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מאמרים מאת Michal
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New in writing tech - May-Jun 22
New in writing tech - May-Jun 22
This month in writing tech, we're discussing new technological developments in localization, writing, and all things…
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This month in writing tech - Mar-Apr 22
This month in writing tech - Mar-Apr 22
Brand new language models from AI21 Labs and Google, the world's biggest Arabic model to date, an AI code translator, a…
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Michal Kessel Shitrit שיתף את זהIt's shaping up to be quite a year! I'm excited to be speaking and doing workshops in Tel Aviv, Prague and Copenhagen in 2026. Here's bit about each and links in comments, and I'll share more about each event soon 😊 If you’ve ever felt like you’re spending more time "babysitting" a chatbot than actually doing deep work, or if your team spends hours arguing over whether a button should say "Submit" or "Done," come find me. We’re going to talk about how to stop guessing and start actually designing content that works. 📍 Tel Aviv | UXI Live | May 20 I’ll be talking (in Hebrew) about Context Design. We were promised that AI would let us sit on a beach with a cocktail while it did the work, but instead, we're editing botspeak. I’ll show you how to move from just writing prompts to building an information infrastructure that actually uses your professional brain. 📍 Prague | WebExpo | May 28-29 A talk and a full-day workshop: 👉 "Don’t trust the bot." A practical framework for evaluating AI copy. We’ll look at how to judge what the AI delivers. 👉 Content design for complex systems (full day workshops). This is for the non-writers (PMs, designers, devs) who want to learn how to build a strategic content design framework for professional systems, and how to leverage AI tools effectively to execute it. 📍 Copenhagen | Future Product Days | Sept 22-23 Measuring Words. This is a 90-minute workshop on how to test and validate UX content. We’re going to move away from "I don't like this word" and toward actual data using five distinct testing methods. No more subjective debates.
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Michal Kessel Shitrit פרסם/פרסמה את זה מחדשMichal Kessel Shitrit פרסם/פרסמה את זה מחדשI met Michal Kessel Shitrit thanks to Kinneret Yifrah, our 2018 WebExpo Conference speaker and the queen of microcopy 👑. I’m so grateful we’ve stayed in touch with Kinneret 😊 and even happier that she connected me with Michal. When we discussed Michal's WebExpo talk idea, it immediately clicked. Her session “Don’t trust the bot: A human framework for evaluating AI copy” 🤖 hits a question I often ask myself too: how much of my content should I write myself, and when should I let AI step in? I love creating content 📝 that feels real and personal, but I also wonder if that extra time actually brings better results. Michal’s framework helps to figure that out, combining speed, clarity, and a human touch that AI still can’t fake. 🤥
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Michal Kessel Shitrit פרסם/פרסמה את זה מחדשMichal Kessel Shitrit פרסם/פרסמה את זה מחדש🤖 Can AI really write good UX copy? Michal Kessel Shitrit says: not until we humans learn how to judge it properly. As Head of English UX Writing at Draft and founder of Localization Station, Michal has spent years rewiring how words guide users and translating complexity into language that people actually understand. At WebExpo 2026, she’ll tear apart AI-generated UX text ✍️ to expose what works, what misfires, and how to review it like a pro. Her framework is built on five principles: clarity, guidance, reassurance, user language, and value.
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Michal Kessel Shitrit שיתף את זהOne of my goals in 2026 is to get our content design workshop to more international teams. It is so jam packed with knowledge, perfect for writer-less teams or those with just a few overworked writers. It works when you're writing from scratch and even more effective when you're using AI. And it's soooo much fun. So, will 2026 be the year I get to meet your team? 🤓
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Michal Kessel Shitrit שיתף את זה"Affordance" dictates a lot of our work as UX writers. If you aren’t familiar with the term, affordance is basically the visual hint that tells you how to use something. Like how a physical door handle "affords" pulling, or a digital button "affords" clicking. It’s that vibe of the UI that tells you what to do without reading a manual. And honestly, a huge part of our job is knowing when to trust that affordance and just shut up. Sometimes the design is so clear that adding microcopy actually makes things worse. If there’s a big, empty white box with a cursor blinking in it, we really don’t need an instruction at the top saying "please enter your details below." Most of the time, we don't even need a placeholder. When we over-explain the obvious, we just add cognitive load. When you trust the affordance, the experience feels seamless, transparent. But it also works the other way. If the UI isn't clear - maybe a button doesn't look like a button or a flow is a bit abstract - that’s when the affordance is weak, and that is exactly where we need to lean in. Add a tooltip, a caption, or an extra bit of context to help the user get through the flow without getting stuck. Being a good UX writer is all about finding that balance. It’s knowing when the words are a bridge and when they’re just a wall.
