RACHAEL HYLAND
Readin', Writin', 'Rithmatic
Platform(s): Desktop and mobile
Since I began working for Apple as a Localization UX Writer (circa July 2019), I've been involved in a project called "Schoolwork." This project stars an app that serves as a centralized hub for teachers and students in terms of creating and sharing assignments, monitoring student progress and submitting student work. This particular view of the project is from the teacher's vantage point, explaining how the app empowers teachers to do their jobs more efficiently and effectively. For this project, I compose and edit the existing and new text in English and Hindi and test the text, link functionality and layout on macOS and iOS devices.
Because this project contains thousands and thousands of strings, the main challenges here were to maintain consistency across topics and subtopics, explain complex subjects in simple language and avoid any inaccuracies (i.e., grammar errors, typos, etc.). I overcame these challenges by using a tool called TSTT to communicate with my team regarding any inaccuracies I noted in the existing copy, establishing consistent language to be used throughout and explaining and re-explaining my goals for clarity and succinctness as we continued to iterate this copy. In a year, I re-iterate this copy twice to make sure it's up to date and polished according to Apple's high standards. To view this document in more detail, click here.
CiviQ: Be Better, Together
Platform: Mobile
As part of my Springboard UX/UI career track program, I completed my first capstone project, "CiviQ." This project aims to showcase my visual design skills as well as my UX writing abilities, as it is a content-heavy learning app. This app makes the process of studying for and excelling on the naturalization test to become a United States citizen more engaging, practical and effective. My ultimate goal with this app is to impress upon would-be citizens that it can be fun and interesting to learn about civics and history, and it's only through obtaining knowledge that you can fully exercise your rights. My app aims to go beyond the scope of the USCIS naturalization test, which is regarded as inadequate by experts, and digs deeper into the skills and knowledge a future citizen would need to exercise their democratic rights fully, hence the detailed focus on the First Amendment in the lesson shown above.
In summation, my goals for this project were to make an app that enables ordinary people to learn more about civics in a practical, engaging and effective way. Thus, the copy I created for each screen aimed to be succinct and easily digestible for someone on the go with limited bandwidth to devote to the app, attention-getting and interesting to ensure that the user actually learns something and as effective as possible with bite-sized chunks of information interspersed with a quiz element to keep you on your toes. If you'd like to check out my in-depth case study on this project, navigate your way over here.
Pandemonium in a Pandemic (Part 1)
Platform(s): Desktop and mobile
This is a limited functionality web app for information about COVID-19 that also features a diagnostic tool that can help you decide on next steps for yourself and/or a loved one. Since March, I've been continuously updating and improving the copy on this web app and have added new copy dealing with pregnancy and mental health resources and copy to cover the expanded functionality of the screener tool. In March, the English copy was handed to me from editorial in a fairly raw state as the timeline for this project was so short, but I was able to refine it to a great extent through continuous iteration and testing. As for the Hindi copy, we (myself and another Hindi UX writer) were given the content from our translator and tasked with editing it extensively, as it was also fairly unrefined in the beginning. Over time, we were able to edit the copy for accuracy, consistency and flow, and I even developed a limited style guide and glossary for this project to ensure that consistency and clarity were always present in our copy.
Here I've provided a before and after view of how extensively I edited the English copy to give an idea of the effort involved in the process as well as a clue as to my rationale in the editing and writing process To view this document and the one below it in more detail, click here.
Pandemonium in a Pandemic (Part 2)
Here's another example of how I rewrote the English copy for the "About" page (think of it as COVID-19's dating profile, of sorts) to achieve the goals of clarity and succinctness and uphold Apple's tone of neutral, casual and cool.
Go Ask Your Momma
Platform: Desktop
This is an example of a project I worked on involving a redesign of the entire iCloud Family Sharing Setup Flow. I completed this project in both English and Hindi. For English, my goal was to streamline the existing process so that it would be easier and more efficient for users who are, after all, just trying to set up a Family Sharing account via iCloud. With that aim in mind, I ensured that the copy was succinct, clear and to the point while maintaining a casual, friendly tone. To view this document in more detail, click here.
Eat, Pray, View My Photo Stream
Platform: Desktop
In my time at Apple, I've worked on numerous different email templates - the above is just one example. Replacing the clunky language with something more streamlined and readable and paying attention to the tiniest details so that Apple's image is maintained were my main goals for this project. To view this document in more detail, click here.
Where Marketing and UX Copy Collide
Platform: Desktop
With this project for an exclusive Apple Music offer aimed at college students, I got the ability to flex my muscles on something I've been passionate about for a while: Bilingual UI and Content Design. Some may think that bilingual design is a no-brainer, because it merely involves copying and pasting the translated content into the text box. However, different scripts and even languages written in Roman have different space and styling dictates, and it's always fascinating to deal with a language that contains extremely long, polysyllabic words and ensuring that the copy looks just as good as the English. Or, as with Hindi, my challenge is providing the space necessary to accommodate the enhanced vertical nature of its script, Devanagari, while ensuring that the text looks natural and fits in with the cool, hip vibe we're trying to achieve here. As far as the English copy goes, I strove to be clear, helpful and succinct in explaining how exactly the offer would work so that users could take full advantage of it. To view this document in more detail, click here.
Speaking of Style Guides...
Platform: Desktop
Over the past six months or so, I got the opportunity to redo the style guide for the Hindi-India market completely. Although I started off with a general template, I expanded and changed what was originally covered to include common grammatical and spelling issues that have been persistent obstacles to copy integrity and accuracy as well as regional variations of measurements, times, dates and addresses. The result, iterated and re-iterated over several months with feedback from my supervisor, project managers and coworkers, is a comprehensive style guide that contains within its pages all of the answers to your burning questions about using the passive voice in Hindi and adapting Apple's signature brand voice and tone to a completely different linguistic and cultural market. To view this document in more detail, click here.
Drawing the User in
Platforms: Desktop and Mobile
For this project, I worked with Spokeo, a popular People Search engine, on their newest service: Identity Theft Protection. In this flow, new users who have just created Spokeo accounts to access people search will be presented with this offer upon logging in for the first time. This offer is meant to educate and inform the user about Spokeo Protect rather than sell them as studies have shown that marketing-heavy language tends to be unpopular with users and makes them more suspicious and thus less trusting of a particular company or brand. My manager wanted me to gauge interest for this type of service amongst our current user base and wanted to drive home an association between identity theft protection and people search, which otherwise would seem like two random offerings that shouldn't go together. I also created a confirmation message for the user once they've agreed to sign up for the service at no extra cost to them (Screen 2). To view this document in more detail, click here.
Reenvisioning the billing experience with clarity and candor
Platforms: Desktop
During my time in the Localization Department at Apple, I worked on many such billing-related emails. With this email in particular, which confirms your subscription purchase of Apple TV (billed monthly), the important information seemed to be hidden. In all, I approached this email as a receipt, putting into practice the heuristic of designs mimicking real life. I also brought more clarity and consistency to the information presented so that the email was easier to scan and digest at a glance. To view this document in more detail, click here.