Digitisation for the hospitality industry.
DISH Digital Solutions develop digital solutions for the hospitality industry. This includes an online reservation and ordering tool. I lead the content design function solo, responsible for all english content in all products.
Tools
Figma, Crowdin, Teams
Year
2024
Client
DISH Digital GmbH
Team
Product and customer experience
Background
Opening up the digital world for hospitality businesses, platform offers restaurants, cafes, bars and mobile food vans, among others, a whole host of tools and support to grow their businesses. I work with the customer experience and products teams on UX writing, localisation, content strategy, and email content.
Challenges
Balancing design and content needs with stakeholder requirements and opinions.
Working collaboratively with designers and product managers.
Implementing new content processes.
Content design being seen as more than just a ‘words’ function.
Setting a source of ‘truth’ for localisation.
The work - content design and localisation
As the lead content designer and strategist, I work with stakeholders in both marketing and design to identify and implement the content that will most appeal to users.
After setting up a content strategy and process, I moved on to working with the design team to write in-product copy. Working in Teams, Slack and Figma, I write the copy that appears on each product screen. Taking into account the user base, target users, DISH’s tone of voice, and the overall user experience.
I also work with the design team to improve how the features are planned and implemented, advocating for a content-first approach and helping the team to identify what is a content problem, and what is a design, or even specification problem.
Simplify the in-product copy and remove jargon
DISH has a number of complex products, with a number of different features. When I first began working for them, they had an issue with users not understanding how to use some of the products. To solve this, I’ve worked with product managers and designers on simplifying the copy using language the user base would understand.
One of the ways I’ve improved the copy is by making it more actionable and ‘in-state’ so the user always knows what to expect. For example, I changed many ‘success’ headers to ones that instead tell the user what is happening, like the one on the left.
Localisation
DISH products are translated into 17 languages, so it’s very important that 1. the source language (english) is right, and 2. the words I choose can be translated and still keep the original meaning. To help make this happen I have written a source of truth glossary using Crowdin, that lists accepted and not accepted terms and words which will help translators when they are working on the copy. I’ve received positive feedback that translators have found it a really useful tool, and for the users, it ensures the context is not lost but still makes sense in their language.
The results
In just 4 months I have helped the team at DISH develop a conversational tone of voice for their users. By understanding the user base I’ve been able to implement copy that resonates with their target market meaning less customer service queries and reports of a more positive experio. I’ve also helped to improve translation accuracy. This project is currently ongoing. To the left you can see a screenshot from Slack with some feedback of copy I wrote 🙂
