Upgrade to Pro — share decks privately, control downloads, hide ads and more …

Designing with Words

Designing with Words

General Assembly, New York

Nicole Fenton

May 16, 2014
Tweet

More Decks by Nicole Fenton

Other Decks in Design

Transcript

  1. Topics About me What I do (and don’t do) The

    writing process Tips for better content Q&A
  2. Web Content Types Interface buttons and links forms and flows

    instructions navigation labels errors and alerts product tours strings Marketing and Editorial articles and essays landing pages product and feature names descriptions blog posts taglines emails
  3. Goals Communicate Inform different audiences Solve or reduce problems Create

    lasting work Make the world a better place Celebrate life
  4. “Wise therapists help clients to think more clearly, feel more

    deeply, and behave more responsibly. Wise writers often want to do these same things.” ! Mary Pipher
 Writing to Change the World
  5. What I Don’t Do • Visual design, Photoshop • Front-end

    dev: CSS, JavaScript • Code: PHP, Ruby, Python, etc. • SEO • Social media blahblah
  6. “Build a corner. This is what people who are good

    at puzzles do. They ignore the heaps of colors and shapes and simply look for straight edges… Every book, story, and essay begins with a single word… Anchor yourself somewhere—anywhere—on the page.” ! Dani Shapiro Still Writing
  7. Record Yourself • Make a list of questions you want

    to answer. • Grab a recording device. • Walk around. Talk to yourself. • Use what you say as a rough draft.
  8. Do a Human Check Read it out loud. Ask yourself:

    • Is it clear? • Is it useful? • Is it friendly? • Is it true?
  9. A Few More Tips ✍✍✍✍✍ Read edited text Find your

    early readers Be nice to each other There is no secret