This webinar is meant for writers and editors who may be experienced in their current fields, but are new to working in tech. Alongside discussing the basics of content design, I’ll give attendees a crash course on working in a tech-focused environment, such as common industry terms, the kinds of roles you’ll interact with on a day-to-day basis, and commonly-used tools and programs.

If you can’t make it on the 24th, don’t worry: the webinar will also be recorded and made available for purchase after the event!

Visit Editors Canada to register >

The post Upcoming Webinar: Transferring Editorial Skills to the World of Content Design appeared first on Christina Vasilevski.

As of this month, the book club has been running for one year. It’s one of my favourite things about my current role, and it was something that arose organically — my manager and I liked Design for Safety THAT much. (Seriously, it covers a vital and urgent topic in product design.) Now that the book club has been around for a year, I want to talk about what we do to maintain its momentum, and how you can apply similar methods to running a work-focused book club of your own.

Take advantage of existing platforms to build interest

When my manager and I first decided to start the book club, we knew that we needed to spread the word quickly and efficiently. The best way for us to do that was to promote it at our monthly Community of Practice (CoP) meetings. The CoP meetings are a natural platform for this, since during these meetings we have multiple people presenting, and we also share announcements about promotions and new hires.

Spreading the word like this doesn’t need to be too fancy; we normally create a PowerPoint slide, and ask the meeting host to include it in the final presentation deck. Bonus: since we have multiple such communities at Scotia Digital, this affords us multiple opportunities to promote the book club.

Where possible, we also try to make sure that the books we choose are easily available in electronic formats. This allows us to distribute copies of the books with our meeting invite, so people can download and read our selected books at their convenience.

Most importantly, Scotia Digital provides its employees with an annual learning and development fund, which can be used towards things like conferences, workshops and other professional development activities. Since the books we choose are so closely linked to topics like product development and UX design, they’re eligible for reimbursement through the fund. And if there’s one thing I think most people like, it’s essentially getting books for free.

Focus on quality, not quantity

From the very beginning, we decided to focus on only four books a year: one per quarter. We’re busy. Our teammates are busy. Everyone has tons of meetings to attend, no matter what department they’re in. Having a quarterly schedule showed that we respected our colleagues’ limited time. It also conveniently mirrors the rhythm of most business activities, which I think reinforces the idea of such discussions being a valid form of professional development.

Speaking of which, the four we chose for 2022 were:

• Design for Safety by Eva PenzeyMoog
• Product Management for UX People by Christian Crumlish
• How to Future: Leading and Sense-Making in an Age of Hyperchange by Scott Smith and Madeline Ashby
• Orchestrating Experiences: Collaborative Design for Complexity by Chris Risdon and Patrick Quattlebaum

Our next book will be Futureproof: Nine Rules for Humans in the Age of Automation by Kevin Roose.

Recognize that reading is not the end goal

Here’s the plain truth: A lot of people who attend our book club meetings don’t actually read the books we choose. Do not be discouraged by this.

That’s because the reading itself isn’t the end goal — learning and adopting new practices is. And if my colleagues prefer listening to me and others talk, and absorb the information that way, that’s just as good! I’ve found that as long as at least two or three people have read it, that’s enough.

Eventually, as we describe the book to others, quote key passages, or try to connect the text to real-world examples of how tech affects people on a daily basis, enough people chime in with their own experiences that a fruitful discussion occurs. And it’s that real experience of building bridges and discussing useful exercises and workshop ideas that’s just as important as words on a page.

The post Advice for Hosting a Digital-Industry-Focused Book Club appeared first on Christina Vasilevski.

Yesterday, I was asked by a product owner to write copy for a new screen to address an urgent error in our onboarding flow. The screen copy needed to:

1. Tell customers that a technical issue occurred.
2. Inform them that some parts of the onboarding process were successful, even though that success wasn’t the main focus of the screen.
3. Provide an alternative method to resolve the technical issue.

I wrote 2 initial drafts of the screen. Both versions had a CTA to lead to the alternative solution in-text, and then a separate CTA at the bottom letting the customer sign in to their account.

After the first 2 drafts, I asked the PO if it was possible to create a third version of the copy, this time with a single CTA — just the solution-focused one, with no sign-in option. I was worried that having 2 CTAs on the screen would distract the user.

