Presenter: Benjamin Hersh, Design Lead, Medium We often think of design as a visual discipline, but what makes a product connect with its audience is often how you write it. We don’t ordinarily talk about ‘writing’ products, but this is absolutely what we do — from buttons, to pushes, to verbal interfaces. For those of us who design and develop products for a living, writing is fast becoming a survival skill. Designing with language requires a different mindset, and forces us to break familiar habits. This talk looks to cognitive science, the art of copywriting, and my experiences at Medium, where my team cultivates relationships with readers like you. It’s about the bigger picture that we often miss, when copy becomes the heart of product design.

1. Benjamin Hersh
@MostlyCogent

4. Susa, Iran, ca. 3300 BC, Courtesy Musée du Louvre, Départment des Antiquités Orientales, Par

7. 1. Be clear
2. Be a friend
3. Be expressive

8. Clear
Friendly
Expressive

9. Clear
Friendly
Expressive

10. Clear
Friendly
Expressive

11. Be
clear.

12. A.
I stand for a bold, progressive
internationalism that stands in
stark contrast to the too often
belligerent and myopic
unilateralism of the current
administration.

13. B.
Let’s go it alone.

14. A.
I stand for a bold,
progressive
internationalism that
stands in stark contrast
to the too often
belligerent and myopic
unilateralism of the
current administration.
B.
Let’s go it
alone.

15. A.
I stand for a bold,
progressive
internationalism that
stands in stark contrast
to the too often
belligerent and myopic
unilateralism of the
current administration.
B.
Let’s go it
alone.

16. A.
I stand for a bold,
progressive
internationalism that
stands in stark contrast
to the too often
belligerent and myopic
unilateralism of the
current administration.
B.
Let’s go it
alone.

17. reading = effort

19. 86
min

21. UCSF

22. “Anemone”

23. “Isthmus”

24. “Cryptocurrency”

25. “Congratulations
”

27. Ideas are complicated.

29. Late in life the emperor Charlemagne fell in love with a German girl.
The barons at his court were extremely worried when they saw that
the sovereign, wholly taken up with his amorous passion and
unmindful of his regal dignity, was neglecting the affairs of state.
When the girl suddenly died, the courtiers were greatly relieved — but
not for long, because Charlemagne’s love did not die with her. The
emperor had the embalmed body carried to his bedchamber, where
he refused to be parted from it. The Archbishop Turpin, alarmed by
this macabre passion, suspected an enchantment and insisted on
examining the corpse. Hidden under the girl’s dead tongue he found a
ring with a precious stone set in it. As soon as the ring was in Turpin’s
hands, Charlemagne fell passionately in love with the archbishop and
hurriedly had the girl buried. In order to escape the embarrassing
situation, Turpin flung the ring into Lake Constance. Charlemagne
thereupon fell in love with the lake and would not leave its shores.

39. Be
clear.

40. Be a friend.

42. Durham University

44. University of Michigan

45. “You’ve got this.”

46. “You need to be faster next time.”

47. “I’ve got this.”

48. “I need to be faster next time.”

49. “I” = ☹

50. “You”

59. “You gotta love how it talks to you.”

60. 1. Be clear
2. Be a friend

61. 3. Be expressive

62. 🚜
You’re all read.
Here’s a tractor.

63. The name’s ___

64. The name’s
Bond. James
Bond.

65. “Why, hello!”

66. “Why, hello!”

67. “Why, hello!”

68. “Why, hello!”

69. Emory University

76. Follow the
recommended mission
in order to progress and
get more rewards.

82. Typography

83. LOU

84. soft-spoken

85. Puppies

86. Literary

89. Noe Ch

90. Noe Charter

95. Why this matters:

97. 1. Be clear
2. Be a friend
3. Be expressive

99. Benjamin Hersh
@MostlyCogent
www.benjaminhersh.com