Content Design / UX Writing Certificate Program

All most people see when they look at a website or app are colors, images, and buttons. But it’s words — not visuals — that guide you through whatever it is you’re trying to accomplish, that help you when something goes wrong, and that set the tone and personality of the experience. Who writes those words are people with the title of Content Designer, UX Writer, or Content Strategist. There are now literally thousands of job postings for these roles in the U.S. right now. The portfolio you’ll build at SVC is just the thing you’ll need to help you land one.



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How Long, How Much?

  • Application Requirements
  • Duration: It takes five quarters or 50 weeks of instruction to complete the program.
  • Tuition: $11,435 (includes registration fee)


Who's Hiring?

Since UX Writer and Content Designer are relatively new terms, it’s not easy to get a sense of hiring trends. But consider this: For content designer, a job description that barely existed five years ago, LinkedIn now posts more than 10,000 open positions nationally.

Opt for Your Own Personal Mentor

If you sign up for this optional program, you’ll meet six times during your program with an experienced UX pro to act as your learning and career guide. They’ll help with your coursework, get you moving on your portfolio, critique your side projects, and to work with you to develop your professional network and job-hunting plan.

Content Design/UX Writing Certificate Program Course Track

Prerequisites

In order to enter the certificate program, you must have taken the following courses or be able to demonstrate your proficiency at:

To learn more about the CDUXW Certificate Program and how to apply, sign up for one of our free online info sessions.

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5-Week Class
  • Role of research in the UX process
  • Qualitative vs. quantitative research

  • Heuristic evaluations and audits
  • Creating user personas
  • Presenting research findings

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5-Week Class
  • Collaborating with colleagues & clients
  • Receiving and delivering critiques
  • Improving communication skills
  • Negotiation and time management
  • Presentation skills

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5-Week Class
  • Essential concepts of useful experiences
  • Understanding structured data and content

  • Pros and cons of different organization schemes
  • Desiging search and logical taxonomies
  • Documenting architecture

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Content Strategy Fundamentals

5-Week Class
  • Where UX writing fits into the organization’s content strategy

  • The content-first approach
  • How business goals drive content decisions
  • Platforms, timing, and creation process

  • Creating a rapid content inventory or audit

Ethical, Inclusive UX Writing


Saturdays: Two-Part Workshop
  • Using cultural references, metaphors, and idioms
  • Best practices for localization and translation
  • Writing for all language levels

  • Writing for accessibility; screen readers, alt-text
  • Applying persona and empathy maps to your writing


UX Writing 1: Best Practices

5-Week Class
  • Design as conversation
  • Golden paths and dashboards
  • Writing strings and microcopy
  • Working with style guides, glossaries, word lists
  • Writing for UI controls

UX Writing 2: Advanced Concepts

5-Week Class
  • Writing to maximize conversion
  • Applying UX text patterns
  • Errors and stress cases
  • Writing Push, SMS, and Emails
  • Writing to a voice chart

Saturdays: Two-Part Workshop
  • Impact of sight, hearing, mobility, and cognition impairments

  • Standards for accessibility
  • Using mini-ethnographies to learn user concerns
  • Universal design vs. ability-based design
  • Accessibility standards and compliance testing

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Interaction Design for UX Writing

5-Week Class
  • Visibility, feedback, constraints, mapping, consistency, affordances
  • Labeling and navigation systems
  • Interface controls
  • Elements of universal, accessible design

5-Week Class
  • Testing prototypes vs. live products
  • Unmoderated vs. moderated testing
  • Tools for testing usability
  • A/B testing, setting testing goals and metrics, reporting results
  • Working with a dedicated research team

5-Week Class
  • Considering your audience and objectives
  • Planning your presentation
  • The visual design of your presentation
  • Becoming a more confident presenter, both in-person and remote

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Saturdays: Two-Part Workshop
  • Roles and responsibilities of the product team
  • Specialized terminology and practices of other team members
  • Getting familiar with project roadmaps
  • Waterfall vs. agile workstyles
  • VTechniques for being a better collaborator

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Capstone Project


10-Week Class
  • How to interpret and seek clarification to client project briefs
  • Interviewing and communicating with clients
  • Project management and creating a work plan
  • Applying best practices of content design
  • Presentation to clients

5-Week Class
  • Considering the audience
  • Recommended format
  • The need for brevity and a story arc
  • Stating the results of your work

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Portfolio Lab

10-Week Class
  • Work 1:1 to edit, enhance, and add to your portfolio
  • Develop and practice interview presentation
  • Guidance for writing and designing your portfolio website
  • Evaluation of your presentation and site by expert panel

Get Started

If you’re ready to take the next step, sign up for one of our free online info sessions.

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