The designer agreed with me on this, so we mocked up a third option in Figma, rewrote and reordered the copy, and then sent it to stakes for review.

I just got word this morning that the stakes preferred option 3. So now it’s off to translation.

This makes me feel good! Sometimes, the initial draft of a thing just doesn’t work out. And sometimes, as a content designer, it’s your job to flag design issues that lead to sub-optimal outcomes. So think of this post as me permitting you to play around, make mistakes, and find better solutions.

The post It’s OK to Write Multiple Drafts appeared first on Christina Vasilevski.

In the episode, I talk about how I stay organized and productive both in my role as a content designer and in my home life. We also talk about cats, music, the perils of Jira and Confluence, ADHD, Pokemon Go, and the value of having a creative outlet.

At the beginning of each episode, Kevin normally goes over a list of content warnings discussed during the interview, and then there’s a little pre-amble where he talks about his past week. The actual interview starts about 4-5 minutes in. At the end, he always asks his guests for a charity that his listeners can support, and since we recorded it a few days before the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation, I recommended the Gord Downie & Chanie Wenjack Fund.

I had so much fun talking to him about my work and my hobbies, and it was such a jolt to see my interview show up in today’s feed. So take a listen!

Productivity Alchemy episode 278.

The post Guest Appearance on Productivity Alchemy appeared first on Christina Vasilevski.

The topic, “Succeeding in Content Design with ADHD”, is very close to my heart. I was diagnosed with ADHD and and anxiety in 2020, but I’ve been dealing with the symptoms for a long time. I can see evidence of having it as far back as when I was in undergrad. When Working in Content posted their call for speakers, the thought of talking about ADHD and how it’s affected my career wouldn’t let me go. I’m so glad that Candi Williams and James Deer, the conference organizers, have given me the chance to share my knowledge.

My pre-recorded talk will be available on March 29th, 2022, as part of Track 2, “Growing into a Senior Content Role”. Early-bird pricing ended last week, but regular tickets for Perspectives 2022 are still available. And if you’re just starting out in content design, the early-career track is completely free! In case you’re curious, here are a few other talks that will be taking place at the conference:

• Gaining and Maintaining Confidence as New Content Designer with Ebony S. Johnson
• Real Talk: Burnout, Imposter Syndrome and Taking Time to Care for the Soul with Jane Ruffino, Brenna Bustamante, Bridget Lawrow, and Ariel van Spronsen
• Empathy, Mentors and Toxic Cultures with Denise Brooks
• Neuroinclusive Leadership: Insights to the Neurodivergent Content Experience with Katrin Suetterlin

The post I’m Presenting at Perspectives 2022 appeared first on Christina Vasilevski.

I’ve always seen myself as a word person. From ordering dictionaries from Scholastic during my school days to taking courses in book publishing to writing about editing , working with words has always been at the core of my identity.

So it’s with a mix of pride and surprise that I’m announcing my a new job as…. a designer? Really?

Yes, really. A content designer. In October 2021, I became a senior content designer with Scotiabank!

Before this I worked for Rogers. I’d learned a lot during my time there, where I was a contractor for a year before moving in-house. I deepened my understanding of SEO. I taught myself how to make FAQs more effective. I got a crash course in Agile methodology. I was involved in so many projects for Black Friday, Apple, and other major telecom players that I’ve lost count.

However, after 6 years I needed a change. The pandemic and working from home since March 2020 were part of this. All that buzz around The Great Resignation was definitely a part of this. But mainly, I realized that I was itching for a chance to grow my skills and get more responsibility.

What is “content design”?

Content design is a recognition within UX and tech that words should not be considered separate from the rest of any digital interface. More importantly, it forces other people to move away from the idea that content is the final step before anything goes live.

In other words, you don’t just design a spiffy new interface, then expect someone like me to walk on and do my thing. My job is not to pour a whole bunch of words onto the page like filling a pitcher with water. Instead, it’s to be there at the beginning stages of the ideation process, ask probing questions about how a website or app is supposed to work, and suggest ways to make the user journey easier.

That is, I am designing. I’m a designer! I’m just using words to make the final design more efficient! It’s been really interesting seeing the industry embrace content design as a discipline.

