Ninja Van • 2022

Building the foundation:
How content practice took shape in Ninja Van

Problem

Ninja Van lacked a structured content practice, leading to inconsistencies across products, and inefficiencies during designer-developer handovers. Designers grappled with unclear formatting standards and inconsistent tones, while developers encountered confusion due to unspecified or conflicting copy.

Solution

Created a content guideline from scratch and streamlined content workflows, ensuring consistency across all products.

Impact

  • Internal: Establish clear content standards and guidelines, streamline content and localisation workflows, and foster ownership of content among designers.
  • Business: Reduce user confusion and support dependency by delivering clear, consistent, and intuitive content that aligns with users’ mental models — empowering them to complete tasks independently and confidently.
Vertical
Design Ops

Role
Product designer

Scope
UX writing, content practices, cross-functional collaboration
Identifying the opportunity

Content across Ninja Van’s products was poorly written, inconsistent, and lacked structure

Usage of industry-specific jargons that does not align with users' mental model.
Frequent support tickets were raised to clarify vague labels or improve unclear content.
Inconsistent language in button labels, date formats, and terminology across products.
When I joined Ninja Van and began working across multiple products, I observed recurring content issues, supported by 3 key pieces of evidence.

Recognising these as recurring, team-wide problems, I saw an opportunity to lead and establish a shared vision for content excellence.

With support from design leads, peers, and developers, I spearheaded a cross-functional effort to drive clearer, more consistent, and user-aligned content across teams.

How content became core to my design practice

Having worked closely with content strategists in a previous organisation that upheld high content standards, I saw firsthand how well-structured content could elevate user experience through clarity, consistency, and accessibility. Motivated by that impact, I began deepening my own expertise—attending workshops, learning from practitioners, and applying those principles in my work.

One quote from a workshop by Michael J. Metts and Andy Welfle, authors of Writing Is Designing, continues to shape my perspective:

"Without words, apps would be an unusable jumble of shapes and icons, while voice interfaces and chatbots wouldn't even exist.

Words make software human-centered, and require just as much thought as the branding and code.”

This belief reinforced how content isn't just about writing, it’s integral to interaction design, product clarity, and creating trust in every touchpoint.

Drilling down the problems

I facilitated discussions with designers and developers to identify key content challenges in their workflow

These discussions focused on pain points throughout the product development process, from content creation to handoff.
Insight 1

Designers often overlook content during the design process, and the absence of standards leads to inconsistencies, rework, and a fragmented user experience.

Insight 2

Lack of structured content handoff led to unclear ownership, leaving developers to manage content fixes and localisation, slowing delivery and increasing errors.

Driving content excellence

Building content foundations for alignment and scale

Providing content guidance for designers

Created a content guideline to resolve inconsistencies in tone, terminology, and formattin. This gives designers a clear, consistent reference during the design process.
Impact:
  • Designers adopted the guideline easily and used it reliably throughout their design process.
  • Aligned language and structure across products for a cohesive user experience.
  • Encouraged designers to treat content as integral, not secondary, to design.

Establishing a systematic approach to content quality and cross-team collaboration

Introduced content audits as a source of truth, shifting content ownership to designers and streamlining collaboration with engineers and QAs.
Impact:
  • Reduced tickets related to unclear or incorrect content.
  • Strengthened collaboration, leading to better-aligned products and smoother handoffs.
  • Freed up developer time for higher-value work.
What I learnt

Small intentions, big outcomes

This journey underscored the importance of treating content as a core element of design, rather than an afterthought. By introducing structured practices, I saw how small changes in workflows could have a significant impact on collaboration and product quality.

What I could have done better

One key takeaway was the need to plan for measurable outcomes, even for side projects. While team feedback showed clear improvements, but tracking metrics e.g. % drop in support tickets on unclear content would’ve provided stronger evidence of impact.

In future, I’ll define success criteria early to better measure and demonstrate value.
© 2025 Dayna Wong. All Rights Reserved.