When reviewing or critiquing design work, it’s so, so, tempting to see something different…a different word, a different phrasing, a different pattern…and want to “fix” that difference. But making things consistent just for consistency’s sake sometimes leads us to the wrong choice.
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Video: Landing Your First Content Design Job – panel discussion
The fine folks at the School of Visual Concepts, for whom I occasionally lead a course on Content Strategy Fundamentals, have made the video available from a recent panel discussion I participated in, moderated by Elly Searle, about getting your first job in content design. I’m of the opinion that the job you have now…
Give him some room
When it comes to maintaining a productive, creatively fulfilling life, the simple answers are terribly alluring. I’ve swooned to the siren songs of bucking up and toughening up and not giving a fuck and pulling on my bootstraps just a little bit harder. But like the Sirens themselves, those songs are just myths. What I’ve…
It’s all made up, and that’s okay
Is content strategy … real? Product strategy? UX strategy? Customer experience? What about content design? Information architecture? Experience architecture? The answer to any of these, depending on my mood, is either yes, no, or who cares. Mostly, and most importantly, it’s “Who cares?”. Arguments about what “does and doesn’t exist” in design land to be…
Two product culture weaknesses that can kill your experience
When the overall quality of a digital experience feels low, but I can’t quite put my finger on it, I’ve found that it often stems from one of two secret weaknesses that plague many product teams: lack of confidence and lack of trust. Lack of confidence The kind of confidence I’m talking about is an…
Ask Scott: Can we let engineers and other non-experts write copy if we haven’t trained them?
We often have the issue that everyone thinks they can write, and our suggestions [as UX writers] are challenged to the end. We, on the other hand, would never challenge engineering decisions.
Scott’s Upcoming Events 2022
It seems it’s going to be a very busy year for me! I left my job as a Staff Content Strategist at Mailchimp at the end of January without much of a plan, other than to spend less time on Zoom calls and more time working on whatever the heck I want. It’s been a…
Writing Rules Are Made to Be Chosen
Wanting to know “the rules” is a very natural impulse when it comes to writing. Learning and following the rules – of spelling, of grammar and usage, of how term papers are supposed to be formatted – was part and parcel of how most of us learned to write. This perspective can be detrimental when…
Hire Product People Who Already Understand Content
This article originally appeared in Issue 050 of UX Writing Events. For some reason (tequila, mostly) I vented a bit of frustration yesterday afternoon with the way content work is often viewed in product land. This tweet seemed to resonate the most with folks: Imagine how much productivity you could unlock by hiring product leadership who already understand…
If the job is more than writing, why does your interview process focus on writing?
Content design is more than writing. Please send us your writing samples. Content design is more than writing. Please take this UX writing test. Content design is more than writing. Take ten minutes to review this and then provide feedback on the writing. Come on now. Do I even have to explain myself here? Bringing…