How I’m feeling

My new role with Scotiabank in content design takes my previous skills and places them in a new context. Now, I’m really getting into the nitty-gritty of mobile app development and taking part in user experience research on a regular basis. I’m also learning how to use Figma, a tool that’s new to me, but one that I can see is quickly becoming the industry standard because of the way it allows UX designers, POs and content designers collaborate in real time.

Bonus: Scotia Digital has openly embraced permanent remote work. When things are safer, I will probably travel to the office a few times a month. But right now, not having to deal with a regular commute is amazing.

I’m really happy so far, and my new supervisor and I are already discussing long-term projects like implementing new workflows and sharing resources with other teams. I’ve even started pitching presentations to industry conferences, which is something I haven’t done in a few years.

Overall, despite the ways in which the world has become steadily more awful since 2020, I have been extremely privileged to keep on doing what I do, and doing it safely. I couldn’t be more grateful.

The post Moving into Content Design appeared first on Christina Vasilevski.

Not quite.

Creating a user-friendly FAQ page can take a lot of work—and, frankly, I think it’s kind of fun. In fact, for a while I was known as the de facto “FAQ person” on our content team because I like revising them so much. They allow me to get my hands dirty; with FAQs, I get to rearrange sentences and phrases wholesale, cut deadwood, and put myself into the place of the reader to ask questions. Then, when the stakeholders provide feedback on my changes, I get to go to town and create something useful, organized, and correct.

In short, working on an FAQ list can be an editor’s dream. Plus, since the content in question is so customer focused (and since most organizations that create FAQS have the good sense to realize that customer satisfaction leads to more money), FAQ documents involve a lot less ego than other forms of content. You can put all the bloated corporate jargon you want into a Mission Statement page, but a truly useful set of FAQs will keep the bloat to a minimum.

However, you may need to edit a few sets before you get the hang of it. In this article, I’ll discuss the lessons I’ve learned from editing several FAQ documents for a large Canadian telecom company, and the ways in which FAQs compare to other types of copy.

Use Common Editorial Sense

First off, don’t get too frightened of the whole concept of an FAQ. Good FAQs should follow plain language guidelines, including:

• Addressing the reader directly by using the words you, your, and yours
• Avoiding jargon wherever possible
• Using simpler words and grammatical structures to convey complex ideas
• Using the active voice
• Sharing information in a conversational way

Structural editing principles also apply to editing FAQs, just as with other documents.

I’ve also found that the workflow for FAQs is similar to the workflows for other types of documents that I’ve worked on in the same environment: after going through a few rounds of revision with stakeholders, I then send the file to our legal department for a quick once-over, after which it goes to the translation department.

Discuss only a single important concept per question

When substantively editing copy, you have probably learned that you shouldn’t cram multiple ideas or concepts into a single paragraph—or have probably given the same recommendation to the authors you’re working with. This advice holds true for FAQs. However, instead of restricting ideas to separate paragraphs, restrict them to separate questions.

For example, the FAQs that I edit often involve informing customers about changes in the company’s TV and telephone services, or telling them how to take advantage of a new product or service. In such instances, it’s more reader friendly to have questions that address each of the following topics individually:

• Who is eligible to get a new service or device upgrade
• How to register for the new service
• How much this new service or device will cost
• How long it will take for the upgraded service to be rolled out across an entire area or city

This advice sounds straightforward, but there’s an important corollary to remember, which is…

Make sure you answer the right question and clearly display the relevant info

A few years ago, I edited an FAQ document about reserving a new smartphone in advance of its official launch date. The original draft of the FAQ asked the following two questions in sequence:

1. How much will the reserved device cost?
2. Will my $XX reservation fee be returned to me?

There were two big problems here. The first is that Question #1 was asking the wrong thing—the FAQ document was meant to discuss the process of reserving a device, and product pricing is technically independent of the reservation process.

The second problem is that Question #1 didn’t mention a reservation fee at all, even though it should have—the reservation fee, and its associated amount, were first mentioned only in Question #2, and mentioned in such a way that it assumed the reader already knew about the fee!

When I realized this, I created an entirely new question from scratch to address this issue, and made a comment about my decision for all of the stakeholders involved to review. The final version of the FAQ ended up having this sequence of questions instead:

1. Will I be charged anything when I reserve my device?
2. How much does it cost to reserve a device?

Even though I created a new question from scratch, this was still a benefit to the FAQ document as a whole; because of my revisions, the revised document with the new question was still shorter than the ambiguous, obfuscatory original.

