How to strengthen the design team with the help of an intelligent writer
Six reasons why a writer (writer, writer) is a turbocharger for design (from a UX specialist to Dropbox).
Recently, there has been a lot of hype about design texts. You can call it user-perceived texts, product description or content design, one thing is clear - words play an important role in your design.
In his speech “Design in Tech 2017" (Design in Technologies 2017), John Maeda said: "The words are really important, because the graphics sometimes have no meaning." Fast Co Design continued this thought in an article titled "Forget about the code: Manner letters are the main skill of the designer " .
Sounds easy, right? To be a great designer, you need to know how to write. Nothing wrong. You write all the time. E-mail, specifications, tweets - nothing supernatural.
')
I am a writer and a former English teacher and I find it difficult to write. It is hard to learn to write and hard to teach. That's why there are over 500,000 text-writing books on Amazon!
The mechanics of writing are hard to comprehend, but do you know what is really difficult? Such concepts as the choice of words, tone and rhythm. It takes forever to master these skills.
So what do the design team do?
If you have not noticed, more and more design groups are beginning to hire writers - writers who think like designers.
Large and small companies understand the importance of good material for publication, and they hire writers to form the words. Adobe, Spotify, Slack, HBO, GoPro, Intercom - for the last couple of years, all these companies have hired their first writers. Writers responsible for the products appear everywhere.
I know that not everyone can afford to hire a writer, but think about it. The next time you fight words, just think about it. What if you take a writer to your team? A writer may be the missing piece of the puzzle that you need.
Below are a few reasons why I think that every design team should hire a writer.
Designing something is very similar to writing a story - an interactive story. And to tell a convincing story, you need to have a writer left.
When it comes to product design, the writer becomes the storyteller, directing the main character (your user) from scene to scene on the screen.
Regardless of whether you call yourself a writer or designer, you can notice a lot of analogies between these two disciplines. Just look at all the parallels:
A few wrong words can cause big design problems. It would be great if you had a writer who could help solve design problems with words, right?
While designers tend to focus on one area of ​​a product, product writers tend to focus on different areas of a product. And this is good, because it allows writers to see the connections and discrepancies in the overall picture.
Writers are the link between different product areas. We help promote product connectivity, especially when it comes to language.
In the end, the hearing is pretty bad, if in one place we say “Oh, hell”, and in another “Terminal error has been detected”.
How to make sure that we use consistent language everywhere? In Dropbox, one of the ways we use it is to use the style guide. It contains details about voice, tone, terminology, punctuation, letter case, accessibility, and much more.
Our style guide helps us use a consistent language in Dropbox.
When describing an interface it is important to know when to shut up and get out of the way. Most of the time, you don't want to force users to read anything. People try to make something work and the last thing they want to do is read your interface.
But sometimes you want your words to be noticed. Then you want to speak and want to be heard clearly and clearly. Maybe the user has done something amazing and you want the whole world to know about it.
Well, it so happened that the writers are well able to set the tone. Writers know when to raise and when to lower it. We know when to be energetic or patient, decisive or fanciful.
And I guarantee you that the writer will closely monitor every quip, comment and statement in your message, because we care about sending the right tone at the right time.
Writers help set the right tone.
Good writers care about the details. Whether a misspelled word or a comma, good writers care about the quality of the material.
But does language quality really matter? Is the fact that your product has ochepyatki is a big problem? Does it really matter if you have “log in” on one page and “register” on the other?
I think the quality of the language certainly matters. It comes down to trust. As soon as users begin to notice typos and inconsistencies, they begin to lose confidence in your company. If your company cannot take the time to write correctly, why should they trust you their time and money?
Writers keep track of your language so that you don’t lose user confidence.
Writers care about the details.
Supposedly, Einstein once said: "If you cannot explain something in simple words, you yourself do not understand it." This is fundamentally true when it comes to writing a product.
As product writers, we are often asked to explain complex concepts in simple words. And sometimes in the process of writing, we understand that it is simply impossible to explain the update easily and clearly. This usually means that the design is not intuitive.
Then we go to the designers and try together to come up with a solution to this problem. Writers are not afraid to indicate to the designer that their design is meaningless, because the confusing design leads to confusing writings.
