First Home Owner's Grant (New Homes) scheme (FHOG)

Buying or building your first home? You may be eligible for a $10,000 grant under the First Home Owner's Grant (FHOG) scheme.

This grant scheme only applies to buying or building a new home.

You can make a claim if:

  • your home is newly constructed and has a total value of less than $600,000
  • the land and the dwelling you intend to build has a combined value of less than $750,000.
HomeBuilder program

If you are building a new home, you could also be able to apply for the Australian Government grant of $25,000. To be eligible you must:

  • sign the contract between 4 June 2020 and 31 December 2020
  • commence within 3 months of the contract date.

HomeBuilder complements the NSW Government’s existing First Home Owner Grant and stamp duty concessions.

First Home Buyer Assistance scheme (FHBAS)

The NSW Government recently announced increased thresholds for purchases of new homes and vacant land to build a new home from 1 August 2020. The threshold for existing home purchases remains unchanged.

Sprint cadence or workflow

In your team there may already be a sprint cadence that includes content design. Become familiar with agile practices such as the Kanban wall, daily stand ups and sprint planning. Understand the user journey and their needs. Get involved in usability testing sessions and iteration.

Otherwise, the content workflow may be separate from the product team. At the very least, make sure the team has real content to use, when they’re building a prototype. Also ensure your team uses real content when it does usability testing. Attend playbacks from this testing, to know how your content needs to change.

As well as designing the user experience with product team members, a content designer works to know the facts with subject matter experts.

Simplifying complexity

Your aim from the outset is to simplify everything for the user. Your main task will be to set up a clear path for them to achieve their goal.

Start with a user story. You should create one for each piece of content, from user research. If you’re part of a multidisciplinary product team, everyone is likely to be using them as you design and build.

A user story will help you to pinpoint the user need from the outset. It puts the user front-of-mind and gives you a focus when designing and writing the content.

Next, create a structure for your page, based on the user story. Write up meaningful H2 headers to serve as signposts to help the user do what they need to do.

Working with subject matter experts

Share your way of working with your subject matter experts – in person if possible.

They're a great way of introducing your approach to a subject matter expert, which may be completely foreign to them. It will show them how you're focusing on the user, and what you're trying to solve. Ask them for feedback. Find out if there’s anything missing and if you’re on the right track.

First Home Owner's Grant (New Homes) scheme (FHOG)

Buying or building your first home? You may be eligible for a $10,000 grant under the First Home Owner's Grant (FHOG) scheme.

This grant scheme only applies to buying or building a new home.

You can make a claim if:

  • your home is newly constructed and has a total value of less than $600,000
  • the land and the dwelling you intend to build has a combined value of less than $750,000.
HomeBuilder program

If you are building a new home, you could also be able to apply for the Australian Government grant of $25,000. To be eligible you must:

  • sign the contract between 4 June 2020 and 31 December 2020
  • commence within 3 months of the contract date.

HomeBuilder complements the NSW Government’s existing First Home Owner Grant and stamp duty concessions.

First Home Buyer Assistance scheme (FHBAS)

The NSW Government recently announced increased thresholds for purchases of new homes and vacant land to build a new home from 1 August 2020. The threshold for existing home purchases remains unchanged.

Sprint cadence or workflow

In your team there may already be a sprint cadence that includes content design. Become familiar with agile practices such as the Kanban wall, daily stand ups and sprint planning. Understand the user journey and their needs. Get involved in usability testing sessions and iteration.

Otherwise, the content workflow may be separate from the product team. At the very least, make sure the team has real content to use, when they’re building a prototype. Also ensure your team uses real content when it does usability testing. Attend playbacks from this testing, to know how your content needs to change.

As well as designing the user experience with product team members, a content designer works to know the facts with subject matter experts.

Simplifying complexity

Your aim from the outset is to simplify everything for the user. Your main task will be to set up a clear path for them to achieve their goal.

Start with a user story. You should create one for each piece of content, from user research. If you’re part of a multidisciplinary product team, everyone is likely to be using them as you design and build.

A user story will help you to pinpoint the user need from the outset. It puts the user front-of-mind and gives you a focus when designing and writing the content.

Next, create a structure for your page, based on the user story. Write up meaningful H2 headers to serve as signposts to help the user do what they need to do.

Working with subject matter experts

Share your way of working with your subject matter experts – in person if possible.

They're a great way of introducing your approach to a subject matter expert, which may be completely foreign to them. It will show them how you're focusing on the user, and what you're trying to solve. Ask them for feedback. Find out if there’s anything missing and if you’re on the right track.