June 2019
Beginner
194 pages
4h 30m
English
Content preview from Strategic Writing for UX
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Chapter 5. Edit, Because They Didn’t Go There to Read
[ 5 ]
Edit, Because They Didn’t Go There to Read
I try to leave out the parts that people skip.
—Elmore Leonard, writer
Editing is the process of iterating the text to make sure that it meets its purpose, it’s concise, it’s conversational, and it’s clear to the person using the experience.
Although spelling and punctuation are important, we are not limited to these basics. Instead, by imagining even radical changes to the text, we can edit our way to achieving the goals of the organization, the brand, and the people who will use the experience.
It is essential to edit text inside the designs, seeing the text in place on the screen as you edit. The text will be read and be understood differently if it is moved in the apparent hierarchy of a screen or even if it wraps differently. By working in the design, we can vary which words have prominence and keep our eyes on width and length, and leave enough space for translated UX text to grow longer. More information about the tools and process of editing text in the design is in Chapter 7.
Editing can be a fluid process in which many variables are changed as inspiration strikes. But this isn’t a book about how to make inspiration strike, so in this chapter, I present the structured process that works for me—even when inspiration is taking a break.
Editing in Four Phases
We want the text to meet at least these four goals:
- Purposeful
- Concise
- Conversational
- Clear
It is possible to ...
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O’Reilly covers everything we've got, with content to help us build a world-class technology community, upgrade the capabilities and competencies of our teams, and improve overall team performance as well as their engagement.Julian F.
I wanted to learn C and C++, but it didn't click for me until I picked up an O'Reilly book. When I went on the O’Reilly platform, I was astonished to find all the books there, plus live events and sandboxes so you could play around with the technology.Addison B.
I’ve been on the O’Reilly platform for more than eight years. I use a couple of learning platforms, but I'm on O'Reilly more than anybody else. When you're there, you start learning. I'm never disappointed.Amir M.
I'm always learning. So when I got on to O'Reilly, I was like a kid in a candy store. There are playlists. There are answers. There's on-demand training. It's worth its weight in gold, in terms of what it allows me to do.