What I learned implementing UX Writing in a Design System

Photo Balázs Kétyi, Unsplash

It has been proven many times: a design system is a powerful asset that facilitates the seamless scaling of product design and development.

But imagine taking it a step further, by integrating UX content guidelines and fixed UI content into its components.

With a well-rounded design system that incorporates content, the product team can realise efficiency gains, and designers can concentrate on their core challenges. Simultaneously, UX Writers can maintain design consistency without the burden of repetitive microcopy tasks.

In this article, I’ll share my personal journey, spanning a year and a half at AVIV Group. I’ll take you through the process of creating a Content Design System from scratch, all while operating as a solo UX Writer. I’ll also recount the experience of expanding our team to a skilled group of UX Writers, allowing us to scale our Content Design System, in close collaboration with the Design System team.

Let’s explore the impact of content within design systems, grounded in real-world experiences!

Unlocking the power of a Content Design System

Design will never exist without words, and words will never exist without design.

Think of them as a dynamic duo that makes our digital products tick. But with words scattered everywhere, it’s crucial to have some rules in place to use them consistently and efficiently. This is where a Content Design System comes into play.

So, what’s a Content Design System?

It’s like a helpful guide, not just for UX writers but for everyone involved in creating content — designers, writers, Product Managers, you name it. It gives us patterns for content, a style guide, and resources to ensure our content is accessible and inclusive.

Why is this important?

Well, it keeps things consistent, saves us time, and lets us focus on the more complex stuff.

As I mentioned earlier, it’s a smart move for UX writers to invest time in building these guidelines. It might take a bit of effort upfront, but it pays off big time down the road. It makes integrating simple text (like buttons) a breeze and keeps everything looking and sounding the same.

But creating a content design system isn’t a walk in the park. It takes time, experience, and a good amount of data about the content you’re dealing with. This ensures that the guidelines and examples you end up with, not only work well but also deliver a fantastic user experience.

Getting Started with integrating Content into a Design System

At AVIV, (a prop-tech company with a European presence in Real Estate) our focus largely revolves around white label products. This means we create one design in English and then adapt and localise it for various markets and brands. With this context in mind, our attention naturally turned toward developing guidelines for addressing users in the realm of white label products.

Starting from scratch, the task of building a Content Design System can seem quite daunting, especially as a solo UX Writer within a team of over 300 product professionals!

Prioritisation became key.

My approach was to begin somewhere tangible, and that’s where the content scorecard came into play. I stumbled upon this practical tool while reading ‘Strategic Writing for UX’ by Torrey Podmajersky. It provided a simple yet effective means of measuring content effectiveness and improving the user experience. It proved valuable for conducting content audits and assessing the quality of flows during UX Writing reviews with designers and product managers.

In fact, I even created a Content scorecard template for broader use!

With the content scorecard, I had established initial guidelines related to usability and tone of voice. It served as a clear and efficient resource for crafting UX content that was accessible, concise, and clear. It also delved into the nuts and bolts of writing, covering concepts, vocabulary, syntax, punctuation, and capitalisation.

After putting it to the test, I was ready to take the next leap — integrating content guidelines into our Design System. This required collaboration with the Design System team to find the best way forward. We decided to create dedicated content documentation space within Zeroheight as a central tool.

Our goal extended beyond documentation; we aimed to gain insights into how designers utilised the Design System and what content-related support they required. We reached a consensus to provide content guidelines for components that needed them the most, including buttons, dropdowns, and info states — elements commonly used by designers.

In the world of a truly integrated Design System, content becomes an integral part of the components themselves. The idea was to seamlessly link documentation, components, and prioritise tasks based on the specific needs of designers.

Defining Content Guidelines: a closer look

To ensure everyone grasped the essence of our Content Design System, I kicked off by introducing its core concepts, delving into UX Writing, and providing a clear roadmap for effectively utilising the system.

The journey began with a section dedicated to UX Writing principles. Here, I emphasised the fundamental aspects of being clear, concise, and conversational in our content. To make these principles crystal clear, I peppered the text with numerous concrete and illustrated examples of the content actually present in our products. These real-life ‘Do and Don’t’ examples helped drive home the importance of these principles.

