We have a great opportunity at my company right now: our platform has been developing daily in the last years, but this has happened although we lack a clear process of thinking content embedded in new features. So it’s about time we jump into that gap and fill it with some well developed UX Writing.
"We lack a clear process of thinking content embedded in new features."
How we’ve been doing things
Whenever a new feature is born, the developer team responsible for it embraces the process from start to finish. I believe this is right. Our product is actually an archipelago made up of many islands connected by a complex network of bridges, and each of these islands needs its own mayor.
But that doesn’t mean we don’t need laws — or at least good practices — that should be followed by all islands. If we can have a team capable of providing a quality service to all of them, why not have it and use it?
How we should do it from now on
I believe that the more complex the product, the more urgent the need for a consistent content view for each screen, each heading, each button available to the end user.
So product owners should be responsible for the overall result of their products, but they should have the safety of counting on a content team that will help them before the feature goes live, just as they count on designers to enhance usability.
Putting such thought on paper almost makes it sound banal. However, most tech companies, at least in Brazil, are still teenagers when it comes to content strategy. And by that I mean they still see content as a natural given attribute that is pasted to the screen after the real work is done.
"They should have the safety of counting on a content team that will help them before the feature goes live"
And with that, although there are bridges linking your islands, in each of them a slightly different and truncated language is spoken. At first glance, visitors will probably feel encouraged by the beauty of the archipelago. But once they start trying to do stuff, get places or find help, your content problem may become the goodbye invitation out of your product.
This post was originally published on Brenos's Medium profile.
