I'm part of user experience team consisting of designers, usability engineers, and UI text writers like myself. Our designers and writers collaborate with each other and program managers on specs -- in the best cases, from the ground up. A separate user assistance team writes documentation.
We have copious style guidelines and terminology guides on how to achieve the best interaction design from a textual as well as design viewpoint, and a good many of the wording choices we are faced with indicate changing designs that should have been clearer, in both minor or major ways. And of course we like to make sure the language is consistent, clear, concise, technically accurate, and easily localizable, and takes accessibility issues into consideration. I'm lucky -- this collaborative situation is ideal, and not all companies or product teams can afford to take this approach -- I also have been on teams where UA writers have either been asked at the last minute to tweak UI text, or at best asked to oversee UI text while writing Help, without the time to understand in depth the immediate interaction, considering causes and effects of each option label, command, or error message they are touching. UI text is the front line of communication between the user and the product, so it's worth the time and money to do it thoroughly. Cheers Sean ________________________________________________________________ Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ....... [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe ................ http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines ............ http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .................. http://www.ixda.org/help
