Web Directions Year round learning for product, design and engineering professionals

Create a thoughtful content design practice using your existing design process

There’s a reason why tech companies big and small are building out teams of content designers. But more than often, they’re brought in at the very end to polish strings, or just ‘find another word for…’. Not only is this a disservice to how our designs could be better, it overlooks the simple power of questioning, “is this saying what we really need it to say?”, which can unlock the reach and impact our products could have. Working in tandem with your product design counterparts — and finding a fluid way to do so — can have a true impact on the way people perceive and find value in the tools we’re building.

I’ve seen this myself as both the first content designer at a growing startup, and at the likes of Spotify and Canva. Whether you’re working with a writer, or doing your best to craft the words yourself, I’ll be sharing some tactical ways you can make language a key part of your design process. These practices have helped me foster a healthy and collaborative relationship with the designers I’ve worked with, improved the rigour in our content design user tests, and create artefacts that aren’t just strings in Figma or long copy docs.

Janine Saunders

Janine is a content designer at Canva, living in Sydney. Previously, she’s worked with Spotify in New York City and Qwilr.