Adventures in Content Strategy
"Either write something worth reading or do something worth writing." Benjamin Franklin
Thoughts and philosophies on defining UX, content strategy definitions, the meaning of accessibility, empathic design, design thinking frameworks, and more.
In a recent webinar I learned how sensitivity editors review fiction books. I found myself wondering: as part of inclusive UX, how might we incorporate cultural sensitivity editing? Inclusivity is a broad term. It means making sure that a device or content or system works for everyone. Specifically, people who are often excluded or marginalized….
As a content strategist I’m often responsible for editing my colleagues writing. Some people assume this makes me the language police. But there’s a fine line between creating consistency and stopping evolving language. Let’s explore what a content strategist should do, if we are not the English police. What is “Proper” English Do you get…
“[S]peech recognition is another form of AI that performs worse for women and non-white people.” Voice Recognition Still Has Significant Race and Gender Biases, Joan Palmiter Bajorek In the past year I’ve done significant research into chatbots, conversational interfaces, and voice. What I’ve found shows racism and bias in voice UI. The most recent stats seem…
I recently started reading Me and White Supremacy, and it has me thinking about content strategy and AAVE (African-American Vernacular English). As a white woman and UX professional, I want to be aware of my bias. I want to prevent my bias from harming BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, People of Color). I also want to learn…
A few weeks ago I virtually attended the NCQA Quality talks. The goal of the talks is to hear from experts in a variety of areas of healthcare as they consider what quality healthcare means. This year the talks focused predominantly on marginalized communities and challenging situations. While Covid is a daily reminder of the…
Last week, at Mad*Pow’s annual Health Experience Design Conference, someone asked me “what is the correlation between health literacy and social determinants of health?” This was during a workshop on health literacy and plain language. This isn’t a simple question to answer, so let’s explore it. Social Determinants of Health What are social determinants of…
Forbes recently wrote an article titled There Are Three Kinds Of Content Strategy: Which Are You Doing? but really, are there only three types? I don’t think so. However, I was intrigued. What types of content strategy do I do? What types do you do? Forbes: Three Kinds of Content Strategy According to Forbes, these…
I know very little about UX in civic design. The day after an election, or a caucus (like yesterday’s), I rely on more knowledgable civic design folk. People like Dana Chisnell and Andrew Maier educate me. As Dana says, “every day is a civics lesson.” As we await the results of yesterday’s Iowa caucus, it’s…
When we talk about creating a good user experience people like to throw around the term “delight.” And delight is a great idea. I’m all for delighting people. But, as with so many things, it is easier said than done. It’s impossible to delight without first being reliable. Instacart‘s poor UX is a great example….
In a recent Twitter argument someone posed the question: how does Elizabeth Holmes, founder of Theranos, a company that claimed to change the world of blood tests, differ from any other startup founder? Startup founders are asked to… bend the truth. Shareholders want to know that the biggest, brightest, most exciting new idea is coming,…
