Apps and Services I’ll Keep Using in 2021
The productivity, writing, design, and entertainment apps and services I’m still using (and paying for) in 2021.
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.
It’s just words on websites
Unless you are working on content that is getting carved into a monument or put on a plaque being sent into space for future civilizations to find, you have my permission to relax.
You don’t have to be a native speaker to excel as a UX writer
This originally appeared in Issue 037 of UX Writing Events. Do you think non-native speakers of a language can be good UX writers in that language? I sure do. I get asked some version of that question fairly often. Someone asked again just this weekend! So I thought I’d expand what I shared with that person and … continue
How do I approach a content strategy job interview with confidence?
Semantic soup, jargon mismatches, imposter syndrome, and more can all conspire to suck your confidence heading into an interview for a new content strategy, UX writing, or content design job. I’ve got some tips to help you get through it. Video Links Content and UX Slack Community UX Writing Events Put the Work Before the … continue
Musical Scrapbook: 2020
In 2018, I started collecting songs I heard out in the world to a playlist. Anything that resonated in the moment, new or nostalgic. Obviously, the world was quite different when I started this habit. Like most folks who weren’t essential workers or selfish assholes, I spent most of 2020 at home. No concerts, no … continue
Big whoop
This originally appeared in Issue 035 of UX Writing Events. Twitter finally did it. Big whoop. I wrote on LinkedIn recently that I’m embarrassed to be a tech worker right now, but if I can be even more honest with you, the feeling is closer to shame. I’ve never worked at Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Reddit, Discord, Shopify, Spotify, or any of the many … continue
A request and an invitation for UX event organizers
Don’t let high-quality online events be a passing fad.
Content strategy is not just one thing
This essay originally appeared in Issue 025 of my UX Writing Events newsletter. You may have read that Facebook’s content strategy team is now their content design team. In the relatively small world of UX content people like you and me, it’s generated a lot of discussion. I’ve been bothered by how narrow and 1-dimensional the conversation has … continue
Design jobs and design roles are not the same thing
Many product teams struggle to collaborate well on projects — making websites, building apps, creating content, authoring documentation, etc. — because they have not distinguished jobs from roles. Too often, teams allow roles to be merely inferred by job title, rather than slowing down to have a conversation about who’s doing what and why. This … continue