Jess Thoms, Medium
The arts and humanities are more intertwined in technology than ever before, and will only continue to become more essential in building truly great products and companies.
I believe art and design are poised to transform our economy in the 21st century like science and technology did in the last century.” — John Maeda.
In this transformation, the weight of language has increased. Conversational experiences are driving e-commerce, and companies are judged on the inventiveness of their 404 pages. Users are searching for highly interactive, personalised moments, and demanding more human experiences.
Creatives and artists have a significant role to play in satisfying the demand for better experiences, especially writers. Championing the design and implementation of language in products and companies is evidently the next step for technology.
This doesn’t mean companies should just hire more writers, or give them more responsibility. It’s a fundamental shift in thinking about how writers function in organisations. Like designers aren’t just there to finalize colours and choose a font — writers aren’t just around to tweak microcopy on a finalized product.
Transforming ordinary, everyday moments into art
Seeing writing as a craft that can positively impact the way we design and operate is essential. The problems we are out to solve with technology are complex and extend across industries, but with art, it seems a little easier.
Writers are storytellers. Embed narratives into your product, and you have engagement, retention, and most importantly you give users a sense of purpose. Writers give meaning to the ordinary. A blade of grass in a compelling story somehow feels relevant. Tone, style, and the craft of words engrained in products makes them feel more intimate — like the whole experience is made just for you, and you alone.
With the rise of voice driven interfaces and conversational commerce language has been given more weight. Designing for human and computer interaction requires a firm grasp of communication and humanity. And it’s the writer who’s best placed to optimise this outcome, especially when that writer thinks like a designer.
Read the full story of why we need such writers more than ever at Medium …
