UX writers and other design professionals are famously, and correctly, user-centered. Yael Ben-David thinks that UX writers can sometimes benefit from slight course corrections to better account for the business side of our work. Her new book, “The Business of UX Writing,” makes the argument for this kind of approach, and shows you how to […]
Corey Vilhauer and Deane Barker: The Web Project Guide – Episode 129
As the field of content strategy matures and advances, one thing remains the same: the ubiquity and importance of building websites. Few practitioners are more versed in this craft than Corey Vilhauer and Deane Barker. Then they worked together at Blend Interactive, Corey and Deane wrote The Web Project Guide, a comprehensive book that can […]
Aladrian Goods: Content Design Leadership at Intuit – Episode 128
Like many content designers, Aladrian Goods discovered the field of UX design after working in writing, communications, and other roles. Aladrian found content design a few years ago and quickly rose into a leadership role at Intuit. In this conversation, we talk about the story of her ascent into leadership, the design practice at Intuit, […]
Jess Sand: Community Stewardship at Content + UX – Episode 127
Jess Sand organizes the Content + UX Slack, a vibrant community of 15,000 content professionals. While it may be best known for the salary-transparency requirement in its very active jobs channel, members of the community also appreciate the wide-ranging conversations there and the support of their fellow content practitioners. We talked about: her take on […]
Meghan Casey: Author of The Content Strategy Toolkit – Episode 126
Meghan Casey literally wrote the book on content strategy practice. Her book, “The Content Strategy Toolkit: Methods, Guidelines, and Templates for Getting Content Right,” has helped innumerable content strategists do better content work. Meghan is updating the book now to bring it into line with modern practices and to account for the many changes in […]
Greg Dunlap: CMS Consulting and Web Content Authoring – Episode 125
Greg Dunlap is on a mission to help people create better content for the web. As Director of Strategy for Lullabot – a well-known consultancy that is best known for its work with the Drupal content management system – Greg helps clients develop good websites. As the author of a forthcoming book on web content […]
Jeff Coyle: AI and the Future of Content Strategy – Episode 124
Artificial intelligence is driving a wave of change in content strategy practice. AI is here now and will soon touch virtually every aspect of content work, from ideation and creation to management and analytics. Jeff Coyle can help you understand and navigate how these new AI-driven practices will affect your content career. We talked about: […]
Jesse James Garrett: Author of The Elements of User Experience – Episode 123
In the late 1990s, as digital practices like web design and development emerged, experiences were being created and users were getting attention, but the practices that guided that work had not yet been articulated. That’s when Jesse James Garrett wrote his book, The Elements of User Experience. After sharing his ideas in numerous client pitches […]
David Dylan Thomas and Dayana Kibilds: Cognitive Load and Emotional Labor – Episode 122
As content strategists and designers we do our best to create experiences that inform and empower our users. Unfortunately, we sometimes fall short of perfect, human-centered, user-focused design practice. Two of our most common failings occur when we bombard our users with excessive cognitive load and impose on them unnecessary emotional labor. David Dylan Thomas […]
Ashleigh Faith: Knowledge Graphs for Content – Episode 121
Knowledge graph technology can help content programs in many ways: to aid content discoverability, to discover valuable insights in existing content, and to build transparent personalization programs that build brand loyalty and foster customer trust. Ashleigh Faith has worked with content and knowledge graphs for more than 15 years and has a knack for explaining […]
May Habib: AI and Content at Writer.com – Episode 120
The use of artificial intelligence in content design and content operations is emerging and evolving quickly. As is the case with many new technologies, it might at first look like robots are coming to steal jobs from humans. But, according to May Habib, AI is more likely to create more, and more interesting, work for […]
Teodora Petkova: Semantic Web Explorer – Episode 119
Modern communication on the web is best when it’s semantic and meaningful, networked and conversational. Creating web conversations starts with collaborative internal communication and then invites the marketplace to join in. Teodora Petkova is a semantic web explorer with a PhD in digital marketing and communication. She loves to share her fascination with the evolution […]
Natalie Dunbar: Building a Sustainable Content Strategy Practice – Episode 118
Natalie Dunbar can help you build your content strategy practice, whether you’re running a one-person content show, building a content department, or incorporating a content team into a design operation. Drawing on experiences from her long and eclectic content strategy career and adding the insights of several other industry veterans, Natalie’s new book is a […]
Kate Thomas: Structured-Content Adventures at PayPal – Episode 117
Kate Thomas is leading the transformation of marketing content at PayPal from hand-crafted web pages to structured content stored in a headless CMS. Like many organizational-transformation projects, this one has highlighted both the benefits of structuring content and the challenges of getting content authors to work in new ways. We talked about: the migration of […]
Seth Earley: Ontologies for the AI-Powered Enterprise – Episode 116
Seth Earley helps enterprises use ontologies to power the intelligent content experiences that create personalized content interactions and that run chatbots, voice assistants, and other new technologies. An ontology is a business practice that helps you understand the knowledge in your business and connect and share it in new and powerful ways. We talked about: […]
Katrin Suetterlin: Content Design for Neurodiversity – Episode 115
Katrin Suetterlin is a content architect, a content designer, and an expert on designing for neurodivergent populations. You hear jokes about ADHD, dyslexia, and similar neurological conditions all the time, but as designers we need to take neurodivergence seriously. Research shows that at least 20% of the population exhibits one or more types of neurodiversity. […]
Dan Brown: Information Architecture Lenses – Episode 114
Dan Brown has focused his design work on information architecture for the past 25 years. Along the way, he has written three books, designed a design game, and created one of the the most-used tools in the profession, the Information Architecture Lenses card deck. Dan is very thoughtful about the practice of IA and has […]
Nicole Michaelis: Creating and Managing Design-System Content – Episode 113
Design systems are quickly being adopted across companies of all sizes and types, from big enterprises to burgeoning startups. As in all digital practices, content is a crucial element in these systems. Nicole Michaelis has worked with content in design systems for many years and has learned a lot about how to create and manage […]
Donna Spencer: Information Architecture Educator and Author – Episode 112
Donna Spencer has practiced information architecture at the highest levels for more than two decades. She has taught innumerable workshops and courses, and she wrote an entire book on the subject. Still, to this day, when she teaches IA, she feels inadequate. This speaks in no way to her professional knowledge or her skills as […]
Deane Barker: Content Management and Modeling – Episode 111
Content programs need to be guided by a sound model and built on a strong foundation. They need to put people first but to also account for the technical systems that handle the details of turning abstract concepts into tangible and useful content artifacts. Deane Barker has been modeling and building content management systems for […]