No. 73 | Seven places you can find inspiration
2 | Tractor Supply Company (any)
writing
Good interfaces are not, in fact, like jokes
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 … continue
The Consistency Trap for UX Writers (and How to Avoid It)
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.
My most-used UX writing tool is Pastebot
Work faster and lose your place less with a big, super-powered clipboard.
The UX Writing Bible
If I could nominate one book to be our UX Writing Bible, it would be the Yahoo! Style Guide.
The effortful way
Job one is doing the job.
Four tips on writing about your design work and learning
Some thoughts on producing high-quality design articles that actually get shared.
How many content reviewers are enough?
Wouldn’t it be nice to have a perfectly simple, data-driven answer to that question? “Based on an analysis of 1,000 writing assignments, we’ve found that four reviewers are enough to catch 99.99% of style and usage errors.” Hooray, the answer is four! Have four people review your content and everything will be perfect! Except, no. … continue
Who should own the text in our design process?
If you don’t articulate and assign the writing role, then either everyone is the writer, or no one is the writer. Neither situation is fun.
How do you estimate the time needed for doing the writing?
The project managers turns to you and asks: “How long is it going to take to write this?” Hoo boy. It’s time to proceed very, very carefully.