Past Events

We've all heard that exclamation before, whether from clients or internal stakeholders. And they use adjectives like disruptive, edgy, or authentic without context. You nod and smile, then die a little inside knowing you'll just turn around the same corporate content as everyone else.

Fear not! Tone and voice can be distinctive if you just find out what those fluffy buzzwords mean to your stakeholder.

We're going to dive into how you can use unconventional tools like Cards Against Humanity (or Apples to Apples if you're afraid of HR) to suss out words and language that allow you to create a unique tone for a brand. Content strategist Emily Jasper will present how her team used Cards Against Humanity to build an Edginess Scale for Verizon FiOS.

You'll get a chance to learn how to use the cards, how to document the process so people don't think you're avoiding work, and ways to codify your findings into governance documents for future content development.

Many thanks to Workshop Digital for the location for this month's workshop!

Please get to ShoreDog by 7:30 to order food. We'll get started promptly at 8:00.

Whether your product is a landing page, an app, or an online campaign, words matter. They have the power to help someone complete a task and feel like it was a piece of cake—or make someone bury their head in their hands in pure and utter frustration

So, how do you find the words that speak the customers' language?

We'd like to show you Conversation Tracker. In this workshop led by Rich Denzler, a UX Content Strategist at Capital One, you'll explore how, when, and who to use Conversation Tracker with.

Plus, bring your real-world content questions to the table and we'll use Conversation Tracker to explore different language to use.

Many thanks to Fahrenheit IT for the location for this month's workshop!

Please get to ShoreDog by 7:30 to order food. We'll get started promptly at 8:00.

World IA Day is a one-day, annual celebration focused on the practice and education of Information Architecture. This celebration brings together a diverse community including information architects, user experience designers, content strategists, product managers, developers, scholars, and students.

This year's theme is: Information Everywhere, Architects Everywhere.

Hosted by Richmond UX

The tension between designers and content creators is at all-time high. Both designers of information, they need to get off their high horses, put their egos to one side and talk to each other. Users come to websites to get information, not to look at design, so content needs to be high up in the priority of a web build. Writers and designers both want to control the show, but if they both start with UX in mind, the end result is much better for users.

This ‘marriage therapy’ session, based on cognitive behavioral techniques, will showcase how you can resolve the conflicts you’ve experienced – whether you are a Mr. Content or a Mrs. Designer. We’ll interactively assess the problems we face and work to resolve the arguments. We’ll find a way to build digital experiences together that are right for the user and, ultimately, the marriage.

We spend a lot of time trying to solve communication problems through design. We design first, write later, and end up iterating endlessly, only to start the process over again—design first, words last.

What would happen if we wrote the words first—agnostic of technology or channel—and then designed an experience to bring those words to life? That’s what Steph Hay and her content strategy team are doing at Capital One. She’ll show us content-first techniques—like content prototypes, language boards, and conversation maps—that result in faster learning, fewer iterations, a more cohesive voice and tone, and higher engagement.

What You'll Learn

• The value of writing real content before there’s an interface
• Ways to introduce users to new content or interactions
• How to do Content-First Design in your work

This is a free event organized by Richmond UX. However, you must register to attend. Hurry up; there are only a few seats left!

During this live presentation, Joe will be sharing stories and content strategy insights from his new book E-X-I-T-O: Your Digital Marketing Strategy in 5 Steps. (The book is in Spanish, but Joe's presentation to us will be in English.)

About the Speaker

Joe Kutchera advises companies on how to best develop content marketing strategies for social media and digital platforms, with a special emphasis in Hispanic/Latin American markets. He is the author of two books including Latino Link: Building Brands Online with Hispanic Communities and Content and E-X-I-T-O: Su estrategia de marketing digital en 5 pasos. He has been featured on Advertising Age, BBC Mundo, CNN en español, CNNExpansion, NBC Latino, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel and Telemundo.

During his nine-year tenure at Time Warner, Joe built such web properties as Warner Bros. Online, ThisOldHouse.com, and CNNMoney, and CNNExpansion. During his last two years at the company, Joe started the digital ad sales team for Grupo Expansion in Mexico City (acquired by Time Inc. in 2005), launching the web sites for CNNExpansion, Quien, and Chilango. In 2008, Joe moved to ContextWeb (now PulsePoint) where he launched its Spanish-language ad network for U.S. Hispanics and opened its Mexico City office as its Director of Spanish-Language Markets. Subsequently, Joe served as the Director of Digital Marketing at Acento Advertising before consulting on his own.

Joe writes for Fox News Latino and has written for The Huffington Post, MediaPost and iMediaConnection. In addition, Joe has a BA from Macalester College and an MBA from Fordham University. Joe has served as a board member for the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) Mexico and as a member of the Hispanic Committee for the IAB in the U.S.

Contracts that outline the relationship between the content creator and the client are extremely important. Service contracts can foster good working relationships between you and your clients, they can define your responsibilities and your clients’ responsibilities, and, perhaps most importantly, they can help you get paid.

Julia will discuss some contract law 101 basics and will focus on a few points important to service contracts for content creators such as the importance of clearly defining deliverables, intellectual property rights, and price and payment terms. Julia has represented content creators and their clients and will address the points from both perspectives to emphasize the importance of having a solid service contract.

About the Speaker

Julia is an associate attorney in the Richmond office of Troutman Sanders LLP. She focuses her legal practice in the areas of intellectual property law, including trademark and copyright law, and internet law. Julia counsels clients on compliance with state and federal laws and regulations in a variety of areas, including corporate, intellectual property, marketing, and privacy law. Julia’s practice also involves trademark and copyright registrations, negotiating and drafting intellectual property licensing agreements, work made for hire agreements, and service agreements, assisting clients with their general business matters, and representing clients in disputes involving trademark, copyright, domain name, and privacy law.

Julia is a graduate of both the College of William & Mary and the William & Mary Law School. Here in Richmond, Julia volunteers with various non-profit groups and bar associations, and she is a former 804RVA Coworkaholic (and will always be a member of the Wolfpack).