The Content Strategy Compendium
A hotbed of inspiration, education, and obsession
14 min readMay 31, 2019
Articles and how-tos
2021
Accessibility
- 3C of interface design: color, contrast, content
- 7 guidelines for writing accessible microcopy
- Accessibility for teams
- Accessible design: how to make this world a better place for all
- Adding alt text descriptions
- Better link labels: 4Ss for encouraging clicks
- The business case for digital accessibility
- Content strategy 101: accessibility
- Disability, language, and service design
- Empathize by exercise with accessibility
- Getting to the heart of digital accessibility
- Human computer interaction for the visually impaired
- How tables can make content less accessible
- How to estimate reading times
- How to make information accessible (PDF)
- How to write inclusive, accessible digital products
- Inclusive design
- “Learn more” links: you can do better
- Links and hypertext
- Making the case for accessibility
- Readability guidelines
- Personas with disabilities
- Standards for writing accessibly
- UI copy: UX guidelines for command names and keyboard shortcuts
- Understand the social needs for accessibility in UX design
- Usability for senior citizens
- Use plain language in UX writing
- UX=accessibility & accessibility=UX
- A way with words: guidelines for the portrayal of people with a disability
- Why PDFs should be avoided on GOV.UK
- Why text buttons hurt mobile usability
- Writing for accessibility
- Writing for readability
Alerts and notifications
- Android notifications
- A comprehensive guide to notification design
- Five mistakes in designing mobile push notifications
- Fundamentals of drafting good push notifications
- How to create effective push notifications
- How to design mobile push notifications that don’t suck
- iOS alert guidelines
- Mac alert guidelines
- Notifications (Human Interface Guidelines)
- Rules for creating perfect push notifications
- Toasts or snack bars? — designing organic notifications
- UX for notifications: the good, the bad, and the ugly
- Write ridiculously helpful error and alert messages
- Writing notifications that don’t suck
Buttons and other UI elements
- 5 rules for choosing the right words on button labels
- UI cheat sheets: buttons
- Using “Sign in” vs. using “Log in”
- Why text buttons hurt mobile usability
Chatbots and AI
- Branching conversation systems and the working writer
- Chatbot design canvas
- Conversation design tips for UX writers from Google I/O 2019
- Conversational UI: writing chatbot scripts step by step
- How to design a chatbot
- A quick guide to writing for chatbots
- Ultimate bot design guide
- What is conversation design and how to design your chatbot
- Will AI take my writing job?
- Writing automatic replies that don’t feel automatic
- Writing content for a bot
Collaboration
- Content-first approach in design: collaborating with content strategists and UX writers
- How to collaborate with your UX writers (by a UX writer)
- How UX writers can harness the power of pair writing
- Improve your UX writing by collaborating with a customer support agent
- Improving UX: the case for better writer-designer collaboration
- Understanding UX teams
- UX writers and UX designers: why we’re better together
- Where does UX writing fit with design?
Content design
- Content is king by Bill Gates (1996)
- Content designers: you’ll wonder how you coped without them
- Designing with words: tackling UX writing as a UX designer
- How to incorporate content design into your design system
- In conversation: content design with Sarah Richards
- Where does UX writing fit with design?
