About intersections
“Words are just as much a part of a good user experience as effortless interactions and beautiful visuals”.
Ustwo’s Copy Guide introduction
Listening
Research, detective work and user testing.
In the early stages of any project, a healthy amount of research and audience knowledge is an absolute pre-requisite.
Getting aligned on a purpose and a message helps achieve greater strategic clarity.
I typically will work best in environments where user, internal and business needs are balanced, and there is a regular influx of qualitative feedback for teams to discuss and reflect on.
Translating
Diverse teams, same goal.
Cross-functional teams' daily task is to interact with a range of roles and keep a curious and open mind. For that, they need to be able to adapt their language, understand and offer context on the advancement of projects.
Teams who work best create a safe environment to open discussion and stay approachable. It is essential every member of the team feels empowered to give feedback, signal potential risks and offer alternatives/solutions.
An iterative process
You’d be surprised how counter-intuitive this still seems.
Trial and error goes by much more smoothly when you know your pace. Taking the time to make sure people like the concept, the design, the way the product works.
Internally, this allows breathing time to identify gaps and opportunities.
Skills
- Discovery cycle
- Data & research to steer roadmap
- Competitor analysis, scoping opportunities and challenges
- Working with user stories - one card, one conversation, one confirmation.
- Continuous sharing of knowledge, seeking multiple inputs.
- Documentation lover (I'm one of those).
Product ownership
- Research strategy, methodology and transmission of best practices.
- In person and remote research (in-depth interviews, usability testing, field research, shadowing, diary studies, card sorting, surveys, A/B testing)
- Mixed methods advocate: collect and analyse behavioural / qualitative data, cross-referenced with complementary quantitative data.
- Communicate research findings in dynamic formats (concise presentations, stuff stuck on the wall, conversation starters, soundbites edited audio and video clips)
User research
- Conversations around editorial direction.
- Exploring content production (feasibility, adaptability, sustainability, prioritisation)
- Editorialised newsletters and blogs.
- Social media presence
Community
- Offer relevant raw content in the early stages of the design
- Ensure content is adaptable to multiple devices
- Measure and monitor content performance with metrics.
- Make sure of the sustainability of the strategy beyond release.