Working at Uphold

(July 2020 to August 2021)

Working at Uphold was my maiden UX writing and Copywriting role. Inversely, I was Uphold’s maiden hire for its freshly carved out UX writing designation. Upon assuming the role, it didn’t take much to realize that Uphold’s UX culture was not quite as established. It was lacking in terms of documentation, practices, and dedicated personnel. In so far as qualitative testing and research was concerned, it definitely took the back seat. As Uphold´s only UX-related hire, it became incumbent on me to don several UX related hats, i.e. to deliver beyond the responsibilities of a traditional UX writer. In this regard, over and above helping out with copy, I’d also help out with UX research and testing. The dividing line between my role as the UX writer and as someone with a background in UX research was quite often blurred.

The challenges I faced:

As the position of UX writing didn’t exist in Uphold prior to my joining, it result in the following challenges:

• Bringing awareness regarding the need for UX writing in the Product Development Process (PDP).

• Cementing the role of the UX writer in the Product development Process.

• Establishing a design culture that doesn’t treat copy as being ancillary. 

The structural changes I worked towards:

I chalked out the following plan to establish awareness as regards the indispensability of good copy in driving customer relations:

• Prepared a Preliminary analysis of the IOS app from a heuristics and copy debt perspective and sent out copies of the same to the EVP of Product, and subsequently presented it to the Product Team.

• Made a presentation explaining my role as a UX writer to the Product team. 

• Highlighted the different stages wherein I needed to be involved in the PDP as regards 

  • Determining the logical flow of information 

  • Determining the tone needed 

  • Determining the copy itself tailored to the target audience 

  • Conducting analysis and research to gauge competitor copy

  • Performing usability tests to measure if the copy succeeds in directing the users the way it’s intended 

• It was essential to have the UX writer’s role acknowledged in every project involving UX writing. Hence, the Product Managers were asked to tag the UX writer involved, alongside the Lead Designer and Lead Engineer, Lead Data Analyst, and Lead Tester while creating the high-level Product Requirements Document (PRD).  

• Worked with the program manager to enlist UX writing into the Jira ticketing process, by tagging the UX writer at the Epic/planning level. 

• Collaborated with the Program manager to create ‘the email notifications index’, i.e. a template on Confluence for streamlining requests for email copy and their translations.

• I was also working on creating similar copy request templates for other copy categories.  

What else?

At the expense of reiteration, in my capacity as the only UX writer (or UX anything) for Uphold, I shouldered many a responsibility in terms of delivering well-researched, clear, and crisp copy, while educating myself and others in the process as regards best practices, inter alia. For example, a Product Manager brought to my attention the following confusion as regards best practices related to copy for ‘confirmation dialogues’.

Problem statement: We need to be clear on the action the user’s about to take, using the right title and description and the right CTA copy. This problem usually happens when the action can have distinct meanings ex:
Title: Cancel Limit order
Subtitle: Are you sure you want to cancel your limit order?
CTA: Cancel
CTA2: No
What does the CTA cancel mean in this case? Confirm or actually cancel the action?
After reading carefully the user will understand but sometimes the first thought is not correct and might lead him to take the wrong action

What I did in response: I made extensive research on best practices and industry standards surrounding ‘confirmation dialogues’ and prepared a write-up detailing the said practices along with several examples of confirmation dialogues done right. In that regard, I illustrated multiple examples adapted to the company’s current format of confirmation dialogues and suggested ways on improving them.

What I wish I did differently:

• In hindsight, I should’ve given priority to building comprehensive documentation on the company’s voice, content guide, dictionary, and the taxonomy of copy being used across all projects to ensure consistency instead of relying excessively on its antiquated copy guidelines.

• Being the sole UX hire in the company, I found myself juggling several UX roles at once. in this regard, I should have required my manager to help determine the scope of my work and responsibilities as clearly as possible.