Another part of my work is copywriting including but not limited to:
- Texts for the user interface to make sure it is consistent, easy to read and understand, follows the English grammar rules, tone of voice of the company, etc.
- All Global Sources user-facing texts were created by myself (unless they are incorrect, you know the developers always put texts to the lower priority).
- I do care about the texts as well as trying to help the team to have a better understanding of the rules, so I create style guides that include everything from punctuation to capitalization.
- Texts for Instagram of my friend’s brand – KRSV, link.
- Texts for my Instagram – Nihao.hk.
- Articles, some examples below:
Example #1: 3 Web Design Trends for 2023
By Marina Pospergelis
Image source: Behance
Web design is a field which is developing and growing to make websites more user-friendly and easier to use. Good web design is always welcomed and appreciated by the community. Here are top-3 web design trends for 2023 you would want to follow!
1. Short Videos
Big cities give citizens a great ability to use fast internet connection – free spots, Wi-Fi on public transport, and even using Wi-Fi on the plane is something that became quite common in the last couple of years. People don’t care about data saving, they are looking for more information every day.
Instagram promotes reels by giving badges for posting videos, YouTube launched shorts, and TikTok is one of the most popular video apps used by more than 1 billion users every day (source).
Videos are becoming a new source of information. And if a picture costs thousands of words, imagine what a video can deliver!
The trend in web design is to engage as soon as possible by providing short yet informative videos.
It is easier to understand the FAQ page with an engaging video.
Example: UX Tweak presenting one of their features with a 2-minute video. Check how the play button reflects the design of the page.
The best upgrade of this trend is a little touch of fun. It can be a visual design of a web page with the video or a video itself, with good music and a soft, friendly voice.
And don’t forget that users would not come only to your website to seek information, your YouTube and TikTok channels need to store videos in case your customers would look for details over there and decide to subscribe to your channels.
2. Engagement
Brands want to improve engagement and some might think the best way to make a change is to show more ads. It is not the case anymore:
Honest and open information that is easy to find would engage more than an ad
As a brand, you need people to trust you because “trust” means “better relationships”. Customers of the brands they trust are loyal thus they are easier to come back as well as spread word of mouth.
The best way to be honest with people is to provide them with the details about you as a company, the business structure, location, images of the office, pictures of the top and middle management, honest feedback from your clients and real-life examples.
Example #2: How will you understand (the needs of) your users?
Getting to know your users and their needs and habits is important to build a trustable relationship between your brand and your customers, as you can help them feel valuable by offering something they actually require.
If you have an idea/product or service, you may start wondering about the ideal customer, who you want to target and how your product will help these people have a seamless and pleasant journey with your product and your brand in general.
To know how to create a good product, you should know who is going to use it, as different groups of users have different goals and tasks and may interact with products differently. You may try to offer a cabriolet to a family of 4, but most likely they would buy a van.
Follow these simple steps.
1. Identify your future clients by creating personas.
Gather quantitative data as the ongoing online and offline surveys by asking the questions that will help you to learn more about your users, who are they, what are their goals and everyday tasks, their habits and their interests. These details will help you to see those whom you would want to call your customers in the future, you can see how they will see your product and when they will use it.
Start from 3 major user groups (we call them personas). Create a profile of 1 representative for each of these personas, think about them as if they were a real person you met recently, give them names, and occupations and imagine their hobbies. Identify goals and tasks your personas have and how your product can help.
Knowing the goals of your clients will help you to understand what would be the right time to offer them your product.
Learn more about personas research.
2. Observe your potential users using your MVP.
To get this quantitative data, conduct a usability test – the most helpful way to see how your personas will use your product. Create a prototype or MVP (minimum viable product) that should have personas’ goals covered, maybe not all of them, but at least those major goals that you identified as critical for this stage. Test your MVP by asking your users to try to reach their goals using it.
The more closely you observe, the more questions about users’ expectations you will ask, and the better your product will become.
3. Retest, learn from users, and finalize your product.
After each round of usability tests, combine the data to see the issues users were facing and their expectations of the way the product should work for them, make necessary adjustments and improvements in your prototype and, yes, retest.
Once the usability of your MVP is high enough, you can continue with the further steps of the development process keeping in mind that you should conduct a usability test at every stage, however, the earlier you will start testing with your users, the easier it will be to fix the issues, therefore, the cheaper it will be to make changes and create a final product that will help your users solve their tasks efficiently and leave them happy.
Example #3: User testing need is growing, so why it is important?
Every brand is willing to provide its clients with products they will use and promote to their colleagues, friends and family. The products will help to make every new client a returning and happy customer.
But how can you understand what makes your customers happy, what are their needs, goals and interests?
Without proper communication with your customer (and to be honest, you should have it at almost every stage of your product development process), you may never find out.
The most useful yet easiest way to get users’ insights as a measurable metric is to ask them to test your product. With a guidance of a researcher, you can observe, hear comments and implement changes extremely fast. Ideally, the process of collecting usability data should be ongoing, however, even with feedback from a small group of 5 users, you increase the chances of improving your product therefore leaving the customers satisfied. That’s why the popularity of user research is growing every day.
The process that will bring up priceless insights is often called usability research, and it includes any of the following types of research that can be used all together or separately based on your current objective and budget.
1. Test the structure, navigation and architecture
Let users tell you whether they are struggling to identify the right menu to click with a card sort test (online or offline).
Provide users with the cards that they can rearrange to restructure your menu or flow the way they feel it helps them, ask them about the wording too and how would they like to rename the items. Combine the details and make adjustments where required.
Image: https://www.pexels.com/photo/person-writing-on-pink-sticky-notes-3854816/
2. Know user’s preferences with a simple A/B test
Learn more about users’ preferences in design, style or wording. Test it online by redesigning the questionable area, implementing tracking and dividing traffic online to see which one will convert better. Or test it in the lab with your customers and receive immediate insights with the eye-tracking heatmaps.
Image: https://www.pexels.com/photo/grey-sedan-on-the-road-2833683/
3. Test the task or scenario flow
Work with your stakeholders and identify the tasks you need to clarify. Create a storyboard scene by scene and test by going through all of them trying to solve the tasks the users are supposed to solve. Look for any missing steps, dead ends, and uncompleted flows and suggest solutions. Retest with your clients.
Image: https://www.pexels.com/photo/white-printer-paper-196645/
4. Test the usability of the idea, design or MVP and get users’ feedback
Let users identify the pain points and the areas of improvement by conducting usability research with them in the usability lab. Ask the users to test your interface to see if it was convenient and whether they can reach their goals efficiently enough. Identify users’ satisfaction level with your product. Check the usability metrics, make adjustments and retest with different user groups.
Image: https://www.pexels.com/photo/glad-diverse-students-taking-notes-while-working-on-project-5966011/
To grow, you should hear positive and negative comments, and usability research helps you to see where these negative comments are coming from.
The main beauty and unquestionable importance of usability research are that it relies on the data received from your real customers at the time they were solving real tasks, with real emotions. This is a measurable metric and any person can participate, as long as they fit your targeted user group, from kids to grownups, geeks or less digitally mature users, online or in person.
You will learn whether they are happy and excited about your product, or whether there is room for improvement for you as a brand. You will hear how users expect your product to work and how they want you to satisfy them with your services or products.
Continuously testing the product usability will help not only reduce the number of issues and pain points but to help your customers feel important, and trusted and as a result make them loyal to you.
Ready to test your product? Contact me now!