Torrey P.
Company: Catbird Content
Information Technology and Services
Education: University of Washington - Seattle University
Seattle, WA, USA
Biography
Torrey Podmajersky helps teams solve business and customer problems using UX content. She has written inclusive and accessible experiences for consumer, technical, and business audiences in Google Ads, Google Cloud, Google Support, OfferUp, Xbox, and Microsoft. Torrey consults with B2B, B2C and mentoring clients, and teaches and speaks worldwide about UX and content design through her agency, Catbird Content.
Passion
Each person has a unique contribution to make to this world, and has an unknown amount of time to make that contribution. Torrey works to reduce the unnecessary demands on people's attention, energy, and time by designing digital product and service experiences, at work and at play, that free people up to meet their goals.
Featured Video
I am willing to travel
More than 100 miles
When it comes to payments
I generally get paid for speaking but make exceptions
Topics
Best Story
Before I was a UX content professional, I was a high-school teacher. Specifically, a science teacher: Physical science and chemistry.
I got into teaching sideways: I was a physics student at the University of Washington, and a professor connected me to a job as the Science Teaching Assistant at a local high school. When a teacher at the high school suddenly quit during first semester, I stepped in to cover lessons.
My first lecture-ever-was in Chemistry, and about electronegativity. I prepared diligently, asked another teacher to review my notes, and delivered! The instant I got to the end, I was so relieved... until a smart young lady at the front lab bench raised her hand to ask: "Are you ... sure?"
It wasn't an auspicious start! But I was sure, and I'll never forget that girl. I stayed and taught for 9 years, earning my Masters in Education along the way.
But never fear - my lessons hardly ever require eye protection, anymore.
Origin Story
After being the first UX writer / content designer in multiple product groups, I found myself at a conference with more than 40 other people doing the same role I had been doing for over 8 years. This was huge - it was the largest congregation of people doing that work that had ever happened, to my knowledge.
But I was shocked: These other UX content folks were discussing their top problems, but I knew most of those problems had been solved years before, with research, in the teams I had been part of.
It was a light-bulb moment: We wouldn't really be a discipline until we had shared bodies of knowledge, conferences we could speak at, classes we could take, and books we could read.
So I wrote a book: Strategic Writing for UX was the first book about UX content from a major publisher. Since its publication, I've increased my industry speaking and training to multiple engagements in the USA, Europe, and Oceania. I started Catbird Content in 2023 to bring more consulting in UX content practices and design systems to more audiences.
Example talks
Content Design for Product People
Words make your experience usable, lovable, recognizable - even intuitive. In this workshop, Torrey Podmajersky will show how the language we use and the structure it reflects affects every part of the experience. She’ll demonstrate tools and put you to work with practice on concrete examples, demonstrating a variety of ways content design can impact and influence your organization. You’ll make your words work as hard as any other part of the UX to drive engagement, conversion, and retention.
Takeaways
Where UX writing fits in (and how it’s different from) other kinds of content
Patterns for writing UX, ready for your design system
Methods for gauging the impact of content on customer and business goals
A framework to align UX content voice to