The Farmer and the Cowhand Should Be Friends, or, How UX and Content Can (and Should) Work Together.
Let’s be frank: If UX designers had their way, the only words you’d ever see on the web are lorem ipsum. And yet, words — from interfaces to microcopy to long narratives — are integral to the usability and delight of any web product. Based on his years of UX experience and love of good content, Dylan will talk about ways to bring the two sides together to make better things on the web.
TrustArc Webinar - How to Build Consumer Trust Through Data Privacy
LavaCon 2017 - How UX and Content Can (and Should) Work Together
1. The Farmer and the
Cowhand Should Be Friends.
How UX and Content
Can (and Should)
Work Together
Photo: Diane Sobolewski
Dylan Wilbanks
November 2017
2. Required Bona Fides
18 years working on the web
Stops at:
• University of Washington
• Apptio
• EnergySavvy
• HP
Founded Hêtre in 2017 to help
organizations with user
experience strategy
@dylanw #lavaconDylan Wilbanks
4. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet,
consectetur adipiscing elit,
sed do eiusmod tempor
incididunt ut labore et dolore
magna aliqua.
@dylanw #lavaconDylan Wilbanks
27. @dylanw #lavaconDylan Wilbanks
Life of a tech writer
• Document the product
• Rewrite every time
there’s a change
• Not get told there are
changes
• Rewrite
• Burn out
• Drink coffee
• Repeat
The Writer.
28. @dylanw #lavaconDylan Wilbanks
The Writer.
Life of a content strategist
• Define content
• Push for governance
• Fight silos
• Fight politics
• Fight some more
• Rewrite
• Burn out
• Drink coffee
• Repeat
31. @dylanw #lavaconDylan Wilbanks
Life of a Designer
• Focus on users
• Fight for good design
• But:
• Engineering wants to ship
• Sales wants to sell
• Etc. etc. etc.
• “Just make it pretty!”
• Burn out
• Drink coffee
• Repeat The Designer.
52. @dylanw #lavaconDylan Wilbanks
“[content strategy is] Planning for
the creation, aggregation,
delivery, and useful governance of
useful, usable, and appropriate
content in an experience.”
Margot Bloomstein
(tweet @mbloomstein and say I said hi)
55. Once upon a time there was ______.
Every day, ______.
One day, ______.
And because of this, ______.
And because of this, ______.
Until finally ______.
And ever since that day, ______.
@dylanw #lavaconDylan Wilbanks
Brian McDonald, Invisible Ink: A Practical Guide to Building Stories that Resonate
70. @dylanw #lavaconDylan Wilbanks
Start Now
“Put some words here. Something about
onboarding? You’re a word person.”
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet,
consectetur adipiscing elit, sed
do eiusmod tempor incididunt
72. @dylanw #lavaconDylan Wilbanks
Start Now
New customer needs to start process
Friendly voice/tone
2 lines (~ 25 words)
User + Goal
Requirements
Limitations
73. @dylanw #lavaconDylan Wilbanks
“The value that technical communicators
deliver is twofold: They make information
more useable and accessible to those who
need that information, and in doing so, they
advance the goals of the companies or
organizations that employ them.”
“Defining Technical Communication,” STC
https://www.stc.org/about-stc/defining-technical-communication/
74. Communication is everything
•Make connections and build bridges
•Understand how they think and talk and work
•Educate them on how you think and talk and
work
•Create a common vernacular for your work
•Always assume good intentions
@dylanw #lavaconDylan Wilbanks
78. Team up.
•Identify commonalities in goals, KPIs, OKRs
•Find the user pain and collaborate on solutions
•Build a business case for a unified design +
content strategy
•Always, always be proactive
@dylanw #lavaconDylan Wilbanks
83. @dylanw #lavaconDylan Wilbanks
User Goal Design Content Video E-Mail
(who’s
our user?)
(what are we
trying to help
them
accomplish?)
(how the
design will
do to help
the user
succeed)
(how the
content team
will help the
user succeed)
(how the
video team
will do to
help the
user
succeed)
(how the e-
mail
cadence will
help the
user
succeed)
84. @dylanw #lavaconDylan Wilbanks
User Goal Design Content Video E-Mail
New
Customer
Understand
our new
offerings
Clearly
show the
three
options
Short, clear
explanations
of the
offerings
Three
videos, 30
secs apiece,
explaining
each of the
offerings
Use Content
with a focus
on calls to
action to
the site and
the videos
86. The crucial questions
1. Who is the user (human with the problem?)
2. What’s the user’s goal? (What does success look
like?)
3. What’s the problem?
4. How does the solution solve the problem for the
user?
5. How will we know it worked?
@dylanw #lavaconDylan Wilbanks
89. Demonstrate the value.
•Controlled terminology/vocabulary
•Refactor the design workflow to engage
content and docs in early, then show results
•Close the feedback loop with analytics that
cuts across design and content
•Show an optimistic way of working together
@dylanw #lavaconDylan Wilbanks
99. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet,
consectetur adipiscing elit,
sed do eiusmod tempor
incididunt ut labore et dolore
magna aliqua.
@dylanw #lavaconDylan Wilbanks
101. Thank you!
Twitter: @dylanw
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/dylanwilbanks/
Learn more about Hêtre at http://hetre.design
(it’s French for “beech tree.”)
@dylanw #lavaconDylan Wilbanks