On this page:
SAGE USA
City of Portland
Daikin
Categories: B2B, D2C, Third Sector (Nonprofit), DEI
Agency lead: Experience Lab
Deliverables: Brand strategy, brand messaging, content strategy, UX copywriting, style guide
Impact: SAGE USA (Advocacy & Services for LGBT Older Adults) had a massive website with thousands of pages. The dedicated staff had created vast resources, programs, and research, but the online content was disorganized and hard to find. With a pro bono brand identity created by Civic Hall Labs, SAGE was positioned for a rebranding and website redesign. They chose Experience Lab to make it happen.
In this large project, I served as content strategist and senior copywriter on a team that also included a UX strategist, information architect, graphic designer, and developer. I led the creative effort to define the organization’s brand messaging and style. I wrote extensive UX copy and SEO copy for the top level pages. The client stakeholders were so happy with the results, they added 200% more pages to my contract after I delivered the first batch. I helped shape the UX and IA as we created wireframes and curated existing content to improve user engagement with SAGE’s extensive material.
Together, we transformed the SAGE USA website into a well-organized and easy-to-navigate resource that reflects the joy and determination of the nonprofit. Below are screenshots of a content worksheet showing how I write meta data, headlines, UX copy, along with providing art direction and full page copy. See the live version: Get Involved with SAGE
Categories: Public Sector, B2B, B2C, Environmental, UX, Content Strategy
Agency lead: happy, inc.
Deliverables: Content inventory, content audit, plain language copywriting, copy editing, content workseets, Drupal content population, client training
Impact: 3,744. That's how many pages of content Environmental Services had on PortlandOregon.gov, the City's legacy website.
In 2018, the City of Portland undertook a multi-year, Agile process to create a clean, user-focused website. The Environmental Services communications team didn't want all 3,744 pages to move over without an overhaul. Some of the content was outdated. Some was too complex to be helpful to Portland residents. Some of it was helpful but too hard to find.
Through three years and dozens of sprints, I worked with happy, inc., to inventory, audit, categorize, and rewrite thousands of pages of Environmental Services content. My work included leading stakeholder workshops (including a full-day card-sorting UX exercise), creating site maps, taking a content inventory, analyizing the content to make recommendations on how to improve user engagement, conducting stakeholder interviews, drafting stakeholder surveys, drafting and presenting copy for stakeholder approval, populating it into the new Drupal CMS, ensuring accessibility, and proofing it for launch.
We had numerous goals beyond trimming the content fat. The bureau wanted to improve the user experience, update content to be forward-focused, and ensure that the content provided by the bureau's many smart, post-graduate scientists could be read and understood by Portland residents, including the many who speak English as a second language.
After fully re-working 80% of the bureau's content, we developed surveys, worksheets, instructions, and a site map to support City staff in finishing up the final leg of transition in 2021.
Categories: B2B, Manufacturing
Agency lead: metajive
Deliverables: Information architecture, content strategy, copywriting
Impact: Daikin, a global manufacturer of air conditioners, heat pumps, refrigerants, and other HVAC systems, wanted to create a distinct website to serve its North American audiences. This project required more UX and content strategy than it did copywriting because the executives at Daikin had very specific content they wanted to use to populate their new website. I did write original copy for the “Career” page and a few other sections, but much of the work we did as an agency focused on taking Daikin’s print reports and curating its content into an effective, approachable, brand-aligned digital presentation. I worked extensively on the information architecture of this site, including navigation and wayfinding, along with the UX, including content organization, calls to action, and headlines.