Skip to profile

Natalie S.

Content/service design lead, trust and safety product expert

I'm a fractional design consultant, specialising in content design, design strategy and service design. I have 12+ years of experience across big tech, charities, government and startups.

I spent 6.5 years in-house at Meta (Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, AR/VR) in trust and safety, customer support, AI, policy design, privacy and responsible innovation. I was a founding member of the GOV.UK content design team at the Government Digital Service (GDS), and I specialise in writing clearly, accessibly, sensitively and for scale.

I'm especially interested in the social and behavioural impact of design. I solve complex problems creatively, balancing user needs with business objectives and technological constraints.

---

Focus areas: roadmaps, service blueprints, user journeys, design systems, style guides, principles, missions, visions, governance, policy development, UI/UX, accessibility, internationalisation, taxonomy, terminology, naming and nomenclature, understanding regulatory requirements, measurement frameworks/strategy, workshop/design sprint facilitation, data-driven decision-making, pre-mortems

Since going freelance in August 2022, I've worked with Content Design London, Google, Public Digital, IF, Headway, Delib, YikYak, the UK government stealth startups, a mid-sized bank and charities in South Africa and Rwanda. I'm open to 'doing' work, managing teams, mentoring/coaching, teaching, presenting, workshop facilitation and start-up advising.

Hire Natalie
Natalie S.

Work

Building integrity by design: what I’d do if I were a start-up | by Natalie Shaw | Startup Stash

blog.startupstash.com
Building integrity by design: what I’d do if I were a start-up | by Natalie Shaw | Startup Stash

Having spent the last 5+ years of my career trying to improve integrity systems, services and user experiences at a tech giant, I’ve been reflecting on the things I’d do if I had the benefit of…

Systematic decision-making and extreme clarity | by Natalie Shaw | Bootcamp

bootcamp.uxdesign.cc
Systematic decision-making and extreme clarity | by Natalie Shaw | Bootcamp

I’m publishing something that I used throughout my 6.5 years at Meta. It transformed how I approach decision-making during moments of crisis — and beyond. You can use this approach to make system…

Experience

Jun 2023 — Present
Delib

Delib

Peer advisor

Trusted by 500+ government organisations and public bodies around the world. Delib helps improve democracy for both governments and citizens.

  • Upskilling content designers and sharing best practices to help a small team define their now, next and later roadmap.
Apr 2023 — Present
Content Design London

Content Design London

Course Facilitator

Consultancy and courses by Sarah Richards, creator of the #ContentDesign discipline for GDS and author of Content Design.

  • Teaching and developing content design courses, both in-person and remotely.
Nov 2022 — Present
Headway

Headway

Content Design Lead and Taxonomist

Rewiring a new mental healthcare system for access and affordability.

  • Setting up content design, hiring, and defining style and content standards. Working on insurance benefits, issue taxonomy, chatbots, UX to help people find a therapist, helping therapists efficiently take notes and more.
Jun 2023 — Jul 2023
Public Digital

Public Digital

Service designer

Digital transformation is the act of radically changing how your organisation works, so that it can survive and thrive in the internet era. We are a consultancy that can help make it happen by working directly with your leaders and teams.

  • Service design consultancy on an early-stage discovery project based in the Americas. Developed a prioritisation framework and designed scoping workshops to help a team identify an exemplar to move forward to alpha.
Mar 2023 — Apr 2023
Integrity Institute

Integrity Institute

Editor

We are a community of integrity professionals protecting the social internet

  • Edited a presentation and report on elections integrity.
Dec 2022 — Feb 2023
Sidechat

Sidechat

Product/content designer

Sidechat is the best way to connect with your college

  • Designed core integrity experiences to keep this anonymous sharing platform safe.
Sep 2022 — Nov 2022
Projects by if

Projects by if

Content and Service Design Lead

IF is a technology studio, specialising in ethical and practical uses of data and AI

  • Speculative design project for Google, focused on AI.
Aug 2022 — Aug 2022
Digi2al Ltd

Digi2al Ltd

Design Sprint Facilitator

Building better and inclusive digital services, around user needs and using design thinking to solve difficult problems.

