The problem

Users can access a dashboard by selecting their profile avatar at the top of any Google TV screen. The team wanted to add an randomly rotating educational tip to this space, as a low-cost/risk way to increase engagement with certain features.

 

They had decided what features to highlight in the tips and had taken a stab at initial drafts of what each tips might say in the weeks before I joined the team. With me now aboard, it became one of my first assignments. The ask was to create copy that would make these tips more compelling (so that a user didn’t feel like this was just taking up valuable screen space) and to lay out each tip as clearly as possible (so they were actually actionable and useful).

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The process

I reviewed the drafts and took my time exploring the features we were highlighting, since I had recently joined the team and most of the Google TV product was still brand new to me. I then lightly revised the current copy on my first pass.

 

Later in the week, after running some questions by the PM, spending more time with the product, and getting more confident with the product voice, I came back and rewrote them from scratch, and added a few recommendations beyond just copy as well. From there, we reviewed my recommendations, tweaked a line or two, and shipped them.

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The result
A new little tool was born, with the potential to increase user satisfaction by helping users get the most out of Google TV.
 

Trough my edits, the tips are able to accomplish this subtly enough that users are unlikely to feel like they’re in a tutorial or instruction manual. They also help give a sense that we’re continually evolving the product and adding new features. See the samples at right for more insight into what this transformation looked like in practice.

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And this work set the groundwork and process for creating additional tips, as well as a voice and tone that can be replicated in other educational messaging more generally.