Workiva · Content Design · 2023
Building a scalable content system for a beta mobile app in a regulated environment.
Chapter One
As a Content Design Intern at Workiva, I took ownership of building a scalable content system that would unify the app's voice across mobile and documentation — before inconsistencies compounded at scale.
The product needed to feel trustworthy in a regulated financial environment. That meant every word had to earn its place.
The Problem
Across similar flows, users encountered inconsistent writing that eroded confidence in the product:
Individually, these were small inconsistencies. Collectively, they slowed comprehension, reduced perceived polish, complicated localization, and undermined trust in a regulated product.
The product was strong. The content wasn't reinforcing that strength.
Impact of inconsistency
Slowed comprehension across flows
Reduced perceived polish of the product
Complicated future localization efforts
Undermined trust in a regulated environment
So, I took charge of building a system that would bring the experience into alignment.
The Process
The issue wasn't sentence quality. It was structural inconsistency. To scale effectively, the app needed a content system that felt:
01
No ambiguity. Every message should tell the user exactly what happened and what to do next.
02
Predictable patterns across flows, so users never have to re-learn the product's language.
03
Informative, not alarming. Errors should feel like guidance, not system failures.
04
Ready for localization, growth, and a team that changes over time.
The Audit
I began by auditing every piece of user-facing content across the mobile app — including buttons, toasts, error states, confirmation dialogs, and empty states.
I catalogued inconsistencies in casing, tone, length, and intent — noting where content felt unclear, redundant, or unnecessarily alarming.
The audit made one thing clear: this wasn't a copy problem. It was a systems problem.
I defined a small set of content principles to guide decisions across the app. These principles became a lightweight content system that made future decisions faster and more consistent.
The Copy
Goodbye Title Case Everywhere. Hello sentence case and readable, consistent patterns. This boosted readability, improved accessibility, and made future localization less painful.
Toast messages that don't panic the user
One of my favorite fixes: replacing the word "Failed" with "Couldn't", because no one deserves to be yelled at by a toast. I also shortened each message so it could be understood in the tiny window of time it appears.
Before
"Failed to upload file"
Harsh, alarming, no recovery path
After
"Couldn't upload file. Try again."
Calm, informative, action-oriented
Confirmation dialogs with less "Are You Sure??" energy
I trimmed them down, removed polite-but-unnecessary fear-mongering, and made the actions the star of the show.
Templates
Once the content system was defined, I wanted to make sure it could actually outlive me. So I built a set of reusable copy templates to make onboarding new content designers as frictionless as possible.
The templates covered common patterns — error messages, confirmation dialogs, empty states, and toast notifications — giving anyone joining the team a ready-made starting point that already aligned with our voice and guidelines.
The goal was simple: a consistent voice shouldn't depend on institutional memory. It should be baked into the tools.
Collaboration
I partnered closely with the Product Manager and engineers to review proposed changes in context, ensuring the copy matched real system behavior and technical constraints.
Feedback often surfaced edge cases — timing, truncation, platform-specific behavior — which helped refine messages so they worked in production, not just in mockups.
The Documentation
I built a complete library of mobile-specific help articles grounded in the same principles:
This ensured users encountered the same voice whether tapping through the app or searching for help.
Document Drafts
With the system in place, individual messages became sharper.
Content design isn't just about refining words. It's about building structures that support confident user decisions.
She readily took on the mobile app project and actively seeks out feedback on in-app copy from the team. When she had to create a series of new help articles on her own, she learned organizational strategies from others and applied those learnings to her own work, which shows that she is open to trying different processes to figure out what works best for her.
Sarah Kang · WorkivaReflection
Working on a beta product reinforced the importance of establishing systems early — before scale amplifies inconsistency. What began as scattered tone differences revealed a structural gap.
By addressing it holistically, I helped create alignment across UI and documentation. In regulated environments especially, clarity builds trust.
Content design is systems design. Every word decision is a design decision — and the best ones hold up at scale.
What's next
Extend the content system into onboarding and empty states.
Build a living style guide to maintain consistency as the team grows.
Test localization readiness across the revised copy patterns.
