After I was invited to present on the importance of copy at a quarterly UX team meeting, I took the opportunity to explain that content design is more than copy because it’s more than words.
Problems
Too often, product teams and UX partners don’t know what content design is or how to best engage with a content designer when one joins their team.
As a result, content designers often have to educate their teams on what the discipline is and what they can do, usually while juggling too many assignments.
Solutions
I created a presentation called “More than words” to explain that while words (aka copy) are important, it’s not all that content designers do. I used the five planes framework from The Elements of User Experience to explain how content design is an integral piece of UX.
I built on that deck to create a “What is content design?” playbook, incorporating feedback from other managers, and shared it with content designers across Indeed to use and adapt as needed.
Outcomes
I shared the initial presentation at a quarterly UX team meeting. I recruited 3 other content designers and managers for the Q&A panel.
I was later invited to share the presentation at a Design Systems conference.
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Other managers used the playbook to help onboard content designers. It was later expanded to help all UX teams collaborate with product and engineering partners.
What my team said
“Yvonne put together a UX Content Design playbook that has been used by the entire UX team (design, content, and research) as a foundation for educating their new product and engineering partners on how to work successfully with UX.”
– UX Content Director
“Yvonne not only participated, but took a leading role, in our Q2 SMB UXR Quarterly. Yvonne also put together an incredible deck on Content Design, which I think helped the audience further understand how to work with her team.”
–UX Research Director
Moon Phase Media 