Keep an eye out for repetition

Sometimes FAQ documents can be several pages long. One of the risks of this is that the longer the document, the higher the likelihood of repeating your answers from one question to another. Your Subject Matter Expert may state in the answer to Question #8 that customers can call the help line to find out if their account has been suspended, and not remember that this information was also mentioned in Question #3.

In such cases, most project managers or SMEs I’ve worked with are happy to merge the two answers together or delete the repetitive answer entirely. Like most types of web content, brevity counts, and your colleagues will probably welcome any way to reduce the word count without sacrificing clarity.

Make the content fit your company’s voice/brand

The company that I work for has two major brand identities. One brand is geared towards mainstream users. The other is geared to a younger, Millennial demographic. As a result, I often have to look at two FAQ pages at once that contain the same information but are written in very different styles for very different audiences.

This means that when I edit these FAQs, I have to make sure that the content I revise is not only factually correct, but also tonally correct. We might refer to “customer care representatives” in one document, while in another document, we might call the same types of workers “customer service rockstars” instead.

Basically, what this means is that your FAQs should not be the philosophical equivalent of cardboard — functional but completely boring and non-descript. Instead, think of your FAQs as a lush meadow — inviting and comfortable to visitors.

If writing and editing web content in general is something that you’re still nervous about, it helps to remember that many of the philosophical concerns behind good editing are the same no matter what the medium. However, if this article has given you a hankering to learn more about web content and content strategy in general, I highly recommend the following two books:

• Content Strategy for the Web by Kristina Halvorson and Melissa Rach
• Nicely Said: Writing for the Web with Style and Purpose by Kate Kiefer Lee and Nicole Fenton (I read and reviewed this book back in 2014.)

This article is an updated version of one I wrote that was previously published by Corrigo in 2016.

The post How to Edit FAQ Pages appeared first on Christina Vasilevski.

Sometimes the insight on how to do so can be summed up in a single sentence.

Last year, I was at a cocktail party held after business hours by a company I was working with. Also at the party were some of the writers whose work I had been editing for this company. One of them was talking about how when he started writing for this company, he didn’t really have a handle on what his style should be like until he had a key conversation with a friend.

The rule

“Look, when I’m reading something, I’m busy and I’m looking for advice. In the end, I just want to be told what to do,” the friend said.

I could hear the awe and relief in this writer’s voice when he repeated that line to me and the others listening to him: “I just want to be told what to do.”

What writing for others really means

It’s a good lesson to keep in mind: try to leave as little useless ambiguity as possible when you’re writing something. (I say “useless” ambiguity because under certain circumstances avoiding any shade of grey in your writing is a disservice. Letting your readers come to their own conclusions is a good thing.)

In other words: tell your readers what they want to know (and make it snappy).

Is that a hard thing to do? Certainly. If it were easy, I wouldn’t have so many long, rambling posts in my archives. (I’ll leave it to you to read through them if you’re so inclined.)

“I just want to be told what to do” has become one of my own mantras when it comes to writing blog posts for myself and my clients. So what about you? How have you tried to apply that lesson to the people you want to help, persuade, or convince?

The post 1 Rule to Follow When Writing for Others appeared first on Christina Vasilevski.

Unfortunately, one caught my eye last week for the wrong reasons. It was such a jumble of information that I had no idea what to focus on when I read it — which means it’s a valuable educational tool.

So, today, I want to talk about what you shouldn’t do when designing print advertising, using this flyer as an example.

I made a copy for you, too — download it and follow along. There’s even a screenshot on this page so you know what to expect.

Note: This is not the actual flyer. This is a mockup that I made to show the flyer’s poor design elements while also maintaining the privacy of the organization that made it. While some phrases from the original flyer remain in this mockup, all identifying information has been removed.

Mistake #1: A Giant Wall of Text

The first thing you’ll notice about this flyer is that aside from the header and footer, it contains 3 columns of nearly continuous text. The columns contain subheadings, lines, and the occasional bullet point, but those features disappear when you squint your eyes.

The thing is, studies have shown that people rarely finish big walls of text online. Instead, they skim and pick out the information that most applies to them. Considering how much the online world has affected our media overall, I’m sure that those reading habits hold true in print, especially for advertisements.