In the pursuit of consistency, I crafted two crucial sections:

• Content Patterns: as my time at AVIV progressed, I began to collect questions from designers about content. Many of these revealed opportunities to establish content patterns — golden formulas for certain types of messages and concrete examples for maintaining consistency, particularly in areas like error messages, success notifications, numbers, push notifications, and feedback messages.
• UX Glossary: this section was particularly challenging. I linked our Content Design System to a Google Sheet that we update monthly to keep pace with our progress. This sheet houses a comprehensive list of words, localised in our four main languages and linked to our localisation tool. This dynamic approach ensures cross-team consistency and efficiency.

In addition to these core sections, I worked closely with our Accessibility expert to create a dedicated section on accessibility and inclusion. Here, I curated a wealth of resources to ensure readability, accessibility for screen readers, inclusivity (covering antiracist and gender-inclusive language), and other resources that contribute to a more inclusive and user-friendly experience.

Scaling up a Content Design System

With an initial version of our Content Design System in place, the natural question was how to continually enhance it. Simultaneously, I expanded our UX Writing team by bringing in two new members, and together, we embarked on a journey to scale up the Content Design System.

Here’s how we did it:

1. Building a backlog for continuous improvement: we initiated the process by creating a backlog of page ideas to further develop the Content Design System. To ensure steady progress, we set an ambitious goal of creating one new page or documentation per UX Writer each month, aiming to elevate our system to the next level.
2. Collaborative monthly reviews: each month, our team comes together to brainstorm and decide what to add to the backlog and what needs prioritisation based on the specific needs of our designers. This collaborative approach keeps us agile and aligned with evolving requirements.
3. Alignment with branding: we maintain close collaboration with the brand department to establish a unified voice for AVIV and its various brands. Ensuring alignment in voice and tone is critical for a seamless user experience.
4. Communication and awareness: we’ve put significant effort into ensuring that everyone within the organisation is not only aware of the Content Design System but also knows how to use it effectively. We utilise a dedicated Slack channel for UX Writing to keep everyone informed about updates. Additionally, we share updates in the Design System Slack channel. We also take advantage of opportunities like design and product all-hands meetings and reviews to showcase our work and solicit feedback. Lastly, the UX Writing team has been integrated of every design critiques, a great opportunity to give our insights and remind designers about the existance of the Content Design System!
5. Training sessions: to foster understanding and competence in UX Writing, we conduct training sessions for designers and product managers interested in enhancing their skills in this domain. These sessions serve as a valuable platform to introduce the Content Design System and the wealth of resources it offers.
6. UX Writing Checklist: to streamline the integration of UX Writing principles into the design process, I conceived a concise UX Writing checklist. This checklist serves as an accessible entry point to the Content Design System. Designers can conveniently use it as a component directly within Figma, facilitating seamless integration into their design workflows.

If you’re interested in having your own customisable UX Writing checklist, you can find it!

Next Steps and closing thoughts

As we look ahead, our primary focus is on scaling our Content Design System to greater heights. We aim to provide crystal-clear guidelines not only for white-label products but also for each distinct brand, integrating more UI content directly into components in multiple languages, and crafting templates to streamline localisation efforts.

Moreover, we’re eager to gauge the success of our Content Design System through key performance indicators. While we currently rely on qualitative feedback and insights, we’re keen to quantify the impact by assessing consistency across products and measuring the efficiency gains for our designers.

In the grander scheme of things, dedicating time to implement a Content Design System has proven to be a highly rewarding experience and a strategic investment for our UX Writers. It champions consistency, elevates the overall quality of the user experience, and provides an invaluable opportunity to step back from day-to-day tasks to document essential guidelines. It’s also a great asset when onboarding new UX Writers, enabling them to quickly adapt to the company’s unique voice and style.

Moreover, it fosters cross-team alignment and strengthens collaboration with stakeholders, including designers, product managers, accessibility experts, and, naturally, the Design System team.

If you’re looking to elevate your design team’s capabilities, I strongly recommend starting the process of setting up a Content Design System sooner rather than later.

Finally, if you want to embark on the journey of crafting a robust Content Design System for your organisation, don’t hesitate to reach out!