Erica Jorgensen: Content Design Research Techniques for Better UX – Episode 134

Content Strategy Insights

Erica Jorgensen Erica Jorgensen has just written the first UX book that focuses on content research. Strategic Content Design: Tools and Research Techniques for Better UX gives content designers a comprehensive guide to content-specific UX research techniques. Erica is on a mission to bring more respect to content to content practice. This book gives you the tools you need to show to your design, product, and engineering colleagues the usability and effectiveness of your content work. We talked about: the origins of her book in workshops she held at Microsoft how she came to being doing workshops on content research, featuring a powerful story from the health care industry the power of content research, including its ability to give content work more credence the variety of methods that you can use in content research and how to apply them the benefits of mixing quantitative and qualitative research methods how research can inform content and design-system guidance how research can bolster content designers' reputation as customer-centric, evidence-based collaborators how research can lead to presentations to executives the connections between content research and content metrics, including ROI her book nerdery and book hoarding habit, and how she included references to most, if not all, of them in her book the importance for content designers to develop good presentation skills and maybe even take them on the road by speaking at conferences and industry events Erica's bio Erica Jorgensen is a content design manager who’s determined to bring greater respect to the content field. To that end, she speaks frequently at meetups and conferences including UXDX, UXLx, Web Directions, OmniChannelX, and Button (ButtonConf.com). She’s worked in various content roles for both startups (Amazon, Rover.com) and global companies (Expedia, Microsoft). She also mentors content designers and content strategists through Hexagon UX, Ladies That UX, and the University of Washington’s Human Centered Design and Engineering program. Erica’s also the author of Strategic Content Design: Tools and Research Techniques for Better UX, to be published in March 2023 by Rosenfeld Media. In her free time, she enjoys traveling, working out, and visiting Washington state’s many wineries. She lives with her family in Seattle. Connect with Erica online LinkedIn Video Here’s the video version of our conversation: https://youtu.be/DKKVD40-ZEY Podcast intro transcript This is the Content Strategy Insights podcast, episode number 134. Most people would agree with the assertion that the craft of writing is valuable. Proving the value of content in a business context is a whole other issue. When you have to convince business colleagues of the usability and effectiveness of your work, content research can give you the evidence you need to make your case. To this point, advice about this kind of research has been scarce and piecemeal. Fortunately, Erica Jorgensen has just written the first book on content research. Interview transcript Larry: Hey everyone. Welcome to episode number 134 of the Content Strategy Insights podcast. I am really happy today to have with us Erica Jorgensen. Erica is the author of a new book on content research, and we'll talk more about that in just a minute. It doesn't have a title yet, and that's one of the things we'll talk about. She's also a frequent speaker at content and UX conferences. So welcome, Erica. Tell the folks a little bit more about what you're up to these days. Erica: Hi, Larry. Thank you for having me. I am super happy to be here. Yes, it's true. I have a book coming out probably in March from Rosenfeld Media, and the working title was Content Research for User Experience. I did get some feedback that didn't quite capture the breadth and scope of the book, so it may be called Winning Content Design or Empowering Content Design: Tools and Research Techn...