ux-content-strategy

name	ux-content-strategy
description	Use when planning, governing, or upgrading product content as a system - voice charts, content-first design, UI text patterns, form completion gates, error taxonomy, content measurement, decision communication, lifecycle narrative, and content operations. Higher-level orchestration above tactical microcopy and form mechanics.
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UX Content Strategy

Acknowledgement: Shared by Peter Bamuhigire, techguypeter.com, [phone].

Use When

• Defining or refreshing product voice, tone-shift rules, and content principles for a product or feature family.
• Designing a flow where content drives layout (onboarding, recovery, churn-risk, premium upgrades, complex forms).
• Establishing a content measurement framework tied to completion, comprehension, error reduction, conversion, trust, and support deflection.
• Communicating a content decision to skeptical stakeholders or capturing agreement after debate.
• Planning a 30 / 60 / 90-day content operation across multiple surfaces, locales, or teams.

Do Not Use When

• The task is a single string of microcopy with an established voice and clear pattern - use ux-writing directly.
• The task is form layout, field grouping, input types, or validation mechanics - use form-ux-design directly.
• The request is a one-line stakeholder reply that needs no decision rationale capture.

Required Inputs

• Product purpose, audience segments, and the user state(s) the content must serve (first use, mastery, error, churn-risk, win-back).
• Existing voice or content guidance, brand constraints, regulatory or legal copy requirements, locale list.
• The surface(s) involved (screen, form, email, notification, system message) and the metric the content is expected to move.
• Stakeholder map: who decides, who reviews, who has veto.

Workflow

• Read this SKILL.md first. Pull only the references you need for the current decision.
• Decide whether the task is strategic (voice, measurement, lifecycle) or tactical (a string, a field, an error). If tactical, hand off to ux-writing or form-ux-design.
• For any new flow: write the content brief before the wireframe. Layout decisions follow content, not the reverse. See references/content-first-design-workflow.md.
• For any new product or sub-product without a voice chart: build one before approving copy. See references/voice-chart-construction.md.
• For any UI text decision: pick the pattern from references/ui-text-patterns-library.md, not from instinct.
• For any error: classify (system / user / environment), then apply the recovery formula in references/error-state-taxonomy-and-recovery.md.
• For any form: apply input reduction and engagement gates from references/form-completion-gates.md before writing labels.
• Set the metric and baseline using references/content-measurement-framework.md before content ships, or the change is unmeasurable.
• Communicate the decision using the framing in references/design-decision-communication.md and capture explicit agreement.
• For lifecycle content (onboarding through win-back), apply the narrative arc and peak/end placement in references/product-narrative-arcs.md.

Quality Standards

• Every content decision names: the user state it serves, the metric it moves, the voice principle it enforces, and the alternative it rejected.
• Voice attributes are observable in the copy. If a stakeholder cannot point to the word that proves "warm" or "expert," the chart is decorative.
• Tone shifts by user state, not by writer mood. Same product, different moments, predictable shift.
• Errors tell the user what happened, why, and the next move - in that order, in user language, without blame.
• No content ships without a measurement plan: baseline, target, time window, sampling rule.
• Stakeholder agreements are recorded in writing with the date, the alternatives considered, and the trade-off accepted.

Anti-Patterns

• Writing copy onto a finished wireframe and calling it content design.
• Voice charts that list adjectives nobody can disprove ("friendly," "professional," "human").
• Apologetic system errors that hide cause and offer no next step.
• Form labels rewritten in isolation while the field still asks for data the business does not need now.
• "We measured engagement" used as a substitute for completion, comprehension, error rate, or trust signals.
• Carrying a content debate by seniority instead of by evidence, then re-litigating it three sprints later.
• Treating onboarding as the only narrative moment and ignoring recovery, mastery, and win-back.

