It’s been another fantastic year for the UX content industry. We’ve seen a huge number of blogs, resources, and other materials – and they’re all free. Each year, we take the 50 most popular links from our weekly Dash newsletter and compile them into a handy list.
Enjoy!
50. Stop taking content work personally. Is your ego getting in the way? Deiadora Blanche (Airbnb, Coursera) talks on Writers of Silicon Valley about how to make sure your UX content career doesn’t become derailed by attachment.
49. Six human skills that will future-proof your design career. Samantha Warren writes for Adobe about the traits that will help secure your future in design, even in the face of AI and automation technology.
48. Enhancing error messages for a smoother ride app experience. We love a good case study. Idil Duzgun writes how she and the team at DeliveryHero analyzed and then created a better, more robust system for error messages that actually help users.
47. How content docs can solve tricky content design challenges. Sometimes it’s good to go old-school. Aly Higgins writes how content docs can help teams collaborate – and how she and team at the University of Arizona Libraries used them to navigate a particularly complex project.
46. The future of content design is different than what you think. This year has seen a huge rise in conversation about the future of content design, given everything that’s happening in AI. Rupak Bid posts his thoughts on what’s happening – in short, you’re likely to see teams shrink but their impact increase.
45. Basic design principles for AI. Everyone is sort of stumbling their way through the darkness with artificial intelligence. This website brings together some key principles and instructions for designers when working on AI projects, and there’s plenty there for UX writers and content designers to learn too.
44. I will fucking piledrive you if you mention AI again. This essay by Nik Suresh highlights the problems with so much of the AI discussion in 2024 – it’s all based on hype. He breaks down why so much of the chatter is hyperbole, and what smart designers and tech workers actually need to understand about this technology.
43. The content design job market is recovering. Earlier this year, we posted a little wrap-up of the hiring that’s starting to pick up after several layoffs during 2022 and 2023. It’s good to see that trend continuing!
42. Roxanna Font: from book editing to leading Apple’s UX writing. There are so many wonderful personalities in the UX content industry. This interview from Punkt highlights Roxanna Font, who now leads UX writing at the world’s largest tech company. A lot of great wisdom here.
41. Designing content for people with limited English. The Gov.uk folks are always publishing wonderful resources. This blog highlights different strategies for designing experiences for a wide variety of language skills.
40. Product vs content with Scott Kubie. Should UX writers and content designers think more like product managers, or should product managers adopt better writing skills? Should it be both? Scott Kubie appears on Writers of Silicon Valley with Patrick Stafford to debate product vs content.
39. Improve your strategic thinking skills. Jess Eddy explains why strategic thinking is one of the best skills designers can adopt, and focuses on the six disciplines of strategic thinking: pattern recognition, systems analysis, mental agility, structured problem-solving, visioning, and political savvy.
38. A personal story on designers vs deciders. Which one are you? Scott Berkun explores why making better decisions is a very different skill than being a good designer, and suggests how you might be able to improve both.
37. What does a senior content designer do all day? A good question! Emma Aldington takes us through a day in the life of her work – a good resource to show someone when they’re curious about your job.
36. A survey of product teams reveals the value of content design. Melanie Seibert surveyed over 60 people from Indeed, and found that on average, teams delivered higher-quality solutions when they partnered with a content designer.
35. The biggest challenges facing UX content experts. The UX Content Collective surveyed over 80 content designers earlier this year to discover what their biggest challenges, hopes, and other thoughts are on the industry this year.
34. A Q&A with the Apple UX writing team. Apple is one of the most secretive tech companies, so it’s nice to see them pull the curtain back a little on their design practices. Settle in for a great read with the team about how they work with product and explain technical concepts in simple ways.
33. 3 experiments: creating a copy single source of truth. Clare Scott participated in a hackathon and explored a better way to manage her company’s copy, comparing Ditto, Figma, and Frontitud
