In this episode, we spoke withLi-Na Koh, a senior content designer at Zapier. I have to say, Zapier is one of my favorite digital products out there today. It allows you to easily connect your favorite services. For example, every time someone signs up for one of our webinars, Zapier automatically creates a Zoom event and sends a confirmation email at the same time. It's pretty magical! Two aspects of this product are really interesting: -Their copy is particularly well done, even though they do...
May 20, 2020•43 min
As the digital products we use continue to tighten their grip on our society and adversely affect our mental health, one question has become paramount: Are we doomed to digital addiction or can we break the spell and learn to live in harmony with our devices? No one knows more about this subject than my recent guest Nir Eyal, the bestselling author of Hooked: How to Build Habit-Forming Products and Indistractable: How to Control Your Attention and Choose Your Life. Nir’s expertise on both sides ...
Mar 23, 2020•52 min
The rapid growth in the practice of UX—and UX writing in particular—is due in no small part to the power of the community. The feedback and knowledge sharing seen throughout the UX community are what is helping many writers and designers improve their practices. I was curious to speak with the founder of one of the biggest UX communities in the world, Ioana Adriana Teleanu of UX Goodies. We spoke about her best practices when it comes to creating content for the international UX community and ab...
Mar 09, 2020•34 min
Amir Shevat has worked for companies such as Microsoft, Google, Slack, and was the VP of product at Twitch. He also wrote the book “Designing Bots” and currently runs his own start-up called Reshuffle. Quite a resume! As he’s someone with so much experience in the valley, I was curious to talk to him about the future of writers in tech and where he thinks our field is headed. In this episode you’ll learn: -The current status of bots -The future of conversational software -About the best case stu...
Feb 25, 2020•30 min
In our brief conversation, Stephen talks about his processes for working on QuickBooks payroll software. Give it a listen if you’d like to learn about: -Customer interviews and what tools you should use when showing prototypes to your users -Delighting your customers with content instead of stressing them out What design tools you can and should use -How to talk with recruiters as a UX writer/content designer Don’t miss it!
Feb 11, 2020•29 min
Greg Digneo is an entrepreneur, Content strategy expert, and business consultant. A few years back, after building a 7-figure content agency, Greg was burned out. That may sound a bit off-topic for UX writers, but if you’ve ever wanted a lesson in advanced content strategy that drives traffic, this is the episode for you. In a frank and honest talk, Greg shared the struggles of building a successful content agency from the ground up. He talked about his process for planning content that would dr...
Jan 27, 2020•54 min
Dave Glazier is the UX writing lead at Nedbank, one of Africa's largest banks. Recently, I spoke to him about writing microcopy for a large and diverse emerging-market audience. In this episode, we cover: -Creating a content style guide and working with designers -Why and how you should listen to your customers -Crafting the voice and tone for a banking experience -Inclusive writing and writing for 12 different languages -Using Google Trends to find inspiration and improve your writing
Jan 14, 2020•42 min
Erika Hall is the author of Just Enough Research and Conversational Design—probably two of my favorite books on these topics. Both of her books are available at A Book Apart: https://abookapart.com/products/just-enough-research Recently, I spoke with her about the gap that exists today between research and conversational design. I learned a TON from this talk and anyone that’s creating any type of digital experience will certainly benefit from it too. We covered a lot of ground, including: -How ...
Dec 24, 2019•52 min
How can a localized content increase your conversions by 700%? Listen to the next episode! I had a pleasure to talk to Mette Thomsen Danish Language Specialist at GetYourGuide. Listen to it if you want to learn about: -How to add context to your localization process -Content team hierarchy in a unicorn (B$) company -Best practices for localization -Creating a content style guide for your localization team -What tools you should be using -Marketing guidelines vs product content style guides -Scal...
Dec 10, 2019•36 min
Typeform has some pretty slick copy—from their transactional emails, homepage, and the product itself. Their lead copywriter, Steve Howe, writes fascinating pieces for their blog about UX writing at Typeform, and I was eager to learn about his processes—particularly, best practices for writing forms. This episode is not only a great lesson in conversational UX writing, but also a great resource for anyone that creates online forms. So don’t miss it! Topics include: Writing copy for landing pages...
Nov 26, 2019•35 min
I remember when I first heard about UX writing best practices in a talk at Google’s I/O 2017 conference—it was a huge “aha” moment for me. As a product designer, microcopy was just a small part of that larger design world. Just something for a small Facebook group where I invited friends and we posted different ideas about microcopy. But that one day, everything changed. I decided to explore and talk to all of the practitioners out there so I could know more about this exploding new topic. And i...
Nov 12, 2019•33 min
The largest airline company in South America has a unique approach when it comes to UX writing. They’re user-centered and everything about their digital experience is content-driven. In our latest episode, Carolina Rayo, a senior UX writer from LATAM, shares valuable wisdom and insights about: Putting your ego aside and staying humble Testing stories before designing anything How to absorb content like a sponge and learn as you go How not to be an a**hole to your users Enjoy this one!
Oct 08, 2019•39 min
If way back in 1999, you told my father that he could replace his old Subaru at the click of a button without even test driving it, he would have never believed it! Now, twenty years later, even though he probably wouldn’t buy a car online, he wouldn’t be surprised at all to learn that several companies are successfully selling them online. CarNext.com is one of those companies. And there’s no doubt about it that their slick user experience contributes greatly to their high conversion rate with ...
Sep 24, 2019•33 min
This week on Writers in Tech I had the absolute pleasure of speaking with Vicki Siolos, the lead UX writer of the mother of all crowdfunding platforms, Kickstarter. You’ll learn about: -Using Google Translate for a nifty brainstorming trick -Giving your users what they’re asking for -Tricks that will help you to educate about UX writing in your organization -What books you should read (seriously, I need to read Nicely Said already) -Why you should zone out and just write It was great learning ab...
Sep 16, 2019•54 min
Greta van der Merwe’s UX writing career has skyrocketed, going from an ad agency to senior UX writer a unicorn company recently acquired by Uber. I first met Greta when she was among the original members of our Facebook group, participating in discussions and sharing her talents with others. In fact, after she participated in the first class of our UX writing course (we’re about to open the fourth), we were so impressed that we took Greta on as a student mentor in future classes. She has a great...
Sep 03, 2019•37 min
Mario was one of the first UX writers in our Microcopy & UX Writing Facebook group. Today, he’s a senior UX writer for King, one of the largest gaming companies in the world. I had a blast talking to him as he shared the necessary skills to be a UX writer for a gaming company. In this episode, you’ll learn about: -Why UX writers are like Gandalf -How Mario observes users during his commute -How to leverage communication using words -Card sorting and testing for UX writers
Aug 27, 2019•38 min
You take the carton from the refrigerator door and give it a shake. “Empty,” you think to yourself. No problem. “Hey Google,” you exclaim, activating your Google Home device. “Ask Colruyt to add milk to the list.” But instead of confirming the addition, your home device informs you that “Milk has already been added to your grocery list. Would you like to add an additional carton?” You know the culprit—your heavy milk-drinking girlfriend Sharon. You’re so impressed by this digital gesture that yo...
Aug 12, 2019•42 min
I recently spoke with Erin O'Loughlin and Annalise Nurme about creating a UX Writing culture in a product team of the language education platform Babbel. More companies are beginning to understand that they must hire writers; Erin and Annalise are the first official UX writers at Babbel. We talked about the challenges of creating a UX writing culture in a company that’s never had writers. Topics covers: -Presenting the concept of UX Writing to your team -Creating a content style guide and establ...
Jul 31, 2019•30 min
I recently had the opportunity to speak with Matt Hayes, a UX Writer at Deloitte Digital. Imagine a place that gives you the opportunity to work on the digital experiences of the biggest companies in the world. Well, that’s Deloitte digital. Matt shared with me his process and everything that product team members need to know about UX writing. We covered: -Structuring content for wireframes -Creating a content style guide -Setting up a document at the beginning of a project -Working with UX desi...
Jul 16, 2019•40 min
In this week’s episode of our Writers in Tech podcast, I had the great pleasure of interviewing an absolute UX legend, Jared Spool. He’s the mind behind the UX of the personal computer keyboard as we know it, which he designed back in 1978. After years of following his work at UIE and his UX podcast “SpoolCast”, I was lucky enough to have him join me for a chat. We talked about: The history of UX and of writers in technology UX Writing vs. Technical Writing The UX strategy of a service Research ...
Jul 08, 2019•30 min
The fields of content strategy and UX writing are becoming more established thanks in no small part to the community leaders out there fighting for us. One such leader is Sarah Richards. She’s the author of the book Content Design, founder of the site Content Design London, and creator of GOV.UK’s content style guide. If you’re not familiar with her work, you should be… and here’s a perfect opportunity! In our latest podcast, Sarah and I chat about content leadership, how to make people care abo...
Jun 24, 2019•34 min
On the first episode of Writers in Tech podcast, Oz Chen shared with me his journey of becoming a content strategist at Disney. We've talked about: The transition from business analytics to content strategy What does it take to be a Content strategist for Disney The differences between UX writing and content strategy The ROI of UX writing and content strategy How to test your copy like a PRO How to get into UX writing Enjoy and don't forget to share it with a friend :)
Jun 06, 2019•41 min
