UX Writing IRL
An intergenerational case study featuring an adorable grandma
This article is adapted from my presentation for NYC’s UX Content Design meetup. I presented a version of this talk at Boye 19.
The challenge
Teach Claire how to navigate Apple TV
When’s the last time you had to teach a parent or a grandparent how to use a TV remote? For me, it was last summer in California when I was visiting my grandma, Claire. At 95 years old, she got a new Apple TV, and asked me how to use it.
As a good granddaughter, I said, “Of course!” I also thought I was the perfect person for the job. Not only am I a millennial who owns an Apple TV, I also help people navigate digital experiences for a living. I came up with a genius plan: to apply the principles of UX writing to a foolproof set of directions.
My approach
Apply UX writing principles to Apple TV directions
For my initial draft, I focused on applying 3 basic tenets of UX writing:
To start, I completed the task of watching Apple TV myself. Then I distilled the activities into 5 basic steps and removed any jargon. My first set of directions looked something like this:
Initial learnings
Well, that didn’t work at all
Luckily, I had my target user with me to do some 1-on-1 usability testing. I asked Claire to read through the steps and try to complete them.
She sat down, read step 1, and easily turned on the TV. Nailed it! Then she got to step 2…and she was totally lost.
So why did that happen? Partly because Claire has a pile of remotes, and she didn’t know which was for which step. But really, Claire got lost because I had skipped a crucial step: information gathering and empathizing my target audience. And that started with understanding her context.
I also needed to take her mental models into account, especially when it came to the Apple TV remote. I admit that I had no idea how to use it the first time I saw it. Now imagine trying to approach an Apple TV remote when you’ve never used an iPhone, or a trackpad, or voice controls. What are all these crazy buttons? What on here even is a button?
The accessibility elephant
Working with Claire, it became clear that the products and experiences we were interacting with were not designed with 95-year-olds in mind. That meant my directions had to work harder.
First, the process of switching the input had a high cognitive load. This one step actually contained multiple mini-steps that Claire had to remember and execute quickly — or the screen would time out.
Second, the visual indicator showing which app is highlighted on the Apple TV was low contrast. Claire had a hard time discerning which app was highlighted, making it difficult to navigate and choose the app she wanted.
Iteration
Time to try some pair writing
All of these things let me know it was time for a reroute in my method. Instead of writing and then testing, the most effective way forward was through some pair writing. I needed Claire in the passenger seat to take the journey with me, in real time.
First, we addressed the pile of remotes by restructuring the content. No more step by step, these directions needed to be remote by remote. It’s a logical way to present the process, but I might not have thought of it without Claire’s feedback.
We also worked together to find a solve for the tricky, speedy steps. Claire had been reading a single step, completing it, and then going back to the directions. But, if she knew ahead of time to do a few steps all at once, she could gear herself up for the necessary speed. I added “DO THESE STEPS QUICKLY” to flag them.
Similarly, for the low contrast screens, Claire could see which item was selected once I pointed it out to her. We worked together to craft a description of the selected state and added it to the directions.
Finally, we needed to consider all the possible use cases. What if Claire wanted to delete a letter? What if she wanted to return to a previous screen? What if she wanted to watch cable instead? UX writers are responsible for finding scenarios outside of the ideal flow in order to address and create content for them.
A living document
Because there’s always room for improvement
We often refer to style guides as living documents, because they are continuously updated to make room for new amendments and addendums. UX content is “living,” too — and that’s part of what what makes it UX and not just copy.
Our users (and grandmas) know best
So, why did I want to tell you this story? Is it because I made the world a more beautiful place by empowering my grandma to watch Queer Eye? Sorta. But also because this was a reinforcing and learning experience for me as a Content Designer.
People who works in UX get really excited about problem solving. But first, we need to uncover those problems. Sometimes there are formal channels, like user research and surveys. At Mastercard, I’ve also found it helpful to dig into support queries and talk to customer service.
Our jobs start before we write: we need to understand who our users are, what they want to do, and why. Only then can we choose the words that are best suited to their specific needs.