Mistake #2: Not Enough White Space

This is related to, but not the same thing as, Mistake #1. It’s possible to have a lot of text and still use white space judiciously to encourage readability. White space calms the eye and encourages readers to keep on reading. However, this flyer doesn’t do that. Instead, it’s an avalanche of information, and it gives readers very little opportunity to rest their eyes and reflect.

Contrast that with print advertising examples like this, where the use of white space to convey visual interest and additional information is what makes several of those ads so remarkable. Granted, this flyer wasn’t designed with memorability in mind, but research has shown the importance of white space to readability.

Mistake #3. No Path to Lead the Eye

In this flyer, I have no idea which information is the most important. Where am I supposed to start, and where am I supposed to end? Should I just read everything in order from the top of the leftmost column to the bottom of the rightmost column in order to find the one piece of information that might help me?

Put another way, there’s no sense of hierarchy. No textual element immediately grabs my eye to help me get my bearings.

As a result, I have no idea where to focus my attention. There’s no underlying visual path to lead me through the maze of the text. In contrast, here’s a great example of a print ad with dense text that still has a coherent visual path.

Mistake #4: Caring for Your Own Needs Rather Than Those of Your Audience

You’ll notice that the mockup contains phrases like “employment counselling,” “skill development,” and “language instruction.” Those phrases are one of the few indications that remain of who originally created this flyer, and why. The flyer is meant to promote community services to people in need.

This means that the mistakes outlined above lead to the worst problem of all: they show that the organization behind the flyer was more interested in listing everything it did rather than addressing the needs of its target audience. Chances are this choice was made with the best intentions — Every program we offer is important, and we can’t omit any information! I hear them think.

However, imagine who benefits the most from the kind of employment, education, and settlement programs that this organization offers. These programs are meant to help people who:

• need job training,
• need to improve their English, or
• have just arrived here from another country.

In other words, this organization helps the kind of people who are least likely to be able to understand this flyer’s wall of text and most likely to benefit from better readability because they’re experiencing bandwidth poverty.

In that context, think about what a missed opportunity this flyer is. The people it means to help are those most likely to be overwhelmed by its breadth of information. Do you think that was the plan?

I certainly don’t. And I certainly think it’s a pity.

What Would I Do Differently?

I’m not a designer. But even so, I think several things could be done to make this flyer more effective. These include:

• Rearranging all of the information so that similar programs are grouped together
• Creating new, larger subheadings to highlight each grouping — an “employment” subheading, a “settlement” subheading, and so forth
• Making regional versions of each flyer so that each one lists only the services offered in the region the flyer is delivered to
• Ensuring that all information for a single program stays within a single column — you’ll notice that in the mockup, the info at the bottom of column 1 bleeds over into column 2, and that the info at the bottom of column 2 bleeds over into column 3; this is native to the original flyer

Of course, a lot of other things could be done to make this print advertising more effective. These are only a few. But you need to walk before you can run.

The post 4 Print Advertising Mistakes You Should Avoid appeared first on Christina Vasilevski.

So what do you do if you think you’re looking for an editor, but aren’t completely sure? What exactly do editors do, and what types of editorial tasks are there?

The 4 major types of editing

The Editors’ Association of Canada lists 12 types of editorial skills on its website — the variety might surprise you. However, broadly speaking, most editing is broken down into 4 types: substantive editing, line editing, copy editing, and proofreading. Also broadly speaking, the stages of the editorial process are approached in the order outlined above as a piece of text moves from beginning to end, from creation to publication.

Let’s look at each in turn.

1. Substantive editing

This type of editing is also called “structural” editing. This is the stage of the editorial process where, if you’re writing a piece of fiction, your editor will look at things like character development, pacing, dialogue, and plot. At this stage an editor will analyze how your story holds together and determine if there are any issues (eg: plot holes or unclear character motivation) that you need to address in a future draft. In non-fiction contexts the process is very similar, though I personally have not worked with book-length non-fiction. An excellent source for information about non-fiction substantive editing is Scott Norton’s Developmental Editing: A Handbook for Freelancers, Authors, and Publishers.