In other words, writers make designers get better, and good designs lead to even better texts. Real magic is done when everyone shares ideas and works together to achieve something perfect.
And do not forget: writers are your main fans. We are creative, just like you. We love art, movement and new discoveries. We love the design too.
Writers enjoy collaborating with designers.
Do you know the secret of writing good material? Good material is the result of many time-tested techniques that writers have been using for years. If you take a closer look, you will notice these tricks in almost any good article.
To demonstrate this to you, I tried to use a number of these techniques throughout the article. Here are some tricks I used:
How many tricks have you counted when reading a post?
In writing a product, these techniques are very helpful, especially when you are designing a promo, landing page, testimonial, letter or introduction to the new system. These tricks help your article material to be more convincing.
Anyone can learn to write compelling stories, but it takes years to achieve mastery. Writers have been honing their skills for years, so why not take advantage of their experience?
I hope after reading this article you will see what value writers can bring to your design team. When you are thinking of expanding your team, consider hiring a writer. Your users will love you more because of this.
Each product has an amazing story that deserves a story. Wouldn't it be great to have a writer who would help tell your story?
If you are ready to start looking for a writer, here are some similar articles that can help you with this:
EDISON Software professionally develops applications and websites in PHP for large customers, as well as developing cloud services and mobile applications in Java, and we try to make the appearance of products as user friendly as possible, and the “technical debt” of UX designers reduced . Here is a selection of useful articles on usability:
Recently, there has been a lot of hype about design texts. You can call it user-perceived texts, product description or content design, one thing is clear - words play an important role in your design.
In his speech “Design in Tech 2017" (Design in Technologies 2017), John Maeda said: "The words are really important, because the graphics sometimes have no meaning." Fast Co Design continued this thought in an article titled "Forget about the code: Manner letters are the main skill of the designer " .
Sounds easy, right? To be a great designer, you need to know how to write. Nothing wrong. You write all the time. E-mail, specifications, tweets - nothing supernatural.
')
I am a writer and a former English teacher and I find it difficult to write. It is hard to learn to write and hard to teach. That's why there are over 500,000 text-writing books on Amazon!
The mechanics of writing are hard to comprehend, but do you know what is really difficult? Such concepts as the choice of words, tone and rhythm. It takes forever to master these skills.
So what do the design team do?
Have you thought about hiring a writer?
If you have not noticed, more and more design groups are beginning to hire writers - writers who think like designers.
Large and small companies understand the importance of good material for publication, and they hire writers to form the words. Adobe, Spotify, Slack, HBO, GoPro, Intercom - for the last couple of years, all these companies have hired their first writers. Writers responsible for the products appear everywhere.
I know that not everyone can afford to hire a writer, but think about it. The next time you fight words, just think about it. What if you take a writer to your team? A writer may be the missing piece of the puzzle that you need.
Below are a few reasons why I think that every design team should hire a writer.
1. Writers are designers.
Designing something is very similar to writing a story - an interactive story. And to tell a convincing story, you need to have a writer left.
When it comes to product design, the writer becomes the storyteller, directing the main character (your user) from scene to scene on the screen.
Regardless of whether you call yourself a writer or designer, you can notice a lot of analogies between these two disciplines. Just look at all the parallels:
A few wrong words can cause big design problems. It would be great if you had a writer who could help solve design problems with words, right?
2. Writers connect the dots
While designers tend to focus on one area of ​​a product, product writers tend to focus on different areas of a product. And this is good, because it allows writers to see the connections and discrepancies in the overall picture.
Writers are the link between different product areas. We help promote product connectivity, especially when it comes to language.
In the end, the hearing is pretty bad, if in one place we say “Oh, hell”, and in another “Terminal error has been detected”.
How to make sure that we use consistent language everywhere? In Dropbox, one of the ways we use it is to use the style guide. It contains details about voice, tone, terminology, punctuation, letter case, accessibility, and much more.
- Can we use the word “content”? Look in the style guide.
- Do we say drag & drop (drag and drop function) or just drop? Look in the style guide.
- Is it normal to use emoji in correspondence? Look in the style guide.
- Do we write a word with a capital letter after a colon? Look in the style guide.
- How do we write modal verbs? Look in the style guide.
- We treat our design guidelines as a living document and update it at least once a month. And we store it in Dropbox Paper, so it is easy to find, it is easily accessible and easy to update.
