John Saito writes for a living, but his is a unique application. The format he primarily writes for is user interfaces. It’s a format that necessitates a certain type of writing. As he puts it: > You see, I mostly write interface text for apps and websites. It’s a style of writing where brevity beats brilliance, and every character counts. Writing interface text is actually a lot like design—designing words for people who hate to read. He then goes on to give some great tips for how to write co…
All posts in writing
There has been no greater exercise to improve my writing than to write a series of onboarding emails. I’ve done this at InVision and Wildbit and am so thankful for the experience.
If you write at all, bookmark this one. Better yet, print it off and slap it on the wall right beside your Strunk & White [http://www.wikiwand.com/en/The_Elements_of_Style]. I am guilty of many of the errors listed here, but am learning to love the act of stripping away needless words. Source [http://dianaurban.com/words-you-should-cut-from-your-writing-immediately]…
Are email newsletters really a good way to deliver content to your readership?
Gregory Ciotti from Help Scout gives some solid tips for improving your writing. The goal in our craft should be producing a piece that is not work to consume: > … effective writing is lean, clean, and easy to read. He takes several different methods and gives solid examples of how to put them to use. If you write at all, this is worth your time. There are a few links to books and resources that can help you with your craft. Source [http://www.helpscout.net/blog/damn-hard-writing/]…
Susan Robertson makes the case for writing as a way to improve your thoughts. When you have an opinion, attempting to share that opinion with others in written form causes you to go through an important process. As she describes it: > When I went to write up a rough post for the company blog about how I created the style guide we were using, it pushed me to think about how I define these tools. That rough post never ended up on the company blog, but it did get published as an A List Apart arti…
A description of how I made version control a part of my process for writing and working on my personal site.
A summary of the tools available for self publishing in 2015 and what I use for this site.