The Thinking

Inspiration: I already had the chance to spend a few weeks mulling over the user journey, working on new copy, and working on the target user personas. Between soaking in the brand and mission of the company, and building empathy with the target audience, I started to get a hunch of what might work. We also had some very tight parameters: time was short, dev support would be minimal, and the goal of this website was to drive people to the app.

After some quick mockups, we got a few prototypes with copy variations in front of users for feedback. I was also able to try some copy variations for tag lines and section headings with other team members and important voices who were closely associated with the project. The feedback was pure gold and helped solidify the idea.

Ideation: Based on the feedback, user testing, and some really good conversations, I realized the strongest approach would be to recreate what happens when I tried sharing the app with friends. There would be no menu, no buttons, no distractions; instead we would give each user a singular path and keep it conversational. Much like many IRL conversations, we wanted to open up with the big idea.

I think this is the core of this little website: a colossal claim that demands attention, followed by a clear four step explanation of how the Engage app can live up to this claim. A mix of something grand and something simple. Using the humaaans illustrations also create lots of great animation opportunities that would make the scrolling experience more fun.

One of my favourite contributions was changing one word in a little subheading that Engage was already using, and bringing it up to the front as our big opening statement: Life, in a new way. Most of the work was already done so I figured why reinvent the wheel. The words just need to be dusted off, and have someone vouch for why they ought to be front and centre.

Implementation: Writing and rewriting, until each section was as strong as possible. Every word choice was hyper intentional, and I wanted to make sure the copy was very accessible. This means no exclusive religious jargon, and keeping the language to a grade eight reading level. I made a rough sketch of my idea for the page layout, and passed it off to the super talented UI designer with some notes to make sure he clearly understood our aim. Within a day, we had a first pass of the design on Figma, and quickly worked through some edits and revisions for version two. Having the design in place also gave me a better sense of the final copy.

When it comes to UX writing, I try to get the copy out of word processing and into the mockups as soon as possible. I think writing with the layout and design at the forefront is critical. The way a paragraph sits, the amount of words in a button, the positioning of a heading that appears as you scroll: all of these design elements influence the writing. Seeing your copy within the actual UI of the website or app makes all the difference when it comes to the final edit.

Finally we had to pause on some of the ideas around animating the humaaans illustrations for the sake of time and development. Again, time was of the essence here so we needed to focus on our minimal viable product to meet the app store deadlines. Once all that was settled, the site went live, the app made it to the app store, and everyone was happy.

My Contributions

• Analyze and synthesize audience research and persona development

• Creative direction for UI

• Organize content and order

• Help coordinate prototype feedback with target audience via Figma

• Process audience feedback and process new learnings

• Revise tagline

• All copywriting