About the Session

Squiggly lines. Content goes here. Lorem ipsum. Whatever your preferred method for ignoring the words, these placeholders are all dangerous mystery boxes of incomplete design. And yet we wait, and deflect, and hope something magical will come along and save us from having to do the writing. It won't. Designers have to learn how to get the writing done.

We know to talk about benefits instead of features, to use plain language instead of business jargon, and to craft copy that's easy to scan and understand. But HOW, exactly, do we do that? How do we teach others how to do it? In this session, Scott shares some key concepts and a reusable framework to help you and your team plan better writing workflows that take (some of) the pain out of designing with words.

About the Speaker

Scott Kubie

Lead Content Strategist at Brain Traffic

Scott Kubie is Lead Content Strategist at Brain Traffic, where he helps organizations of all kinds solve their wicked website problems.

Focused on the content side of digital experiences since 2009, Scott was the first UX content strategist at Wolfram Research and is the author of Writing for Designers from A Book Apart.

Scott lives and works in Northeast Minneapolis, Minnesota, and enjoys biking, running, and performing his music at open mic nights.

Writing for Designers

Words are one of the most powerful and flexible design materials available. The only way to get words is by writing them – and that's where it can all go wrong. Writing is hard! And writing in a design context isn't like other kinds of writing.

Whether you call it UX writing, interface writing, or simply design, every word in our experiences represents a design decision. It's time to embrace that. Whether you're looking to move into UX writing or simply hone your own design writing skills, this workshop will empower you to get organized, get going, and get the writing done.

What you'll take away:

This is a workshop about how. It's focused on tools, workflows, methods, and principles that help you get the writing done (as opposed to a bunch of boring rules about grammar and usage). You'll learn to scope and articulate clear design writing assignments, plan repeatable writing workflows, and develop methods for productive editing, collaboration, and delivery.

Over the course of the day, you'll learn about:

• Types and layers of UX content, and the differing considerations in writing each
• Scoping and articulating writing assignments in the context of a larger design project
• The roles and responsibilities of a design writer
• How to plan, execute, analyze and improve personal and team design writing workflows
• Approaches for generating messages, ideas, and concepts (figuring out how to say what we want to say)
• Working with words as part of the design process (e.g. "writing your wireframes")
• Lenses and tools for editing and improving your writing
• Soliciting and managing feedback on the writing (and getting that final approval!)
• Integrating final copy into the larger design

Workshop audience

This is a workshop for people of all skill levels and of all backgrounds. At the end of this learning session you’ll leave the day inspired to create — and ready for action.

Please note

This workshop takes place the day before the conference and requires a separate ticket if you’d like to join. You can register for this workshop using the ticketing form below.

What's included

You’ll participate in a full day workshop with a maximum of 20 participants, which gives you great exposure to the workshop trainer in an intimate setting. We will take you for lunch and provide refreshments throughout the day to keep you energised, all included in the workshop fee. Workshop materials like pencils, markers and paper will be supplied as well where needed.

View full details & ticketing