Adventures in Content Strategy
"Either write something worth reading or do something worth writing." Benjamin Franklin
Last week I went to synagogue. It’s not a common occurrence for me, but when I go I like to hear the Rabbi’s sermon. This time the Rabbi spoke about respecting people while disagreeing with them. He stressed the importance of a hug or lighter conversation after, and disagreeing respectfully. Yet I left frustrated. I…
“Like Google” requests literally every client. They want an experience that simple, that easy… and also that ubiquitous. Most organizations dream that people around the world will go directly to their website for every possible need. They want to provide “a one-stop shop consumer experience”. You know you’re nodding. It does sound simple. You too want…
You’ve been thinking about content design since you first began writing papers. You asked about content design every time you asked “front and back?” or “double spaced?” or “how many words?” When I was in middle school, one teacher stopped giving us word-lengths for our papers. Instead, he would say we should write a paper…
Last week I gave a talk on planning and writing for voice UI. In the talk, I explored a few important concepts: A voice interface is not right for every experience. Voice interfaces are different from chatbots and other conversational interfaces. When you are creating a voice interface – either for a car, a new…
As UX practitioners, our job is to aid, support, and at times protect end-users. We create experiences that help them. Therefore, it seems a no-brainer that “empathy” benefits UX design. Many, many, MANY articles have been written about empathy in UX. Nielsen Norman Group has written about Sympathy vs. Empathy in UX. Career Foundry explored…
Lately I’ve been exploring what defines personalization, and how low-tech personalization can succeed (no machine learning required!). I’ve also learned a lot from my colleague Kevin Nichols. And I’ve realized something. All personalization requires a low-tech approach. All personalization has personalization business rules. Personalization business rules are the key to answering the question: what content…
Back in 2015 I wrote about the “perception of control“. These are situations where people don’t (or can’t) have control, but UI elements help make it look like they do. But lately I’ve been hearing about a dark UX pattern. This pattern, much like the UI patterns I noted, looks like a choice. But it…
I spent last week at VOICE Summit, soaking in all that is happening in voice UI. Use cases for voice, new products coming out, and the latest technology dominated the stage. It was overwhelming, and incredible. Here are just a few of my many takeaways – and a few recommendations for where to learn more:…
The Voice Playbook – Your foolproof guide to building best-in-class voice products, by Polina Cherkashyna and Hilary Hayes There aren’t a lot of best practices in place for emerging technologies like Voice. So Polina and Hilary have worked on a Playbook. Their work begins with research to identify the needs, then making the product, releasing…
How to Uncover Great Use Cases for Voice, by Erin Abler There’s an overwhelm that comes with all the possible technologies. That can feel safe, but it can fragment your ecosystem. When new technologies come out, we’re all susceptible to Gartner’s Hype Cycle. Start by considering what metrics you care about. If someone purchases something,…
