Writers Of Silicon Valley

Dropbox is one of those fascinating companies. Steve Jobs wanted to buy it at one point. Now it's huge. HUGE. With that growth comes a need for UX writing, and that's why Angela Gorden is here today. Angela Gorden is all about making big ideas easy to absorb. Currently a UX writer and manager at Dropbox, she studied design thinking at Stanford University and creative writing at the University of Iowa. Angela blogs about product, design, and writing on Medium. Angela is a big thinker in the UX writing community, and today we talk about how UX writing works at Dropbox - particularly in such a large team. If you want to learn how UX writing works in a team, this is the pod for you!  As always, listeners to this podcast get 20% off the UX Writing Fundamentals course at www.uxwriterscollective.com. Resources mentioned in the show: - On Writing Well - San Francisco UX Writers Meetup - Daily UX Writing - UX Writer Jobs - UX Writing Fundamentals at UX Writers Collective- UX Writer Salary Survey Say “hi” @angiegor

Yep, I get it. You signed up to listen to other UX writers, not me. In that case I say, skip! Delete! Burn! Destroy your phone, even. Last week I gave a presentation to Content Melbourne, at General Assembly. I spoke about how journalism skills can help you as a UX writer. It’s just a piece of bonus content, so I hope you enjoy it. Resources mentioned in this episode: - Elements of Style - Strategic Writing for UX  

We spend so much time and effort thinking about UX writing that’s “delightful” we often miss the point: form over function. Good UX writing should be…pretty boring, actually. That’s what i discuss in today’s episode with Ryan Farrell. Ryan is a content strategist at GoodRx, but you might very well know him as the creator of the Daily UX Writing Challenge. As of the time this episode went live, the free course had over 2200 students. That’s crazy. Crazy good. In today’s episode, we talk about the newsletter, why Ryan created it, the skills we think are underrated in the UX writing community, and whether Neil Armstrong should have been told “good job” by his onboard computer when landing on the moon. Stuff we mentioned: The Daily UX Writing Challenge The Elements of Fucking Style Find Ryan online: Twitter Enjoy wherever you get your podcasts: Apple Podcasts Google Podcasts Spotify Stitcher I hope you enjoy the podcast, and as always, please leave a review on Apple Podcasts if you enjoy

I am terrible at fashion. Well, maybe not too terrible. I can dress myself. I look nice on occasion. But I definitely don’t know the ins and outs, let alone from a UX writing context. That’s why I enjoyed my conversation with Annie Adams so much. At the time we spoke. Annie was working as a UX writer in the fashion industry (she’s still a UX writer, just in a different industry now). Our conversation covered so much - best practices for testing copy, the nuances of the fashion industry, and much more. You’ll just have to listen to find that all out. Enjoy!

Yo, chatbots. They’re all the rage, but are they actually going to be a necessary tool for UX writers and content strategists in the future? How essential are they to your arsenal? If they are, what skills do you need to learn? That’s the crux of today’s interview with Hillary Black, VP of Strategy & Conversation Design at Black Ops. Her company has created multiple chatbots for clients in the insurance, finance, and retail industries. She brings a wealth of knowledge to the podcast about what UX writers need to know about this exciting field. Hillary has actually published a fantastic ebook about how to create chatbots, and Writers of Silicon Valley listeners get a free download! Use the code “Podcast” at Gumroad to download your copy. I hope you enjoy the podcast, and as always, please leave a review on Apple Podcasts if you enjoy the content! It helps others find the pod. Stuff we mentioned: Hillary’s ebook on Gumroad Chatbot Conversation Design Club on Facebook Find Hillary online: Twitter

Kathryn Strauss is currently a Senior UX Writer at Square, but her background extends far beyond that with roles at Wells Fargo, US Bank, WebEx, Glassdoor and Weebly. It would take hours to speak about everything she’s done at those roles, so I tried to keep our conversation high level. We spoke about how writers can participate in UX research, the future of the industry, and the types of skills it takes to be a really, really good UX Writer and Content Strategist. Stuff we mentioned: The San Francisco UX Writers Meetup Microcopy: The Complete Guide John Saito on Medium

Working remotely is something most people dream of. For Sophie Tahran at Invision, it's a lifestyle. I spoke to her about what it's like to work for a fully remote company, how her time at Lyft impacted her design sensibilities, and what it's like to work for one of the biggest software companies in UX. We also spoke about what it's like to create governance and style guidelines for an entire company. If UX writing governance and guidelines is your thing - then this interview is for you. ------------------------ Writers of Silicon Valley is hosted by Patrick Stafford, senior digital copywriter at MYOB. He's the co-founder and chief marketing officer at the UX Writers Collective. WOSC listeners can get 20% off the UX Writing Fundamentals course by using the code "podcast20" at www.uxwriterscollective.com  

Welcome to Writers of Silicon Valley! This podcast interviews UX writers and content strategists about their craft. This first episode features Roy West, design director of UX Writing at Uber. We speak about his history at Uber, Google and even at Next during the early 1990s. Writers of Silicon Valley is hosted by Patrick Stafford, senior digital copywriter at MYOB. He's the co-founder and chief marketing officer at the UX Writers Collective. WOSC listeners can get 20% off the UX Writing Fundamentals course by using the code "podcast20" at www.uxwriterscollective.com