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.
Tag: UX writing
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.
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…
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…
Two attributes that shape every content role
A version of this originally appeared in Issue 043 of my UX Writing Events newsletter. For a joint meetup of Content Marketing Atlanta and IxDA Atlanta earlier this year, the top question for me from both groups was some version of: “What is up with all of these different content roles?” To illustrate my take…
Fighting Feature Names
You don’t need Proper Nouns to refer to features consistently.
My most-used UX writing tool is Pastebot
Work faster and lose your place less with a big, super-powered clipboard.
Cuddle the Muddle: Paths into UX Content
It’s not easy to build a complex set of interrelated, esoteric skills in an ever-evolving landscape of people and technology and business. But it would be weird if it were easy.
On the Value of Content Design: Proving or Providing?
You can’t climb a non-existent fence.
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.