Conversation(al) design
- Conversational design for better products
- Grice’s maxims of conversations
- A guide to conversational design—why, what, and how
CTAs
- 5 rules for choosing the right words on button labels
- 7 CTA button design guidelines
- Making demands: when to say please in instructions and CTAs
Customer experience
Design systems
- Design principles: finding them, writing them and living up to them
- Everything you need to know about design systems
- UX design principles: a simple guide to create compelling experiences
Empty states
- Downplaying empty states in design
- Use empty states to your advantage
- When to use loaders & empty states (and when not to)
- Why empty states should never be neglected
- Writing empty states
Error content
- 4 common mistakes with error messages (and how to fix them)
- 5 user experience tips for the best error messages
- An analysis of 24 creative 404 error pages
- The art of the error message
- Best error messages: 5 tips for a user-friendly experience
- How to write any error message
- How to write good error messages
- How to write great error message
- How to write the perfect error message
- Microsoft error message guidelines
- User-friendly error messages: 7 tips
- The UX of error messages
- Write error messages customers love
- Writing clearer error messages
Forms
- 4 ways to introduce guiding microcopy in forms
- 10 awesome sign up forms that you’ll want to fill out
- Boost your form completion rates with this microcopy checklist
- Form fields — required vs. optional
- Form UX: how to design a user-friendly form
Getting the job (and hiring UX writers)
- 5 lessons learned: transitioning from a technical writer to a UX writer
- Career in UX writing
- Five tips for creating a fantastic UX resume
- Getting hired as the UX writer: the 5-step plan
- How to get into UX writing: a field guide
- How to hire content strategists
- So you want to break into UX, but you don’t know where to start…
Grammar and stuff
- Analyzing the ampersand
- English grammar: more people more problems
- The most important type of word in UX writing
- The punctuation guide
- Tips for presenting bulleted lists
How are others doing it?
- Fiverr: UX writing review
- How the New York Times redesigned its homepage
- How Typeform upped my UX writing game
- How UBER optimized their home page design for conversion — eye-tracking insights
- Product hunt feature tour
- The rise of microcopy at Typeform
- UX copy tips from the experts
- UX writing: how to do it like Google with this powerful checklist
Information architecture
- The beginner’s guide to information architecture
- Card sorting beginner’s guide–improving your information architecture
- The evolution of IA
- An excellent beginner’s guide to information architecture
- Information architecture: A UX guide
- Information architecture and UX
- UX writing: let user interface speak
Landing pages
Loading states
Localization
- Localization: building websites for a global audience
- My take on language selectors
- Real practical advice on localizing your product design
Microcopy
- 3 microcopy rules every UX writer must know
- 10 examples of microcopy excellence: this is UX writing at its very best
- Are you sure you want to do this? Microcopy for confirmation dialogs
- Changing user habits with microcopy stacking
- The deep connection between microcopy, product design, and gaming
- How to microcopy
- Microcopy: the next small thing in UX
- Microcopy for complex products: part 1/3
- Microcopy for complex products: part 2/3
- Microcopy for complex products: part 3/3
- Microcopy matters–how we improved our UX writing and you can too
- Surprisingly good microcopy
- UX microcopy: finding a balance between empathy and humor
- UX writing versus microcopy
- When you should ease up on the wisecracking in your UX writing
Mobile best practices
- A comprehensive guide for designing text, microcopy, and typography in mobile apps
- Mobile content strategy: 6 ways to engage your mobile readers
- Perfecting the UX copy for mobile apps
- UX writing: a comprehensive guide for designing text in mobile apps
Narrative
- 6 storytelling principles to improve your UX
- Harnessing the power of narrative in UX design
- Narrative wireframes
- Pixar story rules
- Storytelling: the ultimate UX skill
- UX and the psychology of storytelling
- What is narrative UX?
On being the team’s (UX/content/copy) writer
- 4 ways to show the value of UX writing
- 5 ways to be a better UX writer
- 5 ways to unleash your inner UX writer
- 6 things I’ve learned during my first 6 months UX writing
- 7 best practices for practical (and actionable) UX writing
- 7 ways to help keep your UX writers sane and productive
- 10 things UX writers hate to hear
- 10 UX copy messages that have gone stale
- 15 failed attempts to at describing UX writing at parties
- Articulating your value as an individual contributor
- The bumpy path from copywriting to UX
- Building a UX writing culture
- Content design is about more than content
- Content designers: you’ll wonder how you coped without them
- Content “designing” a service
- Content-first approach in design: collaborating with content strategists and UX writers
- Content-first for better user experience
- Copywriting for Interfaces: types of copy in web and mobile UI
- The epic list of content strategy resources
- Everyone’s a copywriter. Right?
