Adventures in Content Strategy
"Either write something worth reading or do something worth writing." Benjamin Franklin
Sorry, I can’t help with that: Content strategy for chatbots, by Michael J. Metts “People love AI”. No they don’t! People love doing more meaningful things than managing their utilities through an app. Business people love being able to say that they work on AI. So where do these requests come from? Will a chatbot…
The “pipeline problem” is about belonging, by John Paz Myths about workplace diversity 1. “Diversity is a problem that needs to be solved.” Diversity is not a problem. Building a balanced team is something we should aspire to, not be burdened with. Homogenous groups share biases They share assumptions They share knowledge gaps Diverse groups…
Collaborating with Overthinkers, by Meredith Arthur It’s easy to hear feedback and think “I don’t know what I’m doing.” Meredith has ideas for how to avoid overthinking. How to Recognize Overthinking People pleasing. Perfectionism. These are blockers to good work. They come from overthinking. In yourself, you may recognize overthinking in these symptoms: Physical symptoms…
Good copy is good business: The ROI of microcopy, by Yael Ben-David You want your return to be higher than your investment. There are two ways to do that: Increase the return Decrease the investment But if you want microcopy return to be high, you need a fair amount of investment. Good microcopy requires understanding…
How Content Design Shapes Chewy’s Customer Experience, by Allison Bland Chewy cares about pets. Allison wanted to make sure Chewy’s content reflected that, and made it a joy to shop, and not an annoyance. Content Design at Chewy What does content design look like at Chewy? The biggest question Allison initially got when she joined…
Write Better, Faster, and with More Authority, by Angela Gorden UX writers can do more, and be more authoritative with three ways of working. They have 3 super powers. 1. Product thinking You write better with product thinking because you think beyond buttons. You write faster, because you have a holistic approach and consistent guidelines….
How UX Writing is like Standup Comedy (and also how it’s not), by Vivek Sri Vivek first wanted to be a standup comedian. He uses basic comedy rules to improve UX writing. Premises, punches, and p* A joke starts with a premise, but then the punch is the twist. But UX writing shouldn’t have a…
Don’t Just Translate, Boost your UX Content With Transcreation, by Anna Potapova When McDonald’s started the “I’m Lovin’ It” campaign, the Chinese version was “I just love it and in Russia “That is what I love.” Why is it different? China and Russia don’t have the tense that “I’m lovin’ it” is written in, in…
UX for Toddlers and Other Humans, by Lindsey Thomas With a toddler, Lindsey has had to rethink how she communicates. 1. Set expectations For her son, she says “first we’re going to eat breakfast, then we’ll watch 1 episode of Yo Gabba Gabba, and then go to daycare.” For end-users we also want to break…
Program Design is Obscenity, by Madeline Grdina Good design is a moving target, but (like obscenity) we know it when we see it. But how? How do we recognize what we can’t define? Invisibility It’s popular to say that good design is invisible. “Less is more”. Yes, bad design may get in the way of…