Substantive editing involves looking at the bones of your work, whether it’s fiction or non-fiction, and seeing if any of those bones are fractured or dislocated. During a substantive edit, editors will ask themselves questions like:

• Does the current order or flow of information make sense?
• If this is a work of fiction or narrative non-fiction, does the overall narrative arc have a satisfying opening, climax, and close?
• Are there certain elements of the work that need to be moved to different locations of the text, expanded, or omitted?

If you’re a fiction writer who is part of a critique group, you’re probably familiar with this process — many of the comments you might receive from your group members mirror those that a substantive editor would give you. (This is something I’ve had personal experience with as part of a critique group.)

2. Line editing

This is also known as “stylistic” editing. Not many traditional publishers have dedicated line editors anymore; instead, both substantive and copy editors may handle various aspects of this process. Instead of looking at things from a section-by-section level as substantive editors would, line editors focus on the text line by line and paragraph by paragraph to ensure smoothness, clarity, and flow. During a line edit, editors will ask themselves questions like:

• Does the author rely on a particular crutch word or phrase?
• Is there jargon, and is it appropriate?
• Is the language of this text too formal or informal for its target audience?
• Can a sentence be rephrased to avoid awkward constructions like double negatives or the passive voice?

Again, if you’re a fiction writer in a critique group, line editing concerns often pop up in critiques, and for good reason. For example, you might have a certain stock word or phrase you’re unaware of.

3. Copy editing

Hey Bob, can you give this a quick proofread for me? I think there’s a word missing here.

Chances are that when a colleague or friend asks you this, what they’re looking for is not a true proofread, but a copy edit. Copy editing (or rather, what those not in the know consider proofreading) is all about checking text for errors in grammar, syntax, and punctuation. However, there’s more to copy editing than just mindlessly shuffling through a dictionary. Copy editing is about consistency just as much as correctness, as this short post by Ken Follett illustrates:

First [my copy editor] checks spelling and punctuation. Now, my spelling is not bad, and I always look up difficult words such as Khrushchev (three aitches) or Willy Brandt (not Willi Brand). But she always finds some errors.

Then she checks consistency, just like the continuity person on a movie set, who makes sure that if the actor is wearing a green sweater when he goes to the front door, he’s wearing the same sweater two weeks later when they film him coming out of the house. A copy editor makes a note that Rebecca is thirty in 1961, and checks that when we get to 1971 I don’t absent-mindedly say she’s forty-five.

There is a whole host of things that copy editor check for aside from the usual culprits of grammar, continuity, and punctuation — a topic so large it warrants a post of its own.

4. Proofreading

So if checking for grammar issues isn’t proofreading, what is?

It’s checking page proofs —  but let’s step back a bit to understand what “proofs” really are.

After a manuscript has been edited, it’s then sent to a typesetter/designer. This person takes the edited text and actually does the physical/visual layout of the book, making sure that all of a work’s textual and visual elements — tables, images, page numbers, captions, running heads and footers, and so forth — form a harmonious visual whole.

However, the initial typesetting is far from perfect. There may be pages where only one word is printed, dangling there, separate from the rest of the paragraph on the previous page. Sometimes the spacing between certain elements (eg: subheadings and the following text) is inconsistent from page to page. In other situations, a word or phrase change significantly in meaning if there’s a bad line break in the text, like in this stunning example. When typesetters actually save the page design (usually using a program like Quark or InDesign), they either print the files out or export them to a digital format like PDF. Those files are what we really mean when we say “page proofs.”

Proofreading is all about looking at those proofs as a visual whole and pointing out issues in spacing and placement to the typesetter. In addition, proofreaders correct any (hopefully few) remaining errors in the text that the copy editor didn’t catch.

Because proofreading is one of the final editorial stages before the actual printing process, a good proofreader (or a good author!) will not introduce major changes to the text unless absolutely necessary. This is because adding a completely new chapter — or even a completely new paragraph — runs the risk of upsetting the visual flow of the entire document, potentially introducing further new bad breaks or spacing issues. Proofreading is not the time to add “one more thing”. Instead it’s the detail work, the final sculpting of your text before the clay dries completely.

So what does this mean for you?

Chances are that the further away your text is from publication, the more editing your text needs. As you refine your writing with the help of an editor, you’ll get closer and closer to the proofreading stage. Understanding that fact is a great place to start when you’re looking for editorial help.

The post What Are the Different Types of Editing? appeared first on Christina Vasilevski.