Our goal was to make safety information simple, friendly, and accessible for riders in Waymo’s autonomous vehicles. We produced a short safety video and provided additional information in printed seat back cards.

For the video, we wanted to set expectations for the ride in a conversational way — and in under 1 minute.

The cards, printed front and back, sit squarely in the seat pocket to give all riders more details on safe seating practices and seatbelt usage.

The design systems team at Dropbox had a clear mission: Empower teams to create exceptional experiences effortlessly. And, to do that, we needed to get everyone speaking the same language.

As a UX writer on the team, I brought my obsession for words and information organization to every part of the system — taxonomy, hierarchy, formatting, naming, usage guidelines and more.

We ultimately launched a system that was intuitively presented and named, optimized for scalability, and consistent between the component library and design documentation.

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Naming Design System Components

What I Learned as a Design Systems UX Writer

To bridge the digital and physical worlds for gesture controls in the Moto Actions app, we needed to create helpful tutorials.

The challenge was teaching people how to physically move their body with only a small 2-D device. I likened the correct motion (for Quick Capture) to everyday experiences. And, I started with the most universal suggestion to give people the best shot at success.

After a short time, if the gesture wasn’t performed correctly, more movement examples would surface to help guide the user.

The feature, and the tutorials, were well received with one reviewer saying: “Actions combines a handy trick from last year's model and adds a couple new features… But there also are some handy tutorials here.” - Android Central

To create Moto 360’s watch faces, designers spent countless hours researching watch faces, watch design, and horology (the study of timekeeping). They used that knowledge to create digital adaptations of classic designs.

I created more than a dozen descriptive summaries for the app to better explain how the watch faces worked, and to give owners an insider’s perspective on the design inspiration.

The descriptions followed a general format to keep things consistent.

• Image

• Name

• Engaging intro sentence

• Brief description of style, history, information displayed, movement, variations, and/or customizations.

Under Google, a new brand emerged alongside an anticipated product release.

The entire website needed to be overhauled. This phone was “personal” and we wanted everything to look and sound like it could fit in your life easily.

Visuals shifted to brighter, bolder, more immersive imagery (i.e. - full bleed) and always included the product in real-life scenarios. Word choices focused on emotions and benefits.

I helped create a new email template that put more focus on bold imagery and exciting headers while leaving the heavy-content lifting to the sales promo landing pages.

I outlined key topics and messages for each episode of onboarding emails — a post-purchase series designed to help users get the most out of their new phone.

I even helped reinvent our legal pages with a little inspiration.

Under Google ownership, Motorola built Moto Maker — a site where people could personalize their next phone.

While the site served as a configurator, it also needed to cover product features and benefits without overwhelming visitors. We had to get creative. Tooltips provided essential product information to people who may not have visited the MotoX product page first.

All the savings and benefits that would make people more comfortable committing to the purchase were included below the configurator area.

Labels had to be clear. From the blue disclaimer bubble to the configuration options, and buttons, every microcopy element was tested for clarity and understanding.

The end result was a delightful product experience that was recognized within the industry.

A downloadable guide helped new Ebay sellers get started.

Research showed that a significant number of users still preferred to have information readily available at their workspace — places like their home office, workshop, or basement.

I studied the existing personas, content analysis, and gap assessments to determine what questions new sellers had and what information they needed to feel comfortable selling on Ebay.

Bold headers set up the main topic while sub topics used strong verbs to draw interest and spur action. Copy was chunked and kept succinct to not overwhelm the reader and to help scannability.

The benefit of a printed piece is the ability to take notes and mark it up as needed. I included a handy checklist section just for that purpose.

As a content strategist on the agency-based project, I provided direction and information to the project’s writer via a handoff meeting with further explanations and a detailed content outline for reference.

Allstate Teen Driver was an interactive website with information, videos, games, and prizes to entertain and teach teens about safe driving.

I offset the dryness of factual content with conversational and casual tone — and designers utilized unique, vibrant styling — to engage with the teen audience.

I wrote a script for a video/quiz called Drive’n Lessons. I used cuts of existing educational videos from Allstate and poked fun at them in Mystery Science Theater 3000 fashion with characters — including two humans and one talking car headrest — voiced by members of the design team.

One prominent task was for teens to upload a video promise to not text and drive (X the Text) that could also be displayed on the site. Once completed, each activity earned the teen rewards that were sent directly to them.