Outputs

• Voice chart with tone-shift table, content principles, and worked examples per user state.
• Content brief(s) preceding wireframes, with success metric, voice principle, user state, and copy boundary.
• UI text decisions traceable to a pattern in the library.
• Error taxonomy with recovery copy formulas and escalation paths.
• Content measurement plan: metric, baseline, target, instrumentation, review cadence.
• Decision log entries (decision -> reason -> evidence -> alternatives -> trade-off -> agreement).
• Lifecycle narrative map with peak/end moments identified per persona.
• 30 / 60 / 90-day content operations plan when scope warrants.

Evidence Produced

Category	Artifact	Format	Example
UX quality	UX content strategy and voice chart	Markdown with voice principles, UI patterns, and audience rules	docs/ux/content-strategy.md
Correctness	UI text QA checklist	Markdown checklist covering buttons, labels, errors, empty states, and confirmations	docs/ux/ui-text-qa.md
Performance	Form completion gate	Markdown or CSV with friction, validation timing, and completion metrics	docs/ux/form-completion-gate.md
Release evidence	Content measurement plan	Markdown plan with metrics, owners, review cadence, and change log	docs/ux/content-measurement.md

References

• references/voice-chart-construction.md - deriving voice attributes and the tone-shift table.
• references/content-first-design-workflow.md - content brief template and the content-first protocol.
• references/ui-text-patterns-library.md - rules for label, button, error, empty, loading, confirm, notification.
• references/form-completion-gates.md - input reduction logic, gradual engagement, inline validation copy.
• references/error-state-taxonomy-and-recovery.md - error categories, recovery formulas, escalation copy.
• references/content-measurement-framework.md - metrics tied to content goals, baseline-to-target.
• references/design-decision-communication.md - rationale framing, objection handling, agreement capture.
• references/product-narrative-arcs.md - lifecycle stories, peak/end moments, persona-aware narrative.
• Use ux-writing for tactical microcopy execution once strategy is set.
• Use form-ux-design for form mechanics, field selection, and validation behavior.

Derived from Metts and Welfle (2020) Strategic Writing for UX, Wroblewski (2008) Web Form Design: Filling in the Blanks, Greever (2020) Articulating Design Decisions, 2nd ed., and Parrish (2020) Storytelling in Design.

When To Invoke Companion Skills

Situation	Skill
Voice exists, you need a single button or empty state string	ux-writing
Form layout, field count, input type, validation behavior	form-ux-design
New product, new sub-product, or voice drift across teams	this skill, then ux-writing
Error rate or completion rate is the target metric	this skill, then form-ux-design and ux-writing
Stakeholder has rejected copy three times	this skill - see design-decision-communication.md

Decision Gates

• Voice gate: No copy ships for a new product surface until the voice chart and at least one tone-shift row exist.
• Content-first gate: No high-stakes flow goes to visual design until a content brief is approved.
• Measurement gate: No content change is "done" until baseline, target, and review date are recorded.
• Decision gate: No revisited debate is reopened without new evidence; the decision log is the source of truth.
• Narrative gate: No lifecycle program ships without identifying its peak and end moments per persona.

Operating Cadence

Inputs

Artifact	Produced by	Required?	Why
Product purpose, audience, and critical flows	Product brief or research	required	Anchors voice and content priorities
Current interface copy and performance evidence	Repository and analytics	optional	Reveals drift and measurable failure points

Capability contract

Read and search current product copy and approved research first. Editing requires authorisation; do not publish copy or alter production content without explicit approval.

Degraded mode

If product copy, research, or metrics are unavailable, return a provisional brief, list needed evidence, and avoid claiming that decisions are validated.

• Weekly: review content tickets against voice and pattern library; flag drift.
• Monthly: review measurement dashboard against targets; retire content that fails to move its metric.
• Quarterly: refresh voice chart only if evidence shows the audience or product purpose has shifted; otherwise leave it alone.
• Per release: confirm error taxonomy coverage for new failure modes introduced by the release.