Resume
Laura Wixted
Content design, UX writing, Design system content lead
Content designer with a drive to solve business problems by improving the dialog between products and people. Over 20 years experience in digital product writing, with 9 years evolving content design and design systems for multiple organizations at different phases of UX maturity.
I thrive in the center of language, design, and systems with a mission to help all users succeed.
Key differentiators
Expert in designing digital product content that improves product usability and profitability
Extensive knowledge of design system craft, with a track record of incorporating content guidelines to maximize design efficiency
Skilled mentor, teacher, and facilitator with a talent for unlocking content solutions by harnessing design principles
Work history
Sage
Lead Content Designer
Mar 2022-Present — AI powered business management tools — sage.com
Influencing strategic design direction by evolving content design into the design culture.
Designing content to embed in new design system components, creating and documenting design patterns and best practices for future team adoption
Creating and implementing a content strategy to merge multiple product design systems into one and incorporate content design best practices
Advising multiple content designers and UX designers on how to improve UI content across product suites
Facilitating content design workshops that foster collaborative learning and inspire innovative problem solving
CrowdStrike
Sr. UX Writer
Jul 2020-Mar 2022 — AI-native cybersecurity platform — crowdstrike.com
Led a UX writing team of 3 through a period of rapid growth by interviewing, coaching, and onboarding 5 additional UX Writers, on behalf of a soon-to-be-hired manager
Initiated design workshops to create a new sitemap for a redesigned design system that would include content design guidelines
Designed content for complex product deliverables that allowed users to configure cybersecurity dashboards and widgets
Conceptualized, crafted, and brought to life a set of highly impactful and well-received UX writing guidelines
Pearson
Sr. UX Writer
Sep 2017-Jul 2020 — Education — pearson.com
Contributed strategic insights to help leadership pivot from 1 team of technical writers doing part-time UX writing work to 2 teams of writers focused on separate disciplines
Established a design system team by sharing content strategy artifacts with leadership and then running a workshop to create a core strategy statement for the mission of the design system
Experimented with lean UX methodology, collaborating on assumption statements, hypotheses, user research sessions, and rapid design iterations
Acted as team co-lead for a growing content design team, establishing guidelines, ways of working, and team rituals
IBM
Multiple content roles
Lead UX Content Strategist
May 2015-Aug 2017 — Help@IBM — ibm.comSr. Technical Editor
Apr 2012-Apr 2015 — Multiple products —ibm.comSr. Technical Writer
May 2005-Apr 2012 — Multiple products — ibm.comTechnical Writer
Feb 2002-May 2005 — Multiple products — ibm.com
CrossWorlds Software, Technical Writer — Jul 2000-Feb 2002 — Software documentation
Vertical Networks, Technical Writer — May 1999-Jun 2000 — Software documentation
415 Productions, Inc., Content Editor — Nov 1997-Apr 1999 — Press releases and company website
Education
B.A. English Literature, San Francisco State University
Content Strategy certificate, Northeastern University