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.
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
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
Don’t let high-quality online events be a passing fad.
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
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
Conceptual debt accrues when we take shortcuts in developing the foundational concepts behind our products.
A collection of articles you’ll want to send to someone else.
If I could nominate one book to be our UX Writing Bible, it would be the Yahoo! Style Guide.
Job one is doing the job.
Or you will, if you subscribe. Personal dispatches from the desk of Scott Kubie, a designer who writes.