  • Planned and led a 5-day design sprint for the Met Police, exploring change management process and org design. This was the first time the 20+ attendees had participated in a design sprint or worked with design thinking.
Jul 2022 — Nov 2022
Harambee Youth Employment Accelerator

Harambee Youth Employment Accelerator

Behavioural Change Expert and Scriptwriter

A not-for-profit social enterprise building African solutions for the global challenge of youth unemployment.

  • Defined strategy and designed scripts for video content that compels young people in South Africa to apply for casual work in a challenging market.
Mar 2021 — Jul 2022
Meta

Meta

Principal Content Designer, Customer Support

Our mission is to give people the power to build community and bring the world closer together.

  • I was a founding member of our Customer Support org, leading content and service design. I defined short, medium and long-term strategy on how we provide effective customer support for 3 billion users. Learn more: https://www.theverge.com/2021/12/10/228
  • Design leader in integrity, trust and safety between 2017 and early 2021 - focused on product experiences relating to content moderation across Facebook, Instagram and Messenger, tackling some of the biggest issues across the internet and society.
  • Built 0-to-1 experiences including user reporting, warning screens, takedown experiences and the Oversight Board, and supported strategy around global elections, plus our COVID-19 response.
  • Created and maintained a design system, which was reused (and supported in code) by 15+ teams. In doing so I scaled research and data-backed best practices.
  • Built cross-functional teams focused on user-centred policy design.
  • My work directly led to behavioural change (8%+ global reductions in hate speech), million-dollar savings, improvements in the perception of fairness and new industry standards.
  • Joined Facebook London as the first local Content Design hire. I led content design for our v0 launches of Facebook Stories, Instagram Stories, camera effects and Spark AR Studio - including naming, onboarding, localisation, growth and upsells, and go-to-
May 2015 — Feb 2016
Citizens Advice

Citizens Advice

Product Manager and Content Design Lead

the citizens advice service helps people resolve their legal, money and other problems by providing free information and advice, and by influencing policy makers. our principles: the citizens advice service provides free, independent, confidential and impartial advice to everyone on their rights and responsibilities. it values diversity, promotes equality and challenges discrimination. our aims: * to provide the advice people need for the problems they face * to improve the policies and practices that affect people’s lives

  • I managed a small team to transform content on consumer rights, reducing 950 articles down to 30 and increasing utility, SEO and clarity along the way
  • I drove an overhaul of immigration content for advisers in bureaux around the UK, helping volunteers navigate their way to answering the top incoming questions.
  • In my hybrid role, I was responsible for unblocking fellow content designers, scoping and helping teams prioritise work, sprint planning, validating user needs and commissioning research - as well as mentoring the broader product team and creating quality
  • I took a methodical approach to breaking down complex law and policy in order to advocate for a needs-first, streamlined redesign.
Jan 2015 — May 2015
Hm Revenue & Customs

Hm Revenue & Customs

Senior Service and Interaction Designer

We are the UK’s tax, payments and customs authority. We collect the money that pays for the UK's public services.

  • I founded and built up a design team of 5, bringing design to the forefront of HMRC's digital transformation.
  • I built up a community of practice and strong working relationships and sharing practices across the design disciplines.
Feb 2013 — Dec 2014
Government Digital Service

Government Digital Service

Senior Content Designer

Leading the digital transformation of the UK government.

  • I was part of the award-winning team that won the Design Museum's Design of the Year 2013 and black and yellow pencils (for content) in the D&AD Awards 2013. I worked on user experiences crucial to millions of people in the UK - including passports, Child
  • I was responsible for launching GOV.UK and transitioning hundreds of agencies (eg HM Courts and Tribunals Service) onto the government's revolutionary single domain.
  • I got to grips with thorny subject material quickly and turned it all into easy-to-digest plain English. I directly managed a team and was responsible for program management and content quality.