About me
Like many content designers, I went on a weird and winding journey to discover the discipline that I've come to love.
I had my "a-ha!" moment when I went overseas and landed a job in the digital team at the Bank of New Zealand. Working in a country that has a digital-first, cashless society, I was thrown into writing for chatbots, notifications, error messages and digital product copy. A crash course in UX writing. I was working day-to-day with researchers, data analysts, designers and developers to solves meaningful problems. We were on a mission "to help people be good with money" and I became so passionate about it that my one year overseas turned into two, then three...
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Eventually I moved back to the UK, the home of content design thanks to Sarah Richards and the team and GDS. The irony is not lost on me that it took moving to the other side of the world to realise what I was looking for was right on my doorstep.
What I do
The lines are often blurred between the roles of content designer, content strategist, ux writer and more. Here's how I describe the different disciplines.
Content Strategy
Content strategy involves defining the overall vision for all your content; how it will be written, who it will be written by, and how it's implemented and governed. As a content strategist I work across multiple teams to deliver the right content, at the right time, in the right channel. I also help to break down those dreaded silos by bringing together teams across the business to solve complex customer problems. Hurrah!
Content Design
Content comes in all shapes and sizes. It can be a sign-up form, a tooltip, a video tutorial, an email, a blog post... Content design is about choosing the right format to communicate information to a user to help them complete the task in hand. It's fundamental to building great digital products. With conversational UIs like chatbots and voice technologies on the rise, hiring a content designer may be your best decision yet!
UX Writing
Good copy can be the difference between an amazing experience, and an extremely frustrating one. It's often the smallest details - the error message or the privacy and cookie banner - where you may have the greatest opportunity to delight. Why waste it?