The Techniques Track: A Box of Chocolates

The Techniques track at this October ’21 UX Writer Conference is like a box of fancy chocolates. You’ll find lots of different flavors but some candies will have things in common, such as a milk chocolate covering or a coconut filling.

The track offers multiple ways for you to reach your audience and connect with them.

These techniques span the product cycle and address future iterations.

As you begin your product cycle, it’s helpful to know how to coordinate with a geographically-dispersed team, as Anastasiya Myasnikova explores in Challenges of Building a Global UX Team. If you currently don’t work globally, the day will likely come when either your client or audience is global. Know in advance how to manage that process from your role as a UX Writer. Anastasiya will outline why it’s important for a UX writer to explain the value of their role to their team, especially if they’re the only writer.

Natalia Petrosky is also the only UX writer on her team and says that’s quite common. Natalia shares how a “Fantastic Four” team is the ideal setup. She explains how to make a UX Writing Diagnosis and how to use it as both a strategy for problem-solving and a resource.

Another aspect of product strategy is accessibility for customers who need features built into a product so they can effectively interact with the product. You will learn how to include accessibility from the beginning of product design through UX writing.

Heather Miller will guide you through UX writing that keeps accessibility issues a priority whether you are using tables, links, or other features.

UX Writing expert Stephanie Robinson will discuss different aspects of using plain language to make your UX writing more effective and reach as broad an audience as possible within your desired goals. Then, she will divulge a favorite tool she uses and an important WCAG guideline element. Stephanie will explain how a certain type of data can help convert users and benefit user understanding.

What should you look for when perfecting your message? Asher Miller will share what he looks for and how he evaluates a user experience through a built environment. If this is your first time with that term, it is the surroundings (human-built) that provide the setting for human activity.

UX writer and published novelist Jenny Williams will show you how to feed your personal creativity outside of work and how that can benefit your UX writing career. Somehow dogs, weather patterns, and Mars are part of this creative talk!

As UX writers, you want to include data when you consider copy decisions. How do you know which data is useful? How can you collect and interpret it? Yossi Nachemi is ready to guide you with practical tips that will make a difference.

How’s that for a box of chocolate candy…mmm, topics! These topics, tips, and techniques will definitely leave you satisfied.

No matter your goal, these UX writers will help you accomplish it quicker, more thoroughly, and with the end user as your top priority.

By Anne Hammond