode are both from GOV.UK Forms at Government Digital Service. They share best practice in designing online forms so that not only do more people fill them in – but you get accurate data too:
Adam Robertson, Senior Product ManagerIain Boyd, Engagement Lead at GOV.UK at the UK Government Digital Service and Iain Boyd from GDS
And in complete contrast to this ethical, transparent approach, you’ll find out about dark patterns on the web, and why Amazon, Google, Meta and the makers of Fortnite are being fined millions of dollars for tricking users into doing things they simply never set out to do. And who’s clamping down on nudges and sludges, biased framing and confirmshaming once and for all?
Show notes
GOV.UK Forms builder tool: “Create an accessible online form in minutes without needing technical knowledge”
Government Digital Service service manual. Accessibility, measurement, research, good design practice…it’s all in here!
GDS blog: How we’re opening up access to GOV.UK forms
GDS blog: Making it easy to create and publish digital forms on GOV.UK
About dark patterns
Visit Harry Brignull’s website, Deceptive Patterns for a full description of the term and some pretty horrifying examples in the Hall of Shame!
The autofill dark pattern
UK regulators target dark patterns
National Law Review: FTC report shows increase in dark patterns
ICO and CMA clamp down on dark patterns in the UK

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Sean Willard from The Menu Engineers joins communications specialist Sue Keogh to talk about menu design. What big shifts are we seeing in this post-pandemic era? How do the fonts, colours and material they’re printed on affect our choices? And why should every restaurant offer something that lets you blow the budget?
Plus! How does Netflix use idleness aversion in their menu to keep us endlessly scrolling through?
No one understands more about the psychology of designing a menu than Sean Willard from The Menu Engineers.
He’s got over two decades in the restaurant trade. Starting out in a steakhouse at 18, he went on to study at Cornell’s prestigious Hotel School under the tutelage of Gregg Rapp, who laid the foundations for the techniques The Menu Engineers use today to optimise menus.
We talk about the huge shifts in menu design in this post-pandemic era. How the fonts, colours and material they’re printed on affect our choices. And why every restaurant should have an item on the menu that lets you really blow the budget.
Along the way, we’ll look at how entertainment giant Netflix uses idleness aversion tactics in its menu design to help us pick what we want to watch out of thousands of titles. 
About Sean Willard
Sean Willard is a seasoned Menu Engineer dedicated to assisting restaurateurs and hospitality operators worldwide in the creation of optimised menus. His approach melds the precision of science, the finesse of art, the insights of data, and a wealth of industry experience to empower restaurateurs in crafting menus that not only bolster profitability but also elevate the overall guest dining experience.
With a distinguished academic background from Cornell’s prestigious Hotel School and an extensive tenure within the restaurant industry spanning over two decades, Sean brings a wealth of knowledge and practical expertise to the realm of Menu Engineering.
His journey into this specialised field was cultivated under the mentorship of the late Gregg Rapp, a luminary in the discipline who laid the foundations for many of the methodologies and principles still revered today.
Get in touch with Sean via menuEngineers.com, on Instagram or LinkedIn. 

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Designer Harry Pearce from Pentagram joins communications specialist Sue Keogh to talk about the visual identities he’s developed for V&A South Kensington, Liberty and Moth drinks – and why brand guidelines are critical in keeping everything beautifully consistent across print, packaging and digital formats.
We also take a look at NASA, and how their Graphic Standards Manual shows the brand evolution from a meatball...to a worm. 
If you walk through the British supermarket Waitrose or a major department store like John Lewis or Liberty London…Or if you visit a world-class gallery like the V&A South Kensington….or pour yourself a cocktail from Moth drinks in its beautifully textured tin...you'll see Harry Pearce's work.
He's a graphic designer from celebrated design studio Pentagram, a collective of partners worldwide, formed in 1972, who are behind the brand identities for names you might just recognise – like Channel 4, Pink Floyd Records, Reddit, Natural History Museum, Rolls Royce…it just goes on and on!
You'll see beautiful examples on the portfolio pages on their website, along with the brand guidelines that underpin all this striking work and hearing Harry explain how he developed the visual language for Liberty’s new line of gender neutral fragrances LBTY.
And in this episode you'll find out why brand guidelines exist, why they're important, or what the damage can be if we don't stick to them!
We'll also take a look at NASA and how their brand has moved from a meatball...to a worm. And the guidelines that helps everyone get it right!
Show notes
Harry works alongside so many creative geniuses on these projects, including designer and Pentagram partner Marina Willer, who created the Young V&A identity work. Writers on the overall V&A project were Naresh Ramchandani and Ashley Johnson.

Creative Review article on the new V&A Museum branding and visual identityPentagram case study: Liberty LBTYPentagram case study: V&A South KensingtonHarry’s bio on PentagramNASA Graphics Standards Manual from 1975NASA Brand CenterNASA Brand Guidelines 2024 
 About Harry Pearce
Having studied at Canterbury College of Art, Harry co-founded and ran Lippa Pearce Design before becoming a Pentagram Partner in 2006.
He has devised identities, installations, posters, packaging, books for; Liberty, Thames & Hudson, Guggenheim, Royal Academy of Arts, Phaidon Press, Pink Floyd, Shakespeare’s Globe, PEN International, and the UN. Since 1993 he has been an active member of the advisory board for WITNESS.
Books; Typographic Conundrums and Eating with the Eyes.

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Communication Untangled is the podcast which explores the tiny facets of communication which influence our behaviour – but often go unnoticed.
Host Sue Keogh has been fascinated with communications her whole career.
From her time crafting content with the BBC, ITV, Yahoo, AOL, and GOV.UK….to running a marketing agency in Cambridge for over 15 years…she's worked across print, digital, radio, video, social media….and she's seen how – so many times – it’s actually the minutiae of communications that shapes the way we think and behave.
In this series you’ll learn about the psychology of menu design. How rival designers tested motorway typography in the 1950s, at speed. The powerful impact of online reviews on your bottom line. Why we process black and white images faster than colour. The dark patterns at play on the websites you visit every day. And which brand guidelines feature a worm and a meatball…
Each time, she'll be joined by a guest who’s an expert in their field to help me untangle communication – and discover the subtle changes you can make to convey your ideas more powerfully in your marketing, business or brand.
Click subscribe to make sure you don’t miss an episode.
Production: Rob Birnie at Made By DBM
Host and series : Sue Keogh, Sookio

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