Our style guide helps us use a consistent language in Dropbox.
3. Writers know when to speak, and when it is better to shut up.
When describing an interface it is important to know when to shut up and get out of the way. Most of the time, you don't want to force users to read anything. People try to make something work and the last thing they want to do is read your interface.
But sometimes you want your words to be noticed. Then you want to speak and want to be heard clearly and clearly. Maybe the user has done something amazing and you want the whole world to know about it.
Well, it so happened that the writers are well able to set the tone. Writers know when to raise and when to lower it. We know when to be energetic or patient, decisive or fanciful.
And I guarantee you that the writer will closely monitor every quip, comment and statement in your message, because we care about sending the right tone at the right time.
Writers help set the right tone.
4. Writers follow the language
Good writers care about the details. Whether a misspelled word or a comma, good writers care about the quality of the material.
But does language quality really matter? Is the fact that your product has ochepyatki is a big problem? Does it really matter if you have “log in” on one page and “register” on the other?
I think the quality of the language certainly matters. It comes down to trust. As soon as users begin to notice typos and inconsistencies, they begin to lose confidence in your company. If your company cannot take the time to write correctly, why should they trust you their time and money?
Writers keep track of your language so that you don’t lose user confidence.
Writers care about the details.
5. Writers motivate you to become the best designers.
Supposedly, Einstein once said: "If you cannot explain something in simple words, you yourself do not understand it." This is fundamentally true when it comes to writing a product.
As product writers, we are often asked to explain complex concepts in simple words. And sometimes in the process of writing, we understand that it is simply impossible to explain the update easily and clearly. This usually means that the design is not intuitive.
Then we go to the designers and try together to come up with a solution to this problem. Writers are not afraid to indicate to the designer that their design is meaningless, because the confusing design leads to confusing writings.
In other words, writers make designers get better, and good designs lead to even better texts. Real magic is done when everyone shares ideas and works together to achieve something perfect.
And do not forget: writers are your main fans. We are creative, just like you. We love art, movement and new discoveries. We love the design too.
Writers enjoy collaborating with designers.
6. Writers have their own approach to words.
Do you know the secret of writing good material? Good material is the result of many time-tested techniques that writers have been using for years. If you take a closer look, you will notice these tricks in almost any good article.
To demonstrate this to you, I tried to use a number of these techniques throughout the article. Here are some tricks I used:
- Alliteration: Using words that begin with the same sound to give expressiveness to a sentence
- Rhyme: Use words that end with the same sound to make a sentence memorable
- Amplification: Repetition of certain words and phrases to focus too much on certain words
- Parallelism: The repetition of the same grammatical structure to make words more memorable.
- Antithesis: Contrasting different concepts in order to more clearly express their thoughts
- Intonation: Creating tempo based on syllables and using an accent on each word
- Rule of three: Mention different things in groups of three to set the shape, beat or rhythm.
- Metaphor: Referring to one concept through mentioning another, usually in a clever way
- Value proposition: Emphasizing the benefits for the user to make him act
- Rhetorical question: Using a question instead of a statement in order to convey the basic idea
- Question-answer: Ask a question in order to sow interest and answer it yourself. Also known as hypophora
How many tricks have you counted when reading a post?
In writing a product, these techniques are very helpful, especially when you are designing a promo, landing page, testimonial, letter or introduction to the new system. These tricks help your article material to be more convincing.
Anyone can learn to write compelling stories, but it takes years to achieve mastery. Writers have been honing their skills for years, so why not take advantage of their experience?
Okay, let's hire a writer
I hope after reading this article you will see what value writers can bring to your design team. When you are thinking of expanding your team, consider hiring a writer. Your users will love you more because of this.
Each product has an amazing story that deserves a story. Wouldn't it be great to have a writer who would help tell your story?
If you are ready to start looking for a writer, here are some similar articles that can help you with this:
- Hiring your first UX writer by Sara Culver
- How to find product content strategists by Alaine Mackenzie
EDISON Software professionally develops applications and websites in PHP for large customers, as well as developing cloud services and mobile applications in Java, and we try to make the appearance of products as user friendly as possible, and the “technical debt” of UX designers reduced . Here is a selection of useful articles on usability:
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/339362/
All Articles