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Home / Sessions / Boosting a Design Language with Real Language: Content Strategy in and for Design Systems

Boosting a Design Language with Real Language: Content Strategy in and for Design Systems

2019 IA Conference /

Time(s)

March 24, 2019
10:15 AM to 11:00 AM CT

Description

In a design system, all the elements of a design language can come together: interaction and visual guidelines, accessibility, brand, code, and content. That last element—content—is often absent from design systems. In this presentation, we talk about why content should be integrated into our design systems and how we go about doing it.

Customers usually come to our digital experiences to view or manage content, and yet design teams too often add content design and strategy as an afterthought. By placing content alongside the other design disciplines in a design system, we take a big step toward providing better customer experiences, we elevate the practice of content design, and we prepare our organizations for content innovations such as personalization and conversational user interfaces.

Drawing on content strategy practices like information architecture, content-first design, and governance, content professionals can help us enhance, test, and scale our design standards and how we communicate about them.

In addition to helping create robust components and patterns in the first place, content designers can make a number of other contributions to design systems:

• Editorial style

• Voice and tone

• Representative content for components

• Content patterns

• Brand guidelines

• Enhanced design documentation

About the speakers

Michael Haggerty-Villa
Michael Haggerty-Villa

Michael Haggerty-Villa is a senior staff content designer at Compass, where he leads content design and content strategy for the Compass Design System. He has managed the Intuit QuickBooks Design System and led a team of content designers to create the Intuit content design style guide, a publicly available site for content standards and community. He has worked on design systems for enterprises such as Disney and eBay. And he recently relocated with his family (including all three cats) to the Washington, D.C. area.

Sponsor IAC

We’re looking for organizations who share our commitment to building and sustaining programs that drive a more inclusive industry. Learn more on the Sponsor IAC23 page or contact us directly at info@theiaconference.com for more information.

Thanks to this year’s sponsors!

Logo for sponsor Optimal Workshop
Platinum sponsor
Optimal Workshop
Logo for sponsor Factor Firm
Gold sponsor
Factor Firm
Logo for sponsor Last Call Media
Silver sponsor
Last Call Media
Logo for sponsor Design for Context
Scholarship sponsor
Design for Context

Logo for sponsor A Book Apart
In-Kind sponsor
A Book Apart
Logo for sponsor Balsamiq
In-Kind sponsor
Balsamiq
Logo for sponsor MURAL
In-Kind sponsor
MURAL
Logo for sponsor OOUX Masterclass
In-Kind sponsor
OOUX Masterclass
Logo for sponsor Rosenfeld Media
In-Kind sponsor
Rosenfeld Media

Logo for sponsor UX Camp DC
Community sponsor
UX Camp DC
Logo for sponsor World IA Day
Community sponsor
World IA Day

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