Handshake is an assignment given by the UX Writers Collective. It's a shared app geared toward freelancers and small business owners for invoicing and payment purposes. The overall goal of the app is to simplify the working lives of both user types. The benefits include the ability for secure and easy communication between the two users around project proposals, fee schedules, invoicing, and payments as well as the elimination of “after work” paperwork. I’ve focused on making the sign-up and set-up screens easy to step through.

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Role: UX Writer

Tools: Figma

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The Challenge

 

This case study focuses on the freelancer view of the app. Handshake is a shared app, but paid for by the freelancer who in turn invites the business owner. Since the sign-up and set-up flows are the freelancer's first contact with the app, the challenge is to make them easy and enjoyable which will lead to bringing the business owner on board and subsequent ongoing use of the app by both user types. My goals are to establish the friendly, conversational, and reliable brand voice and tone at the outset, provide clear direction through specific and concise language, and correct all spelling, punctuation, and sentence case errors.

 

The Process – Research, Ideation, Review

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• I read several worksheets of user personas which helped me imagine when and why they would use Handshake and provided context for identifying practical issues.

• In imagining how both users would step through the screens I made a list of specialized language that would be used in freelance/small business relationships.

• I explored some early UX/UI copy ideas with onboarding screen tag lines that focused on benefits for both user types.

• To establish voice and tone I imagined the mindset of the two types of users of Handshake and made a list of what emotions they might feel while experiencing the app.

• I considered a list of qualities that would align with the app’s voice and made a list of words that would be repeated throughout the UI that would fit the voice and tone.

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The following case study presents nine sets of wireframes. Note: starting wireframes are turquoise. Improved wireframes are purple. I provide comments on both screens indicating need for improvement on the starting wireframes and describing the rationale for my changes on the improved wireframes.