Originally presented at Confab Central on June 9, 2017 in Minneapolis, Minnesota. --- As writers and content strategists, we know it’s impossible to write and review every single word that goes into a user interface. But even small instances of content, like error messages and button text, deeply affect how our customers feel when using our products. So what’s the best way to help customers accomplish their tasks? Teach everyone how to write their own good content, of course. Through examples of how this works at Shopify, you’ll learn how to help designers and developers think like content strategists. The key to improving your product’s content lies buried deep beneath lorem ipsum. In this session, you’ll learn how to: - Hold weekly “fresh eyes” sessions with your UX team. - Teach people to write good error messages. - Run product content onboarding sessions for new hires. - Maintain living resources, like a content style guide. --- Learn more about Biz Sanford at https://www.bizsanford.com/ or follow her on Twitter at https://twitter.com/bizsanford

1. Writing thoughtful product
content at scale
Biz Sanford
@bizsanford

2. Ottawa, Canada

7. Why?

8. Support debt

9. Web content Product content

10. Web content Product content

11. 1. Develop guidelines
2. Onboard new hires
3. Hold fresh eyes
4. Run workshops
5. Pair write
6. Do things, tell people
6 ways to write better at scale

12. Adult learning

13. 70 20 10
Experiences Social Formal

14. “Don’t leave training to
outsiders, do it yourself.”
- Andy Grove, Former Intel CEO

15. 1. Develop guidelines
2. Onboard new hires
3. Hold fresh eyes
4. Run workshops
5. Pair write
6. Do things, tell people

16. - Style guides
- Voice and tone guides
- Vocabulary lists
- Content playbooks
- Content wiki pages
- Component libraries

24. polaris.shopify.com

26. https://github.com/Shopify/rorybot

27. 1. Develop guidelines
2. Onboard new hires
3. Hold fresh eyes
4. Run workshops
5. Pair write
6. Do things, tell people

28. - What the product content team does
- Shopify’s voice and tone
- How to write for Shopify
- How and where to get content help
- Where to find content resources
Onboarding new hires

30. What didn’t work?

32. 1. Develop guidelines
2. Onboard new hires
3. Hold fresh eyes
4. Run workshops
5. Pair write
6. Do things, tell people

33. Feedback is a gift

35. Help designers think like
content strategists

36. 1. Develop guidelines
2. Onboard new hires
3. Hold fresh eyes
4. Run workshops
5. Pair write
6. Do things, tell people

38. Plain language

39. - What happened?
- Where did it happen?
- Why did it happen?
- How does it affect them?
- What should they do next?
Anatomy of an error message

40. Communication style
Positive outlook Intensity Fact-based

41. 1. Develop guidelines
2. Onboard new hires
3. Hold fresh eyes
4. Run workshops
5. Pair write
6. Do things, tell people

42. Driver and navigator

44. Content clinics

45. 1. Develop guidelines
2. Onboard new hires
3. Hold fresh eyes
4. Run workshops
5. Pair write
6. Do things, tell people

48. Be a broken record

49. 1. Develop guidelines
2. Onboard new hires
3. Run workshops
4. Hold fresh eyes
5. Pair write
6. Do things, tell people
Today we talked about how to...

50. Questions?
@bizsanford
medium.com/shopify-ux