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Betsy Mikel
Betsy Mikel

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Published in Firefox User Experience

·Jun 14

How we created inclusive writing guidelines for Firefox

Prioritizing inclusion work as a small team, and what we learned in the process. Our UX content design team recently relaunched our product content guidelines. In addition to building out more robust guidance on voice, tone, and mechanics, we also introduced new sections, including inclusive writing. At the time, our…

Ux Writing

4 min read

How we created inclusive writing guidelines for Firefox
How we created inclusive writing guidelines for Firefox

Aug 24, 2021

The haunting of the Mikel manse

What happened when my family bought a dilapidated Victorian no one else dared to love. “Everyone says your house is haunted,” a classmate declared in the cold, matter-of-fact way only an 11-year-old can. “It is NOT,” I barked back. His words hit me like one of the thousands of red…

MWC

7 min read

The haunting of the Mikel manse
The haunting of the Mikel manse

Published in Firefox User Experience

·Jun 7, 2021

Content design considerations for the new Firefox

How we collaborated on a major redesign to clean up debt and refresh the product. Co-authored with Meridel Walkington We just launched a major redesign of the Firefox desktop browser to 240 million users. The effort was so large that we put our full content design team — all two…

Content Design

4 min read

Content design considerations for the new Firefox
Content design considerations for the new Firefox

Published in Curious

·Jan 15, 2021

The Best Books I Read in 2020

The fiction and non-fiction that moved me during an unprecedented year. — I read more in 2020 than I ever have before. With all social commitments canceled for the foreseeable future, I turned to books. I read them in all ways. I read paper books, e-books, and audiobooks. I read whatever format I could get my hands on from Chicago Public Library…

Books

16 min read

The Best Books I Read in 2020
The Best Books I Read in 2020

Published in Firefox User Experience

·Nov 11, 2020

How to Write Microcopy That Improves the User Experience

Writing clear microcopy can sometimes take a surprising amount of time. — The small bits of copy you see sprinkled throughout apps and websites are called microcopy. As content designers, we think deeply about what each word communicates. Microcopy is the tidiest of UI copy types. But do not let its crisp, contained presentation fool you: the process to get to those…

Ux Writing

5 min read

How to Write Microcopy That Improves the User Experience
How to Write Microcopy That Improves the User Experience

Published in Firefox User Experience

·Sep 10, 2020

Content Strategy in Action on Firefox for Android

The behind-the-strings work that content strategy does to improve the user experience of our products. — The Firefox for Android team recently celebrated an important milestone. We launched a completely overhauled Android experience that’s fast, personalized, and private by design. When I joined the mobile team six months ago as its first embedded content strategist, I quickly saw the opportunity to improve our process by codifying…

User Experience

5 min read

Content Strategy in Action on Firefox for Android
Content Strategy in Action on Firefox for Android

Published in Firefox User Experience

·Jul 31, 2020

Simplifying the Complex: Crafting Content for Meaningful Privacy Experiences

How content strategy simplified the language and improved content design around a core Firefox feature. — Firefox protects your privacy behind the scenes while you browse. These protections work invisibly, blocking advertising trackers, data collectors, and other annoyances that lurk quietly on websites. This core feature of the Firefox browser is called Enhanced Tracking Protection (ETP). …

Ux Writing

5 min read

Simplifying the Complex: Crafting Content for Meaningful Privacy Experiences
Simplifying the Complex: Crafting Content for Meaningful Privacy Experiences

Published in Firefox User Experience

·Jul 6, 2020

UX Book Club Recap: Writing is Designing, in Conversation with the Authors

Michael Metts and Andy Welfle joined the Firefox UX team to discuss their book Writing is Designing: Words and the User Experience. — This post was co-written by Meridel Walkington. The Firefox UX book club comes together a few times a year to discuss books related to the user experience practice. We recently welcomed authors Michael Metts and Andy Welfle to discuss their book Writing is Designing: Words and the User Experience (Rosenfeld…

User Experience

6 min read

UX Book Club Recap: Writing is Designing, in Conversation with the Authors
UX Book Club Recap: Writing is Designing, in Conversation with the Authors

Published in Firefox User Experience

·Jun 17, 2020

Remote UX Collaboration Across Different Time Zones (Yes, It Can Be Done!)

How a content strategist and designer collaborated quickly and iteratively from two different continents. — Even in the “before” times, the Firefox UX team was distributed across many different time zones. Some of us already worked remotely from our home offices or co-working spaces. Other team members worked from one of the Mozilla offices around the world. That said, remote collaboration still has its challenges…

Remote Work

5 min read

Remote UX collaboration across different time zones (yes, it can be done!)
Remote UX collaboration across different time zones (yes, it can be done!)

Published in Firefox User Experience

·May 20, 2020

Designing a Content-First Experience on Firefox Monitor

Six methods a UX content strategist at Firefox used during the product’s redesign. — As a UX content strategist at Mozilla, I support not only our browsers, but also stand alone products like Firefox Monitor. It’s a service that notifies you when you’ve been in a data breach and what steps to take to protect your personal info. Designing content for a product that…

Ux Writing

8 min read

Designing a content-first experience on Firefox Monitor
Designing a content-first experience on Firefox Monitor
Betsy Mikel

Betsy Mikel

Chicago-based writer. Often covered in croissant flakes.

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