Hello, World.

My name is Gina and after some internal squabbings about where best to put my musings — after years of off-and-on blogging on my own domain, I’m opting for Substack.

Since forever, I’ve owned some version of a blog or website but these were without any clear objectives. That’s the beauty of having the Internet of amazingness at the beginning of its potential. There were no real rules and everything was cool.

Well, fast forward some years and the objective is much clearer. Wiser, perhaps.

I have a focus for a website and a better understanding of how to either combine or separate my various … endeavors, let’s call them. At some point, I may integrate this Substack into my website again, but for the time being, this is how it’ll be.

So what’s the focus? Since making a decision to transition away from marketing and communications and looking to focus more on user experience, my site will be my portfolio. It’s focused without a conflaguration of my multiple interests colliding into a confused, disconnected mess. Substack will house my musings. And you, dear reader, will be subscribed and get them via email or come across it by chance on Twitter or similar. Oh, and it’s free. For now. :)

Ok. What am I musing about?

Short answer: UX.

Long answer: UX. With a likely focus on UX writing and writing as a form of design.

Over the course of nearly a year, I’ve seen an increase in UX Writing roles or Content Designer roles. This is exciting because it’s a relatively new spotlight on an aspect of UX Design that’s been around well, forever. But because it’s relatively new, there’s not so much written about it.

And why should you care?

That’s up to you. Maybe you don’t care about UX writing or Content Design and that’s fine. As UX itself grows and the different aspects of UX become more identified, there’s an opportunity to talk about UX writing but more specifically about writing as a form of design — something that’s not explored greatly or understood.

But who am I to talk about this?

Honestly? I’m nobody. With sub-500 Twitter followers and someone transitioning into UX from a marketing/communications field in the education nonprofit industry, I’m probably the last person to talk about this.

I do know, however, that I’ve been writing professionally for over 10 years and despite being a jack-of-all-trades type worker, how people experience the things they interact with has always been my interest. It was my job to use words within its context to create great experiences for people.

There are plenty of other resources that breakdown the differences between marketing and UX writing so I won’t do that myself. I will say though that I’ve never approached my marketing/communications work from a marketing or “persuasion” framework. I focused on the experience of the target user/consumer/audience first. This was, I’d later learn, UX in a basic nutshell.

And I want more of it. Hence the current career switch journey.

So this is what I’ll be writing about. I’ll also share some of my own experiences and examples to help others who may be interest in a similar transition, to show you how you can start applying UX principles in a non-UX specific setting, or how incorporating UX approaches could help improve your marketing/copywriting work. … Among other related topics.

Thanks for reading.

✌ gina