The Dash: Our 50th edition!

This is the published edition of our weekly UX writer and UX writing newsletter, The Dash. Sign up to The Dash to have these updates sent straight to your inbox!

Our 50th Dash! But we don’t feel a day over 25.

Maybe it’s because we’re eternal students of UX writing—it surely helps that we have access to high quality material each week from absolute legends of UX. Take this week for example: we’ve got an in-depth look at the past, present, and future of our industry from Kristina Halvorson, how to survive being the sole UX writer with Mario Ferrier, and of course, some quality content from emerging UX writers too! 

• At the core. Russel Norris has posted on our blog this week, talking all about how atomic design gives you a framework that makes the design process better for everyone (yes, including us writers!). In fact, he believes it brings writing closer to design on the most fundamental level. Wondering wtf atomic design is? Don’t worry, this post will help with that.
• Past, present, and future. Jasper Platz interviews Kristina Halvorson in this brilliant piece on the Stings blog about the future of UX writing, content design, and product content. Side note: we recommend not getting too caught up in the definitions, because it’s our belief that it’s about areas of responsibility, not necessarily the titles we adorn ourselves with. 
• In Jonathon We Trust. Jonathon Colman is interviewed on the Rosenfeld Media podcast and he generously shares how he structures the design responsibilities at Intercom, why he pays content designers the same as product designers, and provides our ears with some epic resources for having a successful career as a content designer/UX writer/strategist (look, at this point we just leave the titles up to you).
• Not so lonely anymore. Remember when we told you about Mario Ferrer’s San Francisco UX Writers Meetup talk about surviving as the sole UX writer? Well he did the talk, it was epic, and the replay is now available on YouTube. Also, we think you’ve got a future in motivational speaking for UX writers, Mario!
• 50 shades of grey patterns. Oh, this isn’t one of those stories. This is a piece by Tashina Alavi, who explores the irony of helpful vs harmful patterns in digital products we use every day. 
• Want the fast and dirty on user flows? Is that even a thing? Anyway–LearnUXD is showing us why they’re good for user experience as well as how to do them (there’s even diagrams for us more ‘visual’ people).
• A research method in just 5 clicks. The team at User Interviews have created this fun little quiz to help you choose the right research method for your project. This could come in handy if you’re on a tight timeframe or don’t have the budget for a drawn-out research phase (can we get an ‘amen’ from the startups in the house?). 
• Don’t reinvent the wheel, folks! Our CEO Bobbie Wood has reshared her popular article about incorporating content design into design systems and it’s been going viral (well, as viral as content design things can go, anyway). And no wonder: this post gives you a step-by-step process to successfully integrate your content and design systems.

Did you enjoy this blog post?
Level up your skills and knowledge in one of our courses. Your career is depending on you
!