UX Writing Workshop
Role: Product Designer, Facilitator
Location: Denver, CO
The goal of this UX Writing workshop was to create and foster alignment around messaging, tone and voice guidelines.
The Objective
Activities
Review older guidelines
Tone Mapping Exercise
Word Choice Exercise
Deliverables: UX Content Matrix
Review older guidelines
As a 2 year old startup, things are constantly changing. It was important that we revisit older guidelines regarding messaging, tone and voice.
Duration
10 minute review, 10 minute discussion
Takeaways
1. Get to the point.
2. Check for readability and write for a specific grade level.
3. Use inclusive language and avoid metaphors.
Tone Mapping
After going through older guidelines and adding new ones we transitioned into tone mapping. As the facilitator, I had the others write down and create their own tone maps. They had 5 minutes to do so, then we came back as a group and discussed what should be the tone of the messaging going forward. This was the finished result:
Duration
5 minute individual work, 5 minute whiteboard, 10 minute discussion
Takeaways
1. Message types such as onboarding should be peer-like and playful.
2. No use of “Uh ohs” or “Oh nos” in error messaging.
3. Help messages should be informational and avoid confusing the user further.
Upon completion of the tone map, we transitioned to a copy exercise. Since we now had alignment on tone and voice it was time to put that to the test. We did the exercise on an upcoming feature that would help to decrease the learning curve of the product
Word Choice
Word Choices
1. Instead of “Do not proceed”, say “Skip for now”
2. The use of personalization is key in making users feel at home in the app, so say “Welcome, [Name]”
3. Instead of “Resume”, say “Continue”, buttons should use familiar language and sound human!
Finished design & copy
Overall impact
I facilitated a workshop for the design team at Class which helped guide the team going forward in crafting copy that informed and helped users navigate the app. After the workshop, I built a Content Matrix that acted as an archive and living document of content and copy choices. The Content Matrix housed important decisions we made as a team like the tone map, writing principles/guidelines and a word list. I was in charge of building out the space in Google Sheets and keeping it up to date.
This document helped me with other copy projects I was assigned to such as updating LTI error messaging, a Terms of Service page and a onboarding feature.
Toast notifications
Popup Dialogs
The beautiful view from the Denver WeWork!