This section highlights my work as a UX Writer for a print-on-demand and drop-shipping company called Printful. I was involved in creating user-friendly content for billing services, regional restrictions, design tools, subscription services, and many other topics. The tasks there provided me many opportunities to test my capabilities in turning complex concepts into user-friendly copy.
DPI (Dots per Inch) is commonly associated with digital images and print quality. The higher the DPI count, the better the print outcome. When using the Design Maker—a tool for creating designs for print-on-demand products—users would receive a warning message if they uploaded a file below the necessary DPI threshold for good quality prints. The message advised them to manually scale down the design size or replace the print file to proceed. However, user feedback revealed that many customers found these instructions confusing, leading them to abandon the task. In response, the Design Maker team, including programmers, designers, and content writers, collaborated to make this feature more user-friendly. They changed the content of the message, adjusted the design, and implemented an automated function to reduce the need for manual adjustments. This collaborative effort significantly improved user experience and task completion rates.
While the original message included instructions on how to get the desired designs without re-uploading their file, the users weren’t manually resizing their designs. The first step was to automate this process, and along with that, create a user-friendly copy that supports the automated function.
With advancements in design scaling, the Design Maker now features an upgraded banner with an interactive CTA button, enhancing the resizing experience. By pressing this button, the design automatically adjusts to meet the minimum print quality size requirements.The design upgrade introduced a well-organized structure, allowing for the creation of copy for a heading, body text, and a call to action. This structure provides users with a clear path, informing them about the problem and offering a solution.With these improvements implemented, I created a content structure outline addressing each point of contact the user will have with the banner, ensuring a seamless and informative user experience.
The initial copy update was more concise than the original, but it still used the technical term "DPI" to explain image quality issues. The information needed to be accessible to users without prior knowledge of this concept. Initially, we relied on users to interpret the DPI counter to gauge quality. However, further feedback revealed that many users did not associate changes in DPI values with image quality. The next step was to communicate information about insufficient print file quality without using the term "DPI" and without relying on users to notice the DPI count indicator.
The final decision was to avoid mentioning anything DPI-related in the message. Instead, the message should focus on explaining how the uploaded file affects the print outcome and what the solutions are. This approach ensures that the information is accessible to everyone, regardless of their prior knowledge. To achieve this, the banner structure was used to guide the user through the content, providing clear and understandable instructions.
“Your image doesn’t meet our print requirements”
This heading informs the user that the image quality is too low for printing, without them needing to know any technical background information. It clearly communicates the key issue: the current image quality prevents further progress.
“Scale down the image to meet the minimum print requirements or upload a new image”
This body text presents two options: adjusting the current design file to meet the minimum print requirements or replacing it entirely with a new image. It guides the customer toward either achieving a viable result with the existing file or opting for a complete replacement.
The customer then can decide their priorities—continue with the current design with changed size, or begin a new flow with a different file.
In the drop-shipping industry, the company’s success depends on how well the customer’s business is doing. Appreciation and incentives to keep the customer invested in the service go a long way. Printful Challenges set out to reward their customers for using the service and encourage them to use the platform’s full potential. The customers were rewarded with perks like discounts, coupons, and additional product samples for completing tasks associated with their business and the Printful platform. A reward system like this creates an ecosystem where both the customer and the service can thrive. This project was a collaborative effort of the developer, content marketer, legal, and design teams.
The first task as the UX Writer on this project’s team was creating content for the challenge names and descriptions. The project leads outlined activities and products as the base for the challenges, and the content creators were tasked to draft the user-facing content. Before creating the copy, the content creators collaborating with the stakeholders agreed on how the project content should come across:
The most intriguing and demanding aspect of this project was devising unique names for each challenge. Though it seemed like a straightforward task, the challenge names had to:
Inspired by the virtual achievement and trophy cultures of video games and fitness challenges, I adopted a tone that reflects pop-culture elements, allowing room for creativity. I named a challenge, which required customers to add an eco-friendly product to their store, "Green is the New Black." This name plays on the fashion expression "X is the new black," highlighting the rising popularity of something. In this case, "green" signifies ecological qualities. This concept facilitated the localization of the challenge title. While the expression is well-known in English-speaking regions, the color green universally represents eco-friendliness. Thus, localization teams could creatively adapt the title, provided the green=eco concept remained intact.
Users interacted with the challenges by accessing them through the menu on their personalized dashboard. A modal window then displayed all the relevant information for the specific challenge, including the number of points they can earn, how to complete the challenge, its completion status, and detailed information about the challenge type and rules.
This content integrated seamlessly into a user-friendly interface, allowing users to navigate between the overview page, individual challenges, and the rules and explanations effortlessly.
The project required ongoing collaboration with the UI designer to ensure a coherent design. As the number of challenges increased, we implemented new features such as category filters, progress trackers, and limited availability markers. These additions required regular updates and revisions to ensure the copy and design remained compatible and effective.
Clear and concise rules were a crucial part of the gamification project. They guided the users through seamless challenge completion and ensured they could claim rewards without confusion. For the challenge provider, well-crafted guidelines help identify and prevent potential loopholes that could be exploited. A clear set of rules promotes a fair and enjoyable experience, enhancing user satisfaction and engagement. Creating the ruleset required close collaboration with the legal team. While the legal team ensured legal accuracy, the content needed to be adapted for a general audience, balancing legal precision with user-friendliness. The workflow consisted of regular check-ins with the legal team about new challenge content, with them signing off on the legal aspects of the challenge content wording.
User feedback analysis revealed that the customers had difficulty understanding product templates—a feature used for creating and saving their designs onto products. The idea of the feature is that, depending on the customer type (B2C or B2B), the customer can use product templates according to their needs. B2C customers would use it to save their work for later use, while B2B customers would likely use the templates to showcase their designs to their customers. It was decided that additional content in the main section of the feature would benefit the users in understanding the feature better.
Part of the issue of why the feature wasn’t so self-explanatory as first thought was how the info availability worked within the UI. The user had access to a 3-step intro to the feature. While useful to newcomers, at some point they understood the concept and would close the instructional in favor of a better overview of their designs. This approach didn’t suit those who would close this by accident or would like to revisit that info.
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The solution was to keep the 3-step onboarding banner and add a paragraph with general info about the feature. The onboarding banner helps the user with the creative flow, and when they feel like they’ve been through the flow enough times, they can close it and have more space on the page for their templates. The info paragraph stays with the users for a general overview of the feature.
The content of the info paragraph was structured with these three things in mind:
The final copy that explained to the users what the feature consists of, how to use it, and what the benefits for each user group are:
A product template is a combo of print files and Printful products. Pick a product, add a design, save it, and use it as you like. Edit the templates, create collections, showcase your work, or push them to your store for selling.
