content design

The value of content design is built-in and self-evident. (the brick analogy)

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Let’s imagine something together: Your digital product company has decided to build a new headquarters. The design of the building calls for a brick exterior. (Great choice, by the way.) Do you imagine you will hire bricklayers to lay those brick? Why bother, right? Who needs ’em? Everyone knows how blocks work. Stack stack stack. … Read more

Writing ain’t religion

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be intentional about your team's approach to writing

Choose a writing method that works for your team, content, and audience. Writing ain’t religion, friends. It’s okay to attend more than one church.  Let’s take content design, for instance. Content design is generally my top choice when: A) writing content that has to support as broad of an audience as possible, and/orB) making content … Read more

It’s a website, not a carnival.

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If you’re a UX writer, content designer, or similar, you need to learn to resist the pressure to be clever, to be funny, to be creative, to “make it pop”, to “give it personality” — especially if you’re not sure that it’s appropriate for the experience. (It’s probably not.)

Do I need to learn Figma to do UX writing or content design?

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A: Not necessarily, but it’s not going to hurt. Knowing the basics will be expected for some roles, especially more tactical, writing-focused, junior- and mid-level roles. Work Where the Work Is The important thing is to be comfortable working alongside your peers in UX design and research. If you don’t feel like you can “hang” … Read more

Do you need a portfolio to apply for UX content roles?

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Transcript

Do I need a portfolio to apply for UX content roles?

Yes, but possibly also no.

I recommend to my coaching clients to create a portfolio if you can. And I think that most people can, because portfolios don’t have to be these super glossy case studies of high fidelity prototypes.

The portfolio is showing how you think and how you work. So if you have some stories about your work, and you can come up with visuals to accompany them screenshots, sure, but also diagrams, photos, you can put a little work story together, put a few work stories back to back, package them up in a presentation format — that’s also my recommendation. And now you have a portfolio.

So you could be applying to an enterprise content role where a portfolio is not required, you could be applying for a product marketing or marketing role, where your portfolio is not required. But if you have one that’s going to help set you above other candidates, it’s going to give you something to talk about with a hiring manager, especially if the organization is new to UX content. They might not even know what questions to ask, they might not know what the work could look like. So it’s an opportunity to lead.

So yeah, there’s plenty of jobs out there. If there’s a match where you don’t have a portfolio yet and they’re not asking for one? Great! Go ahead and apply. But I would encourage you to take the time to start building one regardless.

Good interfaces are not, in fact, like jokes

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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

5 Uncomfortable Truths About UX Content

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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

Where and How to Find UX Writing, Content Design, and Content Strategy Jobs

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Your search for a UX content job may not resemble any of your prior job searches, especially if you are trying to transition from a professional background outside of product and UX. You’ll need to look and read more carefully, search more deeply and creatively, and, in some cases, work quite a bit harder than you might have to work for another kind of job.

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