How to publish with AIxDesign?
Writing Guidelines & Step-by-step Process
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PSA: It is a key value for us at AIxDESIGN to open-source our work and research. The forced paywalls here have led us to stop using Medium so while you can still read the article below, future writings & resources will be published on other platforms. Learn more at aixdesign.co or come hang with us on any of our other channels. Hope to see you there 👋
Hello 👋 If you’ve ended up on this page, it means you’d like to publish an article on the AIxDesign publication. Yay! To make everyone’s lives easier, we’ve put together this page with our process, some best practices, and FAQ.
How do I submit my article?
A. You already have a final draft / published article on Medium
Easy-peasy: Please fill in this form.
We’ll review it in 2–3 business days and then we’ll come back to you. If your article meets basic criteria (read more below), we’ll do 1 or 2 rounds of feedback to help you improve your article, its storytelling and/or formatting.
Once it’s ready to go, your article will be queued to be published and we’ll let you know when it’s scheduled to go online!
B. You’re just starting out
1. Not inspired yet?
- Check our publication for reading out existing articles
- Check the AIxD Pillars + Subtopics for (messy) inspiration in this domain
- Check the Resource Library
2. Draft an outline
Outline your main idea in the format below. Think about What’s the takeaway for your readers? How will you structure it?
Outline format
Main idea / Working title
- Part 1
- Part 2
- Part 3Example
Creating imaginary landscapes with StyleGAN using RunwayML
- Project inspiration (….. that don’t exist + Google Earth)
- AI tools for artists
- Complete walk-through of the step-by-step process
We recommend doing a quick 5-minute search around the web. You might find a new angle, material to integrate, and sources to help you support your idea.
If you’re stuck or not sure your idea is clear > ask a friend for some ideas, or if you’re in the AIxDesign Slack, use the #collab channel
Here are some pre-set structures you can use:
a. An article about a subject of your choice as long as it’s related to AIxDesign
b. A write-up about a past event
c. Curious investigations around a certain topic or hypothesis
3. Writing the draft
You have two options here:
a. Write it as a Medium article in your personal workspace
b. Duplicate this template from our Drive, write/copy the draft in there
Once you’re ready for a first review:
- If you’re in the AIxDesign Slack, use the #collab if you’d like a pre-proofread
- Change the sharing options to Anyone on the Internet with this link can edit (for Google docs only)
- Make sure it meets our basic criteria outlined below before sending it over
Basic criteria
1. Relevance. The topic fits in the AIxDesign landscape and has value for the reader.
- Give your article a good title and subtitle. Make them short and compelling.
- Include an introduction posing the value or relevance
- Include a conclusion with key take-aways and CTA
- Write a message on #collab_feedback_input for input from the community on how to improve
2. Correct English: Spelling, grammar, and sentence structures have been checked and corrected
- Run your article through services like Grammarly or Google Docs to fix spelling and grammar errors
- Write a message on #collab_feedback_input to ask for proofreading from the community
3. Structure: The structure is coherent and the story flows.
How to solve:
- Aim for 600–2500 words (2–8 mins reading time)
- Break the article into paragraphs. Discuss one point per paragraph. Give each of them a good header.
- Check our publication and existing articles for examples
- Build on these simple structures:
4. Sourcing
- Link to all sources used and referred to in your article.
- Give credit where credit is due.
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More detailed guidelines, tips & approval criteria:
Language
- Be sure your article is written in coherent English with correct grammar, syntax, and orthography. Pick British or American English and stay consistent throughout.
- If you’re not so comfortable with writing in English, please ask someone to review your article first.
- You can use Hemingway app to make your writing style more simplistic and reader-friendly.
Finetuning
- Share your story with a peer. Find someone you can share your story with, and someone who is willing to give you honest feedback. Ask them 1) how would they define your story in one sentence, and 2) what was their main takeaway.
- Read the story aloud. Make changes. Read the story aloud again. You’ll notice areas where your writing flows and where it clashes. Your story will improve. It will become clearer, the structure will improve, and new ideas will surface.
- If possible, consider using quotes. Incorporate the words of influential people to substantiate your points. This will also bring more highlights and the chances for the sharing of your article. Make use of Medium’s quote formatting.
Sources
- Give credit to all sources that you’re using in your article
- Use hyperlinks to other articles, writers, and content from around the internet. Make sure external links are providing more context to your ideas.
- Try to refrain from including links from affiliate programs that are promoting a specific product or service.
Images
- We recommend adding an image (can also be .gif) to every other section. If you don’t have a custom image to add, try free stock photo websites like Unsplash, Pexels, Burst, The Stocks, or Pixabay and pick out the less corny ones.
- Add captions to all images to describe what it’s showing and why it’s relevant.
- Add alt text to all your images. This will ensure your image is understandable by screen readers, making your story accessible for users with visual impairments. To add an alt text, click on an image and on “Alt text”, then type a one-sentence description of what your image contains. To get the best alt text, imagine you are describing that image to someone.
Extra Tips & Tricks
- Challenge every paragraph you wrote. Read your story another time, imagining that you are a reader who has no idea what the article is about. How would someone challenge your argument after every paragraph?
- Types of titles, by Divad Sanders (Source):
- Follow- The Normal (Ways to Create A Great Logo)
- A Question (What Are the Ways to Create A Great Logo?)
- The How-to (How to Create A Great Logo)
- The Numbered List (5 Ways to Create A Great Logo)
- Address the Reader (Ways Freelancers Can Create A Great Logo)
- How …. approaches/thinks about/deals with …..
And if you’re looking for best practices, you can also check out the following articles:
4. Draft submission, feedback & finetuning
- Please fill in this form.
- After you’ve submitted and your article meets basic criteria, we do 1–2 rounds of feedback to help you improve your article.
- We might make small edits, such as:
- The title, subtitles, and cover image match the styles of previous articles to reach a wide audience.
- Typos, formatting style, and minor copy edits.
- In the case that we want to propose more structural changes to your article, we will leave private notes.
- We will remove any affiliate program links or promotional links that are not related to the article. - Once it’s ready to go, we will ask you to submit the draft to our Medium publication
5. Submitting to Medium
- Once the draft is submitted in the form, you can submit your article to the publication. Steps: Edit your article › Top-right menu ›‘Add to publication › AI x Design › Submit
Note: Please double check if you clicked “Submit”, otherwise we won’t see the article. - Success! From this moment, your article is queued to be published and we’ll let you know when it’s scheduled to go online!
6. Sharing with the world
- We’ll send you a Slack message/email with the date for when your article is scheduled
- Your article will be shared on Instagram, Linkedin — Please feel free to share your social links with us after the article is done to tag you.
Any other questions?
Come say hi at hello@aixdesign.co or reach out to Alexandra (Gurita) Mihai on Slack.
