RESOURCES

UX writing, content design, and strategy tools

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Need a reminder of what tools could help tackle a content problem? New to design writing or making a career transition? Here are some resources I have found useful.

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What does a design writer do?

 

Discover​

Competitive/landscape analysis / trends

Content inventory/audit/scorecard

Conversation mining

Data analysis

Diary studies

Empathy maps

Exploratory user research/insights/interviews

Field/analogous research

Heuristic evaluation

Stakeholder interviews

Surveys

Personas

Pitching

 

Define​

Concept testing

Content strategy/framework

Cross-functional collaboration / feedback

Journey maps

Story mapping

Success metric definition / benchmarking

UX content requirements / content brief

Workshop facilitation

 

Develop

Accessibility / plain language

Content tracker / editorial calendar

Copy in wireframes / UX collaboration

Compliance/regulatory documentation

Conversational/Voice/NLP design/optimization

Information architecture/hierarchy / taxonomies / sitemap / navigation / content modeling

Image/color/formatting recommendations

Personalization / adaptive/dynamic content

Pipeline / work stream management

Product/feature naming

Prototyping

Scoping/estimation

“Source of truth” management

Style guide / voice and tone / brand alignment

User flows

User testing / card sorting / cloze testing

UX writing / content design / microcopy / copy explorations:

 

Alt/accessibility text, App/Google Play store copy and metadata, buttons, captions, CTAs, celebrations, confirmations, dashboards, emails, empty states, errors, FAQ/help, forms and fields, headlines/subheaders, instructional text, landing pages, menus, microinteractions, modals and dialogues, naming, notifications and alerts, onboarding, rewards/gamification, selection text (drop-downs, multiple choice, radio buttons), short/long-form copy, tooltips
 

Deliver

Content automation

Content governance

Content implementation / CMS

Live data testing / A/B testing

Localization/culturalization

Marketing / customer support collaboration

Metadata/keywords/tags

Process iteration/improvement

Post-release analysis/maintenance

QA

Release

Systems design

Technical writing/docs

Training materials

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What are some design writing resources?

 

Communities/Educational​

ADP List, find, book, and meet UX mentors

AIGA, the professional association for design

Content + UX, a community of professionals celebrating content

Hexagon UX, empowers womxn and non-binary folx in UX

UX Writer’s Collective, online courses in UX writing

Working In Content, content jobs, resources, and community

 

Books

About Face: The Essentials of Interaction Design, by Alan Cooper, Robert Reimann, David Cronin, and Chris Noessel

Content Design, by Sarah Richards

Design of Everyday Things, by Don Norman

How to Make Sense of Any Mess, by Abby Covert

Inclusive Design for a Digital World, by Regine M. Gilbert

Measure What Matters, by John Doerr

Microcopy: The Complete Guide, by Kinneret Yifrah

Microinteractions, by Dan Saffer

Strategic Writing for UX, by Torrey Podmajersky

Understanding Context, by Andrew Hinton

Why you need a content team and how to build one, by Rachel McConnell

 

Articles/Sites

Abby Covert IA Resources, abbycovert.com

Adina Cretu’s List of Resources, adinacretu.com/ux-writer-desk

Apply Human Interface Guidelines, developer.apple.com/design/human-interface-guidelines

Avo Agency Recommended Articles, avoagency.com/articles

Content Strategy Inc’s Downloadable Guides, contentstrategyinc.com/articles-category/templates-tools

Google Material Design, material.io/design

Grumpy Website, grumpy.website

The Handy List of Human Words, medium.com/curiosity-by-design/the-handy-list-of-human-words-a70f13dde55e

Intuit’s Accessibility and Inclusion Guide, contentdesign.intuit.com/accessibility-and-inclusion

Katherine Bradshaw-Jones’s Resource List, blog.usejournal.com/a-mega-list-of-ux-writing-resources-d9f200d6dfde

Little Big Details, littlebigdetails.com

Plain Language Guidelines, plainlanguage.gov/guidelines

Prose Kiln Recommended Articles, prosekiln.com/blog/2020/11/17/the-massive-list-of-content-design-amp-ux-writing-resources

Talking Microcopy List of Resources, medium.com/talking-microcopy-writing-ux/go-to-guide-for-ux-writers-copywriters-and-content-strategists-3f216e0a0aa0

Nielsen Norman Group Tone of Voice Words, nngroup.com/articles/tone-voice-words

UX Writing Library, uxwritinglibrary.com

John Moore Williams's Voice and Tone Guide List, voiceandtoneguides.webflow.io

Website Content Audit Template, airtable.com/universe/expNIt0AxFdLXaVIv/website-content-audit

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