A designer who writes.
I have blogged intermittently since the mid 90s. Thankfully, much of the early teenage angst is lost to time. This collects my writings from this site, an earlier personal website, and some newsletter projects over the years, in mostly chronological order. I also publish new writing here. I publish somewhat more formal writing about content strategy and design careers at Content Career Accelerator.
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 … continue
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, … continue
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 … continue
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 … continue
This was originally shared as Issue 099 of the UX Writing Events newsletter on September 5, 2022. It’s Labor Day in the United States today, where I live. I never thought much about what Labor Day meant, growing up. You’d get the occasional news item about the origin of the weekend, or recounting the story … continue
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 … continue
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 … continue
For many content jobs, especially content strategy, content operations, and content management roles in traditional enterprises, you might not need a portfolio.
Five questions about content strategy, answered. Marketing language versus usable language, key skills, iterating your strategy, and more.
Making content and design equal partners? It’s doable or it’s not. It’s fixable or it’s not. Or it might be fixable, in the future, if X Y or Z things change — things that are always going to be out of your control.
Or you will, if you subscribe. Personal dispatches from the desk of Scott Kubie, a designer who writes.