- Forget coding: writing is design’s “unicorn skill”
- Getting a seat at the table as a UX writer
- How to build a better product with UX writing
- How to irritate a UX writer
- How to success as a remote UX writer
- How we define a “UX writer” matters
- I am not a words monkey. I am a UX writer.
- “I have to fight to do my job”: confessions of a copywriter
- I’m a UX writer. I won’t bake cookies.
- John Maeda on writing in design
- The metrics of backpacks
- Not a writer? Not a problem: five questions you can ask yourself to improve your UX writing
- Pancakes: a recipe for creating smarter content
- The riddle of UX writing
- The rise of the UX writer
- Say less, mean more: the importance of good copy in UX
- Scrambled eggs & UX
- So you’ve got a product writer on your team. Now what?
- Starting a UX writers Meetup: all you need to know
- UX writers are your product team’s secret weapon
- UX writing: 10 tips for crafting effective content
- UX writing: what is it and why is it so important?
- UX writing, UX copywriting, content strategy, and content design are not the same job
- UX writing: the common thread of the user’s journey
- UX writing: the missing ingredient in digital design
- UX writing: side effects may vary
- What do UX writers do all day
- What does a UX writer actually do?
- What the f*ck is UX writing?
- What do graffiti artists have to teach UX writers?
- When should you hire a UX writer? Yesterday!
- Who’s a UX writer?
- Why content reigns supreme in UX design
- Why UX writing is crucial to your design process
- Why we need writers: better products, services, and companies
- Why you need a copy editor (and why a happy copy editor gives you a better result)
- Why your organization needs a UX writer
- Word choices and language in UX, part 1: introduction and the meaty bits
- Word choices and language in UX, part 2: information architecture and personas
- Word choices and language in UX, part 3: user interface labels and messages
- Writing thoughtful product content at scale
Onboarding
- 4 best practices for user onboarding
- 9 ways to build more effective product tours
- First impressions — the guide to onboarding UX
- How better onboarding cut our drop-off rate dramatically
- How to improve user onboarding with powerful UX copy
- How to optimize your onboarding conversions with UX writing
- Onboarding existing users
Personhood
Portfolio tips (including case studies)
- 5 steps for building a great UX writing portfolio
- 6 elements of a kick-ass UX writing portfolio
- 35 (More!) of the best personal websites we’ve ever seen
- How to create a UX writing portfolio
- How to create a portfolio before landing your first microcopy/UX writing Job
- How to create the perfect structure for a UX case study
- How to write the beginning of your UX case study
- A portfolio hiring managers can’t deny
- UX storytelling in 3 steps–be the hero of your own UX portfolio
- Yvonne Gando, Google senior UX writer on portfolio tips to break into UX
Privacy and permissions
- How to ask for user permissions politely in mobile UX design
- How to improve your permissions UX
- Mobile UX design: the right ways to ask users for permissions
- Privacy UX: better notifications and permission requests
- Scarcity in UX: the psychological bias that became the norm
- Why permission priming is good UX
Psychology
- 13 psychology principles all UX designers should know
- Dunning-Kruger effect explains why society is so messed up
- Gricean maxims
- The psychology of UX writing
Research and testing
- 3 ways to improve your writing through user testing
- 10 ways to get UX writing feedback without a formal research program
- The 2019 UX research tools map
- A/B testing 101
- The art of content testing and measurement
- Don’t listen to customers—why user research matters
- Getting started with accessibility user testing
- How to get UX data from non-UX research
- How to run a research session if you’re not a design researcher
- How user research creates content
- Personas with disabilities
- The right way to ask users to review your app
- Skip user research unless you’re doing it right — seriously
- Testing for UX writers: know when your words are working
- Testing your copy for the price of a coffee
- User experience quiz
- UX copywriting: 3 testing methods that beat A/B testing
Strategy, process, principles, and tools
- 4 reasons you should design without color first
- 4 steps to support your UX writing strategy
- 5 ideas for better UX writing
- 5 things I’ve learned about UX writing in 2018
- 5 tips for improving your UX writing
- 10 key ingredients of top-notch UX writing: pro tips and examples
- 10 steps to simplicity: creating simplicity is easier than you think
- 10 tips for more concise writing
- 14 rules of UX writing
- 16 rules of effective UX writing
- 18 best tips to improve UX writing
- 61 business writing questions to ensure customer trust and sales
- The ABCs of content design
- The art of writing is in the rewriting
- Delete models in products because, sometimes, cats walk on keyboards
- The essential guide to UX writing
- Essential tools in a UX strategy
- The fallacy of “content”
- Giving UX writing a seat at the design table
- The go-to guide for UX writers and content strategists
- Guided by style
- The Hemingway Editor app for UX writers: 3 valuable lessons
- How to announce new features to drive product adoption
- How to develop a website content evaluation plan
- How to train your brain to write more concisely: 6 creative exercises to try
- How to use Airtable for content audits
- How to write ultra-clear copy
- Is UX writing boring?
