Yael Ben-David
UX writers and other design professionals are famously, and correctly, user-centered.
Yael Ben-David thinks that UX writers can sometimes benefit from slight course corrections to better account for the business side of our work.
Her new book, "The Business of UX Writing," makes the argument for this kind of approach, and shows you how to craft more business-aware UX writing programs.
We talked about:
the origin story behind her new book, "The Business of UX Writing"
the lack of clear pathways into the UX writing field
how her background in neurobiology helped make her equally interested in quantitative and qualitative measurements
the need for UX writers to course-correct on how we balance user concerns and business goals
examples of how to balance user needs and business goals
how to think about and measure the ROI (return on investment) of UX writing
her KAPOW framework for measuring content ROI
the importance of listening in stakeholder interactions and in speaking their language
the importance of the O in KAPOW - owning your metrics - which you can do even if you're not good at math
the correct answer to your "Who am I to write a book?" question: "Who are you NOT to write a book"
Yael's bio
Yael is a UX writer who specializes in complex products. She has written health, financial, and other products used by more than 100 million people around the world. After a BA in journalism at New York University and MSc and PhD in neurobiology at The Hebrew University, Yael discovered her passion for making innovative tech accessible to mass markets through clear, helpful, data-driven microcopy. She also bakes outrageous birthday cakes.
Connect with Yael online
YaelBenDavid.me
LinkedIn
Twitter
Video
Here’s the video version of our conversation:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cjQGATTGlFg
Podcast intro transcript
This is the Content Strategy Insights podcast, episode number 130. Content strategy is fundamentally about balancing your users' needs with your organization's business goals. UX design is a famously user-centered profession. Yael Ben-David thinks that UX writers and other design professionals sometimes need to course-correct to better account for the business side of our work. Her new book, "The Business of UX Writing," makes the argument for this kind of approach, and shows you how to craft more business-aware UX writing programs.
Interview transcript
Larry:
All right. Hey everyone. Welcome to episode number 130 of the Content Strategy Insights podcast. I'm really happy today to have with us Yael Ben-David. Yael is a really well-known UX writer. If you're in the field at all, you've probably come across here at a conference or in the conversation somewhere online. But I'm really excited to have her on today because we're scheduling this podcast so that this episode should drop the day her new book comes out, and her book is called The Business of UX Writing. So, welcome, Yael. Tell the folks a little bit more about the book and how it came to be.
Yael:
Well, first of all, thank you so much for having me. I'm really excited to, right at launch, be sharing this episode. The book is, like you said, called The Business of UX Writing, and it basically became about because I started talking a while back and thinking about the ROI, the return on investment of UX writing. So, really, what is the impact on the business and not just on the user? The more I thought about it and wrote about it and spoke about it, the more I realized I had to say and was getting asked questions about it and was actually one of the first people in the field I think really make noise about it, and eventually, it shaped up into a book, which I... Since then, many more have fallen down this rabbit hole with me, and there are more talks about it, which is fantastic. I don't find it repetitive at all. I think anyone working in this field and using a data-centered app...
