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Templates and copywriting for banking, finance, and tax content

July 30, 2005

Clients/employers: Intuit and World Savings

Challenges: Support marketing goals by designing content templates and writing clear, concise copy about the benefits and features of personal finance and tax software, financial services, and business services.

Dutchgirl’s solutions

Using a strategic, user-centered approach, I developed content templates for product descriptions and ongoing promotional campaigns on Intuit.com. Working with product managers, I edited product descriptions and promotions for clarity, Intuit style, length, and usability.

Products and services included Intuit software (QuickBooks, Quicken, and TurboTax), including online banking and tax preparation features; World Savings financial services (home loans, bank accounts, retirement accounts); and Intuit business services (IntuitAdvisor.com, payroll tools).

For more details

… or to discuss your project, contact us.

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User interface writing and guidelines for intranet applications

December 30, 2003

Client/employer: Intuit

Challenges: Reduce internal support and operations costs, increase employees’ use of benefits programs, and improve productivity and internal communication.

Dutchgirl’s solutions

I wrote user interface copy and designed interaction for a variety of intranet applications, including:

  • An internal news and information site — with interfaces for both readers and authors of articles, and guidelines for authors
  • A stock purchase plan signup tool for employees; see Employee Signup for Stock Purchase Plan
  • A “pay decision tool” for managers

I wrote navigation and other labels, onscreen instructions, error messages, help, and automatically generated emails.

For more details

… or to discuss your project, contact us.

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Employee signup for stock purchase plan

January 5, 2002

Employer: Intuit, Mountain View, California

Challenges: Design an intranet application to replace the paper form used for employee stock purchase plan signup and changes. Putting the functionality online changed the process for the staff processing the changes, as well as for employee users. Because an employee might incur financial risk by using the application, help text had to be carefully worded.

Dutchgirl’s solutions

I wrote user interface copy for several different user scenarios based on business requirements of the company’s stock plan. Here are the deliverables I produced:

  • Application flow: Flowchart for each user scenario: new signup, changes to contribution during or after open enrollment, withdrawal from the plan, and several others.
  • Interface copy and help: Series of screens for login and for each user scenario, including instructions to the engineers for dynamic text. A chart of error messages mapped to issues. Context-sensitive help about ESPP paycheck contributions and the rules of the plan.
  • Emails: Messages automatically generated by the system to send employees confirmation of changes they had made in the application, including instructions to engineers for dynamic text.

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Content writing for chipmaker

February 1, 2000

Client: Transmeta, maker of low-power microprocessors

Challenges: Describe Crusoe microprocessor technology as part of Transmeta’s widely publicized website launch.

Dutchgirl’s solutions

I wrote content about the workings, features, benefits, and applications of Crusoe, Transmeta’s software-based microprocessor technology (trademark: Code-Morphing Software), which was designed to prolong battery life compared to conventional processors.

The website launch was moved up by 3 weeks after the company got word that AMD, a competitor, planned to launch a similar product. A Wikipedia article on Transmeta This link goes to a different site describes the public speculation about Transmeta and its website.

For more details

… or to discuss your project, contact us.

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Content strategy for design portfolio

February 1, 2000

Client: Aaron Marcus and Associates, user interface design; www.amanda.com This link goes to a different site

Challenges: Develop a model for a portfolio of work by a user interface design firm.

Dutchgirl’s solutions

I provided architecture and content for one portfolio entry that served as a model implemented by AM+A. The model included a summary and basic details about each project and accommodated animated screenshots of key functionality.

For more details

… or to discuss your project, contact us.

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How-tos for WebTV subscribers

June 1, 1999

Client: WebTV (Microsoft)

Challenges: Describe to people who have never used computers (or, in some cases, even a typewriter) some basic features of WebTV and the Web, and how to begin using them.

Dutchgirl’s solutions

Many WebTV subscribers were unaware of how they could use WebTV. To help new subscribers get started and to reduce subscriber churn, I wrote tips that subscribers received in a series of emails. The tips:

  • Used plain language to explain basic features of WebTV and the Web, such as the address book and bookmarking, and used common real-world tasks in examples
  • Concentrated key phrases in subject lines to communicate the topic and benefit of each tip (so that the subscriber would know whether the message was of interest without opening it)
  • Included links in the tips to the relevant functionality in WebTV

For more details

… or to discuss your project, contact us.

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Website redesign for educational products company

May 1, 1999

Client: Lightspan Partnership

Challenges: Present a complex line of educational products and services for K-12 students and teachers.

Dutchgirl’s solutions

I developed all content for Lightspan’s new site, including:

  • Descriptions of products and services targeted at teachers and administrators
  • Promotional headlines and copy
  • Corporate content
  • Page layout and contextual links
  • Consulting on site architecture and navigation

For more details

… or to discuss your project, contact us.

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Website for the Internet Archive

March 31, 1999

The Internet Archive, at archive.org, has been making copies of the Web since 1996. It’s a free library of virtually all publicly available sites on the web.

In 1999 the Internet Archive asked me to develop a new site that would communicate the Archive’s mission for the public good and serve as a resource on privacy, copyright, and other complex legal issues.

Here are before-and-after links to archive.org (courtesy of the Archive’s own Wayback Machine):

Before: Archive.org in October 1999 This link goes to a different site

Link to picture of Internet Archive homepage before redesign

After: In April 2000 This link goes to a different site

Link to picture of Internet Archive homepage after redesign

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Website redesign for software developer

April 1, 1998

Client: Tom Sawyer Software, graph visualization software developer

Challenges: Convince potential customers in many industries of the business and technical benefits of the company’s graph visualization technology, which is is used to create visual representations of complex data.

Dutchgirl’s solutions

Tom Sawyer’s products were designed to be embedded in other software products that are used to store, manipulate, or generate such data. The products had applications in diverse industries: network management, software design, human resource management, criminology, and others.

The old website was heavy on descriptions of technical features, but the company needed to communicate with business decision makers as well as engineers. I reorganized and added to the content to target a wider audience, make the site more visually appealing and interactive, and provide more opportunities for site visitors to contact the company.

For more details

… or to discuss your project, contact us.

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“Spam Report” site for email security developer

March 1, 1998

Client: Bright Light Technologies

Challenges: Convey spam’s impact on ISPs, corporate networks, and individual users through graphs of spam data. Explain how to trace spam.

Dutchgirl’s solutions

For Bright Light’s “Spam Report” site, I explained spam’s impact on ISPs, corporate networks, and individual users, illustrating with graphs of spam data gathered by Bright Light (for example, showing the proportion of all Internet traffic that is spam and the top domains where spam originates). The report also explained how to trace spam by deciphering email headers.

For more details

… or to discuss your project, contact us.

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