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Michal Kessel Shitrit שיתף את זהAre you over-promising your way into a bad reputation? I see a lot how teams - wanting to frame their new feature in the best possible light - fall into this trap of telling users exactly what they want to hear. Even if... the product isn't really there yet. The result is what I call 'micro-disappointments'. Your product can be objectively great, but you're maybe setting expectation you can't meet. Like... 😔 Telling a user that opening their account will be "fully automated and digital," but they end up realizing they have to talk to a human to finalize things (the horror). 🙁 Making it seem like they'll get insights or results immediately, and revealing - after they've done entering their information - that it'll take a few hours or days. 😩 Or promising a form takes "a few minutes," when it's really closer to 15. Individually, these feel like small things. But they add up. When a user experiences these small gaps between what was promised and what actually happened, their trust in the product starts to erode. Gradually, the brand reputation suffers a slow, quiet decline 📉. We often think we're doing the product a favor by making it sound perfect. In reality, we’re setting ourselves up for failure. Sometimes, the best thing you can do for your UX is to take a step back and do a reality check. Because being honest about the "friction" creates way more long-term trust than a shiny, polished promise that falls apart the moment they click.
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Michal Kessel Shitrit שיתף את זהWhy should we be the ones to compromise? 🤔 Companies are demanding users lower their standards so they can win the AI arms race. And it sucks. Companies like Spotify, Airbnb, or Google spent years training us to expect perfection. We got used to things taking exactly as long as they should. The content was on point. The design was tight. The experience was just great. We were trained to expect that things work, and work well. And then the AI revolution started and suddenly we’re expected to accept bad experiences? I’m not talking about small startups here. Even those big players do it. They are so terrified of being the last ones to ship that AI feature that they just push out half-baked products. And we get shipped low-quality, untested features. I try them. I really do. I try almost every AI tool I see, because I love me a piece of good tech like every other early adopter. And 99% of the time? It’s bad. It’s either unusable, or I have to lower my standards so much that it’s barely worth it. Take the new presentation tools. I'm not going to name names - but you know what I'm talking about. You get some sort of a slide deck, yes. But it's ugly, generic, badly-done slides that are so much worse than what you could have achieved yourself. Just this month, Google shipped slide decks in NotebookLM, and I thought great, that solves a problem for me. The slide decks were actually not bad. But wait, it's not really slides at all, it's a PDF. That you can't edit in Google Slides or anywhere else. What's the point of releasing this without an Edit in Slides feature, other than Google checking that box before the competition does? Companies get the hype, and I get a broken tool that I can’t actually use. They over-promised and I’m disappointed. Yes, this is a rant. But the Emperor's naked. And we shouldn't be putting up with this. Honestly, be the company that ships features later than everyone else - but make them great. People will wait. And they will remember. Be Apple, you know? Because I - and other users like me - would much rather wait for a quality feature that works than get a broken one today.
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Michal Kessel Shitrit שיתף את זהWe talk a lot about personalization in UX. Usually though, that just means putting the user's first name in the dashboard or maybe changing the currency based on IP address. Google’s "Learn Your Way" project is taking the concept of personalized experiences to a completely different place. The idea is pretty simple but powerful. If a student is trying to learn physics but finds the textbook boring, they tell the AI their interests. Let's say they love soccer. The AI literally rewrites the textbook chapters to explain Newton’s laws using examples of Messi kicking a ball instead of generic blocks sliding on a frictionless surface. It even changes the format. If you learn better by listening, it generates audio lessons. If you need visuals, it makes diagrams. As a localizer, this hits home for me. We spend our days trying to adapt content so it feels "native" to a user in a specific country. We want to bridge the gap between the product and the user's cultural context. This tool is basically doing "interest localization." It translates complex concepts into the language of things the user already cares about. The video mentions that 100% of the students felt more comfortable with the material. That right there is the goal of good UX writing. When content connects to what we already know, the cognitive load drops. We don't have to work as hard to understand, so we engage more. It makes me wonder how long until we see this kind of thing in product onboarding. Imagine an app that doesn't just ask you for your language preference, but asks what you're trying to achieve and then rewrites the entire tour to focus exactly on that workflow. Not just "one size fits all" translated into 20 languages. But content that actually fits you. The tech is clearly there. We just need to figure out how to write for it.
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Michal Kessel Shitrit שיתף את זה"Let's go RTL." It sounds like such a simple decision in the strategy meeting. You’ve grown, the numbers look good, and it looks like the next logical step. But then you actually have to do it. And for anyone who hasn’t worked with Hebrew, Arabic, or Farsi before, the reality of "mirroring" an interface can be a bit of a shock. It’s never just about translating the text. It’s about the alignment. The icons that suddenly need to face the other way (but not all of them!). The bidirectional text mess where English numbers pop up in the middle of a Hebrew sentence and ruin the flow. If you are about to take this leap, take a breath. It’s doable, but you have to respect the direction. Learn all about in in my newest post: https://lnkd.in/dk6ysVse
Michal Kessel Shitrit הגיב על פוסט
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Yay! So glad it happened
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Michal Kessel Shitrit הגיבו על זהAfter years of attending LocWorld, it was so fun to be on the committee for the first time and help select a stellar series of talks. And of course, don't miss the Notion team! 😊 Damián and I will take the stage on the first day of the conference at 10 am to discuss how we use Notion Custom Agents in our localization program. Looking forward to seeing you there!Michal Kessel Shitrit הגיבו על זהIt's exciting to see the LocWorld55 Dublin now live on locworld.com, check it out! I'm truly honoured to be part of the Program Committee for this conference, together with Mercedes Krimme, Marta Schuman, Celine Halpert, Elena Carpanese, Inge Boonen, Maria Roa, Alex Zekakis, Dominique Puls, Peng (Jane) Wang, Daniel Goldschmidt, Anne-Marie Colliander Lind, Donna Parrish, Sarah Deming-Henes and Ulrich Henes. Many thanks to my industry colleagues mentioned above, and to the LocWorld team, for their valuable contributions and perspectives in shaping this program. See you in Dublin!
