"Just Make it Look Good" and Other Ways We're Misunderstood
Summary
- Hear from leaders in design, content, and research about the most common ways their role is misunderstood and the impact this has on the customer experience.
- Learn ways design, content, and research can communicate and collaborate better to collectively create better experiences that scale.
- Get a better understanding of the unique role design, content, and research play in our customer's lives and how to use each other's secret powers to deliver better customer outcomes.
Key Insights
-
•
User research should be embedded early in the product process, not just used at the end for validation.
-
•
Assumptions baked into product decisions risk missing true user needs—research uncovers these nuances.
-
•
Close partnerships between user researchers, product leaders, and design teams enable aligned expectations and transparency.
-
•
Content design (UX writing) is often under-resourced and treated as a service rather than a strategic partner.
-
•
Starting design with content first wireframes avoids treating words as decoration, reducing last-minute fixes.
-
•
If finding the right words is difficult, this often signals underlying UI interaction problems, not just word issues.
-
•
Ideal content designer to product designer ratio is roughly 1:3, but varies based on product scope and organizational context.
-
•
Hiring junior writers for product writing at the end of the process helps maintain quality and scales content work.
-
•
Finding a champion in leadership and starting with small wins helps teams move towards better research and content integration.
-
•
Collaboration without ego among researchers, designers, and content designers leads to improved product outcomes.
Notable Quotes
"User research is a validation function is a common pitfall, but its real power is uncovering meaningful insights early."
"Our customers actually live in Siberia and they don't want ice cream, they want hot cookies out of the oven."
"If you are spinning trying to make words work over and over, you likely have an interaction problem, not a word problem."
"We often get designed into a corner by trying to fix words at the end instead of involving content designers earlier."
"Start with content first wireframing and avoid lorem ipsum to prevent treating words like decoration."
"A single line of UI text might be a small ask but can have massive impact on customer understanding and experience."
"Collaboration without ego is key to building the right product, not just what one's own interests are."
"Finding a leadership champion and building on small wins creates momentum for integrating research and content."
"Style guides and embedding content systems into design systems help scale content without bottlenecks."
"Content design is nascent and often misunderstood, but embedding content designers improves product clarity and usability."
Or choose a question:
More Videos
"If you said are you creative, I’m gonna say hell yeah."
Dr. Karl JeffriesThe Science of Creativity for DesignOps
January 8, 2024
"Investment is attention: If the business funds you, it means they believe in what you do."
Amy MarquezINVEST: Discussion
June 15, 2018
"Both tribes really believe in doing awesome for customers, that’s our common ground."
Steve Portigal Chris Chapo Kelly Goto Christian RohrerDiscussion
May 13, 2015
"Splitting people’s allocation across different teams created work-life balance issues requiring more oversight."
Alicia MootyDesign Staffing Models
September 30, 2021
"I believe there's really no such thing as a boring place at the state of mind."
Ana Maria Montero Barrantes Aditi Dhar Michelle Kaplan Nate Osborne Matt LaurenceThe Authentic UX Talent Show
January 8, 2024
"Simply asking stakeholders what success looks like for them in a project is a powerful way to start meaningful conversations."
Lada Gorlenko Sharbani Dhar Sébastien Malo Rob Mitzel Ivana Ng Michal Anne RogondinoTheme 1: Discussion
January 8, 2024
"It’s very difficult to align researcher goals with business growth, but that’s exactly what we try to do."
Sofia QuinteroThe Product Philosophy Behind EnjoyHQ
March 10, 2021
"If you think innovation can happen without buy-in from the CEO, I would love to see that; I have not seen it work."
Laura KleinUnique challenges of innovation in enterprises
April 23, 2020
"Data analysts and user researchers rarely work together effectively, which is one of the biggest missed opportunities."
Andrew MichaelBuilding a Product Insights Team
March 10, 2022