- Kate Goff’s UX writing, content strategy, and design tools Trello board
- Making the most of UX writing critiques
- Resources for UX writers
- Taking a look at our UX writing process
- Technically writing with empathy
- Tools for UX writers: what’s out there and what’s missing
- UX: do less but with feeling
- UX inspiration #1: Netflix’s web playback
- UX inspiration #2: Delete models
- UX inspiration #3: The Von Restorff effect
- UX inspiration #4: Hick’s Law
- UX inspiration #5: Mental model
- UX inspiration #6: Grammarly’s demo onboarding
- UX inspiration #7: Miller’s Law
- UX inspiration #8: serial position effects
- UX writing: handy tips on text improving user experience
- UX writing glossary
- UX writing principles for designers
- The UX writing process in tech—demystified
- A quick guide to UX writing
- Web copy techniques that alienate users and why not to use them
- What’s a UX strategy?
- When copy loves itself too much
- Why we built a design tool for copywriters
- Why you should be writing UX case studies
- Write first: the craft of content-first design
Tables and reports
Tooltips and tipsys
- 6 highly effective ways to drive feature adoption with tooltips
- The problem with tooltips and what to do instead
User experience (not exactly content-related, not not content-related)
Voice and tone (talkin’ like a human, yo)
- Let’s talk about brand personality, voice, and tone
- Natural language and conversational search
- Write like a human
- You can say that again: the role of repetition in conversation design
Blogs
- Appcues Blog
- Brain Traffic
- Chatbots Life
- Content Design London
- ContentStrategy.com
- E-consultancy
- GOV.UK
- Languagearts.xyz
- Prototypr.io
- Sticky Content
- UX Booth
- UX Collective
- UX Movement
- UX Writing Hub
Books
- Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life by Annie Lamott
- Content Design by Sarah Richards
- Content Strategy for Mobile by Karen McGrane
- Content Strategy for the Web by Kristina Halvorson
- Conversational Design by Erika Hall
- Copywriting by Mark Shaw
- Design of Everyday Things by Don Norman
- Designing Bots
- Designing the Conversation
- Designing Voice User Interfaces
- Don’t Make Me Think by Steve Krug
- Dreyer’s English: An Utterly Correct Guide to Clarity and Style
- Everybody Writes by Ann Handley
- Letting go of the words by Janice Redish
- Microcopy by Kinneret Yifrah
- Microcopy by Niaw de Leon
- Nicely Said: Writing for the Web with Style and Purpose by Nicole Fenton and Kate Kiefer Lee
- On Writing by Stephen King
- On Writing Well: The Classic Guide to Writing Nonfiction by William Zinsser
- The Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron
- The Content Strategy Toolkit by Meghan Casey
- The Definitive Guide to Copywriting by Neil Patel and Joseph Putnam.
