Good interfaces are not, in fact, like jokes

Some of the most insidious design advice ends up sticking around because it sounds true. Or clever. Or both. I suppose this is true of all bad advice. One particular piece of true-sounding, clever-sounding, and ultimately dangerously-reductive advice that irks me is the trope that compares good interface design to a good joke. You might have seen it in this form: A user interface … Read more

Ask Scott: Tools for content migration planning?

I’ve lost track of where this question came from. Based on my writing workflows and where I found this long-neglected draft, I’m ~80% sure this is an expanded and clarified version of an answer I gave extemporaneously during an event Q&A. Regardless, while content audits and migrations are not my unique area of expertise, I’ve … Read more

5 Uncomfortable Truths About UX Content

I had a chance recently to meet and chat with folks from the Institute of Scientific and Technical Communicators (ISTC), a UK-based organization. As this was an audience I hadn’t previously connected with, I took it as an invitation to assemble some greatest hits, if you will, from all of the various presentations, office hours … Read more

“Sick days”

This essay originally appeared as Issue 102 of the UX Writing Events newsletter on September 26, 2022. I’ve written and deleted at least three drafts of this issue. Draft being a generous way to describe them. Ranty rabbitholes, meandering messes. I started writing about how feedback on your writing from stakeholders shouldn’t be taken as literal instructions, … Read more

Learn thinky things

Folks seem to like my latest bit of advice for aspiring designers: Learn Thinky Things. I coined this advice (with an unconscious assist from Marc Maron, I suspect) as part of an off-the-cuff remark during UX Content Office Hours. Someone asked whether content designers need to learn Figma, a popular tool for front-end design. I shared my response as a … Read more

Seven lessons from publishing 100 issues of a weekly UX newsletter

This excerpt originally appeared as part of Issue 100 of the UX Writing Events newsletter on September 12, 2022. Would you lookie there?! Issue 100! Gotta say, it felt a little ambitious to go with a 3-digit number when I started indexing these issues, but we made it! Just 899 to go until the curse … Read more

Oh, to be unreachable

I would have a healthier relationship with technology and social media — and be healthier in general — if it were easier to take the phone off the hook. Alas, I don’t think any product teams are rewarded for maximizing DIUWMBAUAASPITF (that’s ‘daily inactive users who might become active users again at some point in … Read more

To respond or not to respond? Tactics for responding to UX job recruiters

I’ve seen some recent discussion about whether and how to reply to messages from recruiters, especially if you’re not actively unemployed, not looking, or otherwise not all that interested.  Me, I respond to almost everyone on LinkedIn who has a profile picture of a human being and sends a reasonably coherent message. I don’t think … Read more

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