Other than illustrations or bulleted lists. — Although there’s nothing wrong with illustrations or bulleted lists— they help break up dense paragraphs and enhance readability. But there’s more. Avoid “hanging lines” for neat-looking paragraphs A “hanging line” is my loose translation from Russian “висячий абзац”. A hanging line occurs when the sentence ends with 1-3 words in a new line. Like this:

9 eye-scanning patterns, 10 ways to adapt the text for max readability. — We write texts for different purposes, but there’s one thing we all have in common—we write online. On the web, things work a little bit awkwardly. You may have already learned from companies’ writing style guides or articles here on Medium that the following factors help retain readers’ attention: Keeping…

No one cares about 300,000 cats slaughtered by a virus in 2023. — Meet my cat Silence.

How the company’s vessel got stuck for the 3rd time in 2023, and why I feel like a huge ridiculous boat. — Just like Evergreen, I get stuck every year. I’m the Evergreen of life, proudly sailing through my late twenties. I’m setting sail with high hopes, dreams of success, and visions of money and financial freedom. But alas, just when I start making progress, I find myself wedged between the walls…

You might look fancy, but you’re completely unreadable. — What are drop caps? Formatting like this. Decorating capital letters. Colossal increase in font size hoping so that the reader… Knows where to start because of course she’s an idiot and wouldn’t see otherwise. Readers can only scan text written like Hans Christian Andersen’s fairy tale. United approach to drawing…

Tricks for not-so-serious but effective content design. — There are 2 things about humor I’m exceptionally skeptical about: live standup comedy (very awkward) …

Why you should at least try to read it, without spoilers. — This book left me devasted. I’m not used to writing book reviews, and this is sure to be messy. But I want to share everything I feel and researched about this masterpiece. Yes, a masterpiece! The overview Buddenbrooks is a 1901 novel by Thomas Mann, chronicling the decline of a wealthy north…

Want to make sure someone sees this? Reply anyway. — “I can’t understand what they want from me,” — says Ed, pensively sipping on his smoothie (yes, we have smoothies at work, but it’s not the point). By “they,” he means Slack, a widely-known corporate messenger with maybe the best UX writing in the world. They specialize in a clear…

Be more like Deloitte and Adobe and less like Walmart. — If you’ve never had an annual or bi-yearly performance review (A/BPRs), count yourself lucky. The painting “Death in the Sickroom” by Edvard Munch perfectly reflects how it feels. What’s an annual performance review You, your lead, someone from the HR team (it can be a random person you’ve never met before), and the manager gather…