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Michal Kessel Shitrit אהבתי את זהMichal Kessel Shitrit אהבתי את זההייתי אמורה לנצל את הזמן ה"פנוי" לשבת על פינישים לסדנת קלוד קוד. במקום זה אני מוצאת את עצמי משדרגת סדנת בניית משחקים לילדים. שלישי. שבע בערב. בין אזעקה לאזעקה, ילדים סביבי, בלי רגע אחד של פוקוס אמיתי. הבלאגן של הימים האחרונים גרר גם אותי לחוסר פרודוקטיביות - ואני בטוחה שאני לא לבד. ואז הגיעה הודעה מארגון גדול שעבדתי איתו לאחרונה: "ראיתי שיש לך סדנאות לילדים באתר, זה רלוונטי?" וואלה. את הסדנאות האלה הפסקתי להעביר לפני כשנתיים, מאז שהפוקוס עבר לארגונים. אבל ממש בימים האחרונים בניתי עם הגדול שלי (8) משחק שהוא שיתף עם כל הכיתה - ואנחנו לא מפסיקים לשדרג אותו. אז למה לא? תוך שעתיים: התכתבנו על פרטים, שלחתי הצעת מחיר, סגרנו מועד, שדרגתי חשבון זום (צפויים מעל 100 משתתפים), חסמתי שעות ביומן לעדכן תכנים. אתמול שיתפתי קצת באינסטגרם תוך כדי בניית הסדנה - וקיבלתי לא מעט פניות מחברים שגם רוצים. אז יאללה, אני מרימה ספונטנית סדנה מקוצרת פתוחה בחינם: בניית משחק עם AI לילדים 🎮 יום חמישי | 14:00 | 45 דקות | מגיל 6 עם הורה / מגיל 11 לבד נשתמש רק בכלים חינמיים! כל מה שצריך זה חשבון גוגל (רצוי של מבוגר כדי שלא יהיו חסימות). אם היה עוד קצת פנאי היה פה גם עמוד נחיתה מגניב, אבל נסתפק בגוגל פורם ואוטומציה לזימונים - ההרשמה פתוחה עד חמישי ב-12 בצהרים, זימון יישלח למייל שתזינו בהרשמה. ולינק להרשמה - אתם יודעים איפה 😉
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Michal Kessel Shitrit הגיבו על זה“How’s the ride so far?” That email landed in my inbox this morning, and I realized it was my two-month mark at Gong. This past month looked a little different than my first. Some highlights: ❇️ Working with a team of talented writers and aligning copy in a complex product ❇️ Having 1:1s with the co-founder, PMs, designers, and engineers who welcomed me with patience and a real drive to collaborate ❇️ Shipping new product copy that's going live soon 🎉 ❇️ Giving barista lessons to fellow Gongsters ☕ Oh, and for those who asked, yes, the bathroom music genre changes daily. Today it’s a mix from the '90s. Yesterday was country. Tomorrow might be rock & roll. A nice variety. Two months in, enjoying the ride, and excited to share this journey with all of you
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Michal Kessel Shitrit הגיבו על זהMichal Kessel Shitrit הגיבו על זהI'm still feeling the warm welcome two days after our first Berlin Content Design meetup. As we were planning, many people told us to expect 40-50% of signups to actually show. Instead, nearly 90% turned up, showing just how much need there is for an in person, content design-specific event here. Right now, with AI reshaping our work, it feels important to have a space where we can talk about our craft, where we want the discipline to go, and how we shape that future. How fitting that our first meetup focused on content design's role in AI, with a great talk from Barbara K.. She talked about which content design best practices transfer naturally to AI prompting, and which ones need to be rethought. My biggest takeaway for the evening is that content designers should be part of building AI features. Because the work we've always done - building the rules, systems and guidelines behind the final words - is crucial to getting an LLM to produce a user experience that feels designed and intentional. Someone said to me afterwards that sometimes it's so helpful to hear how others are experimenting with AI, and to check in, are other people trying the same things? Content Design is still a relatively new discipline, and the AI field is even newer, so these are the conversations that will help us to shape a discipline that feels united, meaningful and exciting. Big thanks to my co-organisers, Lene Bayerlein and Lisa van Aswegen, and a special thanks to Vinted for hosting and supporting the UX and design community. Thanks to everyone who came out on a rainy Berlin winter's night and expressed interest in getting involved in organising, hosting or speaking in the future. I'm looking forward to the next one.
ניסיון חינוך
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Draft | UX Writing Supergroup
צפו Michal בחוויה המלאה
ראה את כותרת, קְבִיעוּת ועוד.
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Hebrew
מיומנות שפת אם או דו-לשונית
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English
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