Building a UX writing style guide for the web.
What we did: Working with stakeholders across marketing and product over the course of 3 months, I completed a working content style guide that is now fully adopted by our web and product marketing teams.
Why we did it: Shortly before our rebrand, I identified major inconsistencies on the web, ranging from improper grammar, capitalizations, and (most noticeably) no definitive voice or tone.
The challenge
The initial obstacles to creating our style included finding alignment between marketing and product teams, and settling on a structure of how much to include and what platform or format was most useful for our needs.
The process
To simplify and speed project delivery, I proposed a UX Writing style guide (built in a google document with searchable tabs) to address content design specifically for the web and to also heavily focus on brand voice and tone. More on process: By benchmarking style guides from companies like Slack and Mailchimp, I was able to effectively visualize and assess the pros and cons of the structure I had in mind.
Key contributions
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Scheduled syncs with Sr. UX writers and Brand Managers to ensure alignment on brand identity definitions
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Created a project timeline and set deliverables with Sr. Web Strategy Manager
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Researched competitive benchmarks for style guides
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Wrote all original content for the guidelines and managed all revisions and refinements from leadership.
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Led review sessions, team presentations, and department roadshows to evangelize new guidelines.
The result
After 3 months of combined individual development and multiple rounds of stakeholder reviews and approvals, our UX Writing Style Guide was shared broadly with teams across the entire marketing organization. It is now our single source of truth when training new teams that build content for the unlogged website experience.
The impact
With clear guidelines for best practices in writing for the web now clearly documented, the immediate impact was consistency in grammar mechanics: capitalization, punctuation, use of the second-person speaking style, and use of active voice. In only a short time, our consistent writing style slowly became recognizable as a definitive identity.
Thanks to the foundations laid with this style guide, we were able to evolve our voice more strategically when we reintroduced ourselves as Wellhub.