Facilitating development with informed copy
Client
GL Stone: Industrial Coatings and Quality Assurance Consulting.
Duration
3 Weeks
Role
- UX Writing
- Copywriting
- Editing
- Proofreading
- Usability
Tools
- Figma
- Google Workspace
- Google Docs
- Hemingway Editor
- Grammarly
- Perplexity.ai
Team
3 memebers
Quick rundown
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Problem and main goal: Edit GL Stone’s website copy entirely to align with stakeholder feedback and improve usability and readability for end users.
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Approach: I reviewed past communications with the client to empathize with their perspective and understand their target audience. I then cross-referenced this information with the client's brief and our company's research on potential website users.
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Outcome: The sample page got the OK the website was re-written in the same tone, language and style. After a year-long standby, the project got to move to development.
The problem
Stakeholders are tricky. They have the right to protect their stake in the projects they are in. When the stakeholder is also your client, it can be trickier, pipeline-blocking trickier. In this case, the problem was the text for the client's new website not [being] what the client "felt" they needed for the new site. The client mentioned it felt too "sellsy" and we were not showcasing what they did truthfully.
I was brought in as a new UX Writer and Editor in the hopes of going over the client's previous feedback, the team's brief, and my research on the topic and themes to try to move the project forward to development by re-working all the texts, applying UX Writing principles, and satisfying both future website users and the client's ideas of what their business needed to communicate.
My approach
The first thing I did was take enough time to read through past communications between the company and the client. My idea was to empathize with the client and their understanding of the end user. I overlapped this information with the client's brief from the company and their research on the potential users of the new website. After this, I analyzed the current state of the live website and the proposal for the new one. This would inform user-centric improvements we might need for the copy.
With this information, I identified the new copy's requirements. I based these requirements on best usability practices and plain language, avoiding overly promotional or marketing phrases.
After laying out a clear path to follow with the requirements, I set out to write the Solutions page for the new website. This was planned because the solutions section was the most content-heavy section of the website, and the one with more text referencing the client's work and value proposition. We sent this section to the client for feedback.
The Outcome
Fortunately, the Solutions page got the OK, and the client wanted the whole website in the same tone, language, and style. I charted a timing plan that would let me write and proofread the new copy with ease to be extra careful, as the topics discussed had a lot of technical and expert content. So, it was paramount to double-check, or even triple-check that the content was valid and sound.
After one week, the new copy was ready to be handed to the development team.
The final document was formatted with clear headings and identifications for developers, with annotations specific to each section. Sadly, I knew my time at Brand & Mortar would end before seeing the new website live but leaving knowing the project moved on to development felt incredible still.
The Impact
The biggest impact I can pull from this project is moving it forward after almost a year on standby waiting for final copy approval from the client.
Coming into an almost-finished project and taking work previously done to ascertain its status and the points of error and improvement was essential during this project. It was made simpler thanks to the team's organization and documentation, which turned what could've been weeks of research into just a week of careful reading and observation.