GloZ Inc. Site Rebranding
GloZ Inc. is a localization services provider based in Seoul, South Korea. I worked as a proofreader in the Burbank, CA office, but also worked closely with our marketing manager and UX designers to review, edit, and write marketing and UX copy that suited the company's brand values and voice for our rebranding. In early stages, GloZ worked with a rebranding agency to make mockups for the company's new website. I critiqued and edited early prototypes, and eventually provided more substantial edits as the project went on. While I may have worked on a variety of copywriting deliverables, I'm most proud of the about and services pages that I've chosen to feature here. I reviewed all UI text on these pages, except for the menu bar text, as those terms had been finalized by others in the organization.
About Page
Approach
About pages are meant to clearly convey the values, motivations, and spirit of an organization. GloZ worked with a rebranding agency to create a blueprint for what the future of GloZ's branding would look like. After working with the CEO of GloZ to get a breakdown of our brand values and voice, I was asked by UX designers to review the UX copy provided by the agency.
​
At first glance, I generally knew there were issues with spelling, grammar, and sentence flow. Some sentences needed to be reworked to read naturally, and others were even incomplete. It's also worth noting that, at this point, we were still working through establishing text formatting/styles for the website, so the text's formatting looked inconsistent throughout the original version as seen below.
​
Overall, the rebranding agency had a solid yet general idea of the brand voice we were going for - friendly, youthful, vibrant, and informative. While the resulting mockups were useful in terms of preparing our UX designers to work their magic, important edits had to be made in order for the UX writing to hit the mark.
The about page before edits. Typos and ungrammatical sentences made up many of the mistakes.
The about page after edits. Much of the text needed to be polished to really hit the mark. A few extra pieces of copy help the experience shine a bit better.
Contribution
First impressions are everything, and I wanted to ensure that our company could leave a great impression on the user through crystal-clear messaging. A few sentences sound appropriate, but others might not make the user feel comfortable and welcome.
​
"We bring the world together by empowering stories" is GloZ's slogan. I felt that the ethos behind this sentence perfectly captured the company's values and made me feel welcome and interested in learning more, so I considered it a template for what kind of changes I'd make throughout the about page.
​
The first bit of body text has strong sentiment, but it feels less impactful because of how separated the sentences are. Reorganizing those ideas into one consecutive series helped bring it all together.
​
One of the UX designers and I worked on adding a punchy message toward the end of the page about what kind of companies we'd like to collaborate with. The UX copy mentioned companies we'd like to work with, but we decided that naming the top companies in tech and localization took attention away from us. The revised version feels more in line with the ethos we've expressed and how that inspires us to want to work with like-minded companies and organizations. The new copy conveys GloZ's aspirations without putting itself below other organizations and companies.
​
The final heading and subheading felt stilted in their earlier iterations. "Wanna be one of GloZers? You are in luck: we are hiring" has character but doesn't read as smoothly as it could. To bring it in line with our friendly and youthful tone, I edited the heading and subheading to read more smoothly and casually instead of formally. Simple changes can go a long way.
​
​
Lessons Learned
​
The message on an about page needs to stick the landing, and if it doesn't, it needs to be reworked. Minor edits for grammatical accuracy, natural language, and voice can go a long way. When I read any text on a company website, typos and grammatical issues break my state of flow. Typos briefly prevented me from engaging with the content on the page, and if noticeable errors have broken the flow for me, then they could for others—which should be avoided. In the end, grammatical mistakes and typos not only disrupt the user's concentration on the experience, but typos may even do a disservice to the company's reputation. Thoroughly reviewing content can help us avoid these issues in the future.
Services Page
Approach
If the about page expresses an organization's values, then a services/products page should explain what kinds of unique services and products are offered by the company. The UX copy on a services page should hook the user. It needs to be scannable, and the text should be unambiguous. With this in mind, I stepped in to review, edit, and write copy for the services web page.
As noted earlier, I wanted to ensure that the copy was friendly, informative, youthful, and vibrant. Some of the rebranding agency's UX copy does a solid job of conveying these feelings, but through some editing and rephrasing, the copy could really shine. Ungrammatical and clunky sentences, misspellings, awkward word choices, and missing punctuation still make up many of the issues here.
In earlier iterations, the services page detailed some important info about GloZ's services, but not in the clearest way.
The services page after making my edits. Some edits to the sentence structure and wording helped the webpage feel more polished.
Contribution
The services page needs to be as coherent as possible. Out of all the various pages on an organization's website, the services page needs to stick the landing and set itself apart. Awkward and clunky UX copy might even scare off the user since it may seem like the organization isn't being transparent about its products and services. My goal was to edit the text so we could avoid this issue.
​
The heading "Built for pros in these fields and many more" was a little clunky in its previous iteration, but the edited version sounds more precise and inviting. The text below the heading shows who could benefit from GloZ's services. Before editing, the text was redundant, but now it's been cleaned up.
​
The heading "GloZwork in numbers" reminded me of the phrase "by the numbers," which doesn't sound flattering for the organization. The company definitely didn't strive to be by the numbers. I remember GloZ as a startup that tried its best to break the mold and innovate in the localization industry.
The phrase "GloZwork" is fun because it uses our company name, but it could be a confusing pain point for the user. "GloZ's work in figures" reads more naturally to a first-time user.
​
The final heading, "move your story around the globe," carries a sentiment that matches our brand voice but feels unnatural. Who's moving it? How would it be moved? This heading needs reworking to flow better while keeping a similar sentiment. GloZ's services ultimately allow clients to expose their stories to new audiences, so "share your story with the world" better encapsulates that idea in a simplified way. Similarly, the CTA button below this heading felt inconsistent and wordy, and the edited version "get started" gets straight to the point.
​
Lessons Learned
​​
So much of my work on this page involved minor, precise edits that make the UX copy sound more natural and match GloZ's brand voice. I learned that the finer details might make or break the user's flow through UX copy on a website. Stepping back, I also realized that the UX copy's scannability was a problem and made edits to maintain our brand voice while getting to the point. I also learned to catch and give feedback on easy-to-miss formatting issues like punctuation, spacing, and case. After reviewing the PDF above, I found an extra space in one of the headings. Typos shouldn't be present in a copy deck when it's time to hand it off to developers. Attention to detail is an essential skill for a UX writer, and they should always consider how small mistakes might affect the user.
Final Thoughts
UX writing is an iterative process. What starts as ambiguous UX copy can be polished into text that effectively informs the user. Ensuring the text is scannable, easy to read, and natural-sounding is an excellent way to avoid user pain points. Although earlier iterations of the UX copy on these web pages were occasionally awkward and hard to read, it's vital to consider the user experience. Is the UX writing too ambiguous? Is the user going to stop scrolling because of that? Asking questions like these can push the UX writing on these pages to become even better.
​
I understand that not everyone who browses these web pages may be a native English speaker, but using concise UX copy goes a long way towards making it easier to localize for regions where American English isn't the primary language. If the English text doesn't make sense or stick to the brand voice, it may be less impactful when localized.
​
Ultimately, an organization that pays proper attention to reviewing and editing its UX copy demonstrates a desire to be taken seriously. I was delighted to assist GloZ's UX designers with this project. I hope to bring the skills I've learned at GloZ to my next UX writing opportunity and will strive to write UX copy with the user in mind.