- The Practice of Poetry: Writing Exercises from Poets Who Teach by Robin Behn and Chase Twichell
- Tiny Content Strategy Framework by Nicole Fenton
- The Visual Display of Quantitative Information by Edward R. Tufte
- Why You Need a Content Team and How to Build One by Rachel McConnell
- Writing for Designers by Scott Kubie
- Writing is Designing by Michael J. Metts and Andy Welfle
Case Studies
Communities
- Content + UX Slack workspace
- Content Strategists Facebook group
- Microcopy & UX writing Facebook group
- Readability guidelines Slack workspace
- UX Writers Collective Linkedin group
Conferences
Content style guides
- Apple
- Atlassian
- BBC
- Buffer
- Canada Post Corporation
- Conscious
- Content strategy guide and content strategy guidelines
- GO-JEK
- Google Material Design Guidelines
- MailChimp
- Microsoft
- Salesforce
- Shopify
- UK Government
- University of Leeks
Courses and workshops
- Content Design London courses and workshops
- Daily UX Writing: A 15-Day Course
- Information Architecture
- Information Architecture (IA) Fundamentals
- Microcopy & UX Writing Course
- User Onboarding Academy
- UX Writers Collective UX Writing Course
Industry leaders
- Amy Leak
- Andrea Drugay
- Andrew Schmidt
- Angela Gorden
- Aviva Pinchas
- Branka Injac Misic
- Clem Auyeung
- Darci Groves
- James Callan
- John Saito
- Julie Briggs
- Kate Goff
- Katherine Bradshaw-Jones
- Kathryn Strauss
- Kinneret Yifrah
- Kristina Halvorson
- Laura Luck
- Marina Posniak
- Mario Ferrer
- Nathan Mudaliar
- Rebecca Cha
- Riri Nagao
- Sarah Richards
- Tyler Womack
- Yael Ben-David
- Yuval Keshtcher
Meetups
- UX writing meetups (like all of ’em in the world)
California-based meetups
- Central Coast UX Writers Meetup
- Content Strategy: San Francisco Bay Area
- Los Angeles UX Writers Meetup Group
- San Francisco UX Writers Meetup
Newsletters
Podcasts
- Content Design Podcast, hosted by Vanessa Barlow
- The Content Strategy Podcast, hosted by Kristina Halvorson
- Insert Content Here, hosted by Jeff Eaton
- Scriptorium, a content strategy podcast
- A Table at the Back, hosted by Branka Injac Misic and Laura Luck
- VUX World, hosted by Kane Sims
- Writers of Silicon Valley
Talks
- Content strategy interviews YouTube channel
- Content strategy isn’t just for content people, Sarah Richards
- Everybody hurts: content for kindness, Sara Wachter-Boettcher
- Stop writing for the web, Erika Hall
- InVision Design Talks: UX Copy
Resources, tools, and best practices
Glossary
- A/B testing: comparing two designs against each other to see which performs better
- Card sort: a research method that uses “cards” (often post-its) to observe how users categorize a set of items
- Cognitive load: the amount of mental activity needed to process and remember information
- Content strategy: how you create content and make sure it’s easy to use
- Conversational interfaces: designing how bots and humans talk to each other
- Edge case: rare situations that might interrupt the user experience
- Editing: getting rid of everything that doesn’t matter
- Information architecture: organizing and arranging info in the most logical narrative
- Journey map: the visualization of how people achieve goals and complete tasks
- Miller’s Law: the average person can only keep 7 (give or take 2) items in their working memory
- Persona: fictional representations of your audience
- Style guide: the set of rules used to maintain consistency across experiences (for content: casing, punctuation, and grammar rules)
- Taxonomy and labeling: grouping and naming things
- Technical writing: instructions, directions, or explanations (best when simplified)
- Voice and tone: your brand’s personality in words — how you sound (formal or chill?), the words you use (contractions or no?), your mood and how you handle emotional situations (with humor or empathy?)
- User experience (UX): how a person relates — emotionally, behaviorally, physically — to a product or service
- User interface (UI): the screens that people use to communicate with tech (including checkout kiosks, laptop keyboards, mobile screens, and voice-triggered AI)
- UX portfolio: all your best work in one place — problems and solutions, case studies, and before-and-afters (you talented show-off)
- UX writing: clear, useful language that guides (or improves) people’s digital interactions
Updated: September 7
Originally posted: May 21, 2019
