Creating Context: Getting Started With Content Design

Architecting user experiences with content.

There's never been a more important time to do writing work. The proliferation of stories and products fueled by technology has increased the need to have people who, beyond doing creative work, also serve as custodians of context. This is particularly essential for building successful products.

The content design role is relatively new but the practice has been in existence since there’ve been [digital] technology products. Different companies have their standard nomenclature for the role — UX Writer, Content Strategist, UX Copywriter, Product Writer, Product Storyteller, etc, but the function is essentially the same: a content professional who combats ambiguity by writing words to help users better navigate and take the right actions on a product. Content design is increasingly the de facto label because it is a role that sits in Design, primarily, as well as in Product.

Many companies typically set up their product development teams in a triad — PM, product design, and engineering. With content design gaining more recognition in recent years as a separate, crucial discipline, more organizations are redesigning their triads into quads with content design joining the fray. Content designers are creators and custodians of context. They wield language and narrative to shape perspectives and experiences. They're the “fourth man in the fire” in the modern quad-structure product dev team.

So, how does anyone get started as a content designer? It's taken three paragraphs to get to the point but the context always helps, especially for folks unfamiliar with how content design ties into building great products. I recently completed a content design hiring cycle for my current team at Flutterwave and, after reviewing hundreds of applications, I realize that there's a long way to go yet, in terms of showing a clear path for how anyone can build the requisite skill and experience required to start and build a successful UX career. Also, we don't have a ton of companies hiring content designers or who recognize the value of hiring a dedicated UX team that includes content design. As someone fortunate to work in a space where the value of UX and content design is readily apparent, I've taken it on myself to open the doors a bit wider.

The tips I'm sharing below are from the presentation notes I made for the content design talk I gave at the Treford Design Boot camp. It's an attempt to answer some of the questions I've got over the years from folks looking to get started in Content design.

Whew. Let's go.

First off, who can work as a content designer?

While anyone from any background can learn to become a content designer, writers or content professionals are particularly suited for the role. Many content designers had prior stints in marketing and media. The goal is to have a translatable skill set and experience at least.

How and Where to Start

The first place to start is to read books and articles — like this one — on the craft. It'll help you get more context about content design work. I'll share links to articles and resources for you to sink your teeth into.

To succeed as a content designer, you have to possess what is generally referred to as product sense. Or taste. It means you have to have a sense of how a product can have the most utility and deliver the best experience for the users. It means you have to be driven by excellence — not just in the idealistic and crippling sense, but in the sense of knowing what good looks like and knowing what incremental steps to take to attain it.

Look at the products you use today. Which app on your phone or product do you enjoy the most? Why do you like them? Which ones are frustrating to use? Why? What could be better about them? What would you do differently if you had the chance? This is how it starts, by paying obscene attention to details to catch things that fly past most people on any given day.

Edit The Internet, Build your Portfolio

Start by “editing” or redesigning the internet. Or the digital products you already use. Thanks to Chrome Web Tools, which lets you temporarily edit any page on the internet, you can visit any site's landing page and rejig the copy to improve the messaging as you deem necessary. Then you can take screenshots of your edits and write short case studies on the thinking behind your version and why it's better. Do a considerable sample size of this and you have a working portfolio.

Another very useful service to help you whip up a portfolio is the daily UX writing challenge. Essentially, you sign up and they send you a UX writing challenge every day for 2 weeks. It's free and super useful for folks looking to build a structured portfolio of proper challenges. Give it a shot. They've recently added a new challenge that covers conversational design, which should come in handy for would-be content designers.

Tools Starter Pack

Even though content design work can be done anywhere — writing is tools agnostic in that sense, content designers tend to work in a collaborative fashion. Depending on the product or project in question, you'll be collaborating with product designers, product managers, and engineers who will need to have visibility and give feedback on your work in real-time or otherwise. Different companies have their workflows for collaboration, which in turn determine the set of tools they use. But Figma is easily the most popular product design tool used by product teams today. Mostly because it is browser based. You can sign up and get a free account in minutes, and just dive right into it. Other similar product design tools include InVision Studio and Adobe XD.

Other tools you'd want to try to get a hang of include Notion — a collaborative documentation tool; and Jira — a collaborative product management tool.

Should Content Designers Learn to Design?

No, and yes.

Content design (or UX writing) is a design discipline. While a product designer manipulates shapes, pixels, and colours, a content designer manipulates language and product real estate to convey meaning. UX writing is design.

While learning product design is not a prerequisite for being a good content designer, learning to understand what good product design looks like will make you a better content designer. Your job is not to write copy only, even though you must own it. Content designers should care about aesthetics, usability, functionality, and every item that contributes to the general experience a product delivers. That's why collaborating with the other members of your product team helps you do a better job in the long run. That opportunity to give and receive feedback helps everyone on the team.

Resources:

Why UX Writing is So Important In Product Design — UX Planet
Every Word Matters
Booking.writes: Stories from writers at Booking.com
Microcopy and UX Writing
Get To Know The Booming Field of UX Writing — Adobe XD Ideas
Dropbox Design
Content Strategy for The Web, by Kristina Halvorson
Strategic Writing for UX, by Torrey Podmajersky
Content Design, by Sarah Richards

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There you go, you can get started today or over the weekend. Start by editing landing pages on the internet with Chrome Web Tools, take screenshots, and share with folks to get their feedback. Feel free to email me back. I may respond :)