As part of a recent Hackathon, I looked into better ways to manage our copy. For context, I’m a Content Designer who works for Dext – a Fintech company with 3 products. We use several tools in our design process. Yet, we don’t have an official Single Source of Truth (SSOT) for our English and French copy. This makes it hard to find the final copy. It also requires effort to stay up-to-date with decisions on the words we use and their formatting. Keeping things consistent is borderline impossible. With a growing team and several personas to write for, we must organize our copy – we need one pla ..read more

Back in mid-2022, we recorded a podcast asking whether the content design market would be hit by layoffs. A month later, they began. A year later we wrote a blog post talking about the 2023 content design job market, saying the number of jobs had shrunk and job seekers were facing a bit of an uphill battle. It’s now May of 2024, nearly 2 years on from that initial wave of layoffs. I think we’ve turned a corner. The market is certainly not back where it was (nor will it ever be, I think) and job searching is competitive. But the sheer number of opportunities now suggests we’ve now reached a poi ..read more

To run for president of Iceland, you need to be an Icelandic citizen, at least 35 years old, and have 1,500 endorsements. For the first time in Icelandic history, this endorsement process is digital. Instead of collecting signatures on paper the old-fashioned way, candidates can now send people to a dedicated website to submit their endorsement. This change has, also for the first time in Icelandic history, given the nation a clear window into who is trying to run—and it’s a remarkably large number. To date, 82 people are collecting endorsements, including a comedian, a supermodel, the world’s ..read more

 UXCC CEO Patrick Stafford explaining the Content Design 3.0 framework during an April 2024 webinar. It’s always tempting to make too much of a moment. But so much is happening in content design — and has happened in the past 2 years — that I think we’re dealing with a complete paradigm shift in how we approach our discipline. The number of content designers, UX writers, and content strategists has exploded. We have several conferences. There are content design departments and practices at the largest organizations in the world. New technology is demanding involvement with content — and we h ..read more

As a young content strategist, one of the first rules I learned was consistency. To build a holistic and hospitable user experience, we should use the same words as often as possible. I latched on to this rule because it just makes sense. If we swap terms and phrases with abandon, it could create doubt as users might not be sure if “transfer funds” and “add money” do the same thing. Consistency paired with repetition also does wonders for building brand awareness and recall. But now that I’ve been around the content block a few times, I find that we don’t need to be 100% consistently consisten ..read more

Recently, I’ve been investigating the role AI could play in assisting some of the UX writing tasks I do day-to-day, so instead of being threatened by the tool (that’s what it is), I can harness it to make my work more productive. During this investigation, I’ve found some plusses, some minuses, and some curiosities that I feel are worth highlighting. I used AI to assist with four core tasks: Naming a new product or service Synthesizing qualitative research insights Creating a sample information architecture Generating a buyer persona 1. Naming a new product or service Recently, I was tasked ..read more

Attending conferences is a great way to network and stay on top of trends and changes in the industry. Every year, there are UX-focused conferences happening around the world, some even offering virtual attendance options for maximum flexibility. When it comes to choosing conferences to attend, there is an overwhelming number available. To make it easier for you to find the right event, I compiled a list of UX conferences happening in 2024 that content designers may be interested in. Who is this list for? This list is for content designers, UX writers, and content strategists interested in l ..read more

There’s no shortage of fantastic resources out there, but sometimes it can feel overwhelming to sort through it all. So, we’ve pulled together the most popular links shared in our weekly Dash newsletter for you to enjoy in one place. See what came out on top… 50. UX writing is the name, cohesion is the game. We know consistency is key, but what does it really look like in practice? Marina Nevolina outlines how to create cohesive narratives across touchpoints. 49. The role of content in generative AI. “Keep asking the questions, keep having the conversations, and really try to establish a point ..read more

Even though it’s the end of the year, we haven’t been slowing down. In fact, we’re busier than ever. It’s our mission to make sure we’re consistently providing the best content design training possible. That means we’re always reviewing our curriculum and our learning experience to make sure it’s relevant based on what’s happening in the industry. This December, we’re delivering the biggest updates to our course line-up ever … including a few new surprises. Here’s what we’ve got in store: Over 180 instructional videos across our courses Everyone learns differently. For some that means rea ..read more

The Interface is a brand-new podcast exploring trends and hot topics for UX content people. Recently, Active Voice CEO Sara Wachter-Boettcher published an article in which she made a bold claim about designers: your company is gaslighting you. Designers might know this feeling well. Content designers especially. Being told that you need to do more. Educate more. Prove your “worth” more. But Watchter-Boettcher says…no. “It’s a manipulative technique that makes designers question their own sanity and assume that they’re the problem — but that maybe, if they just try one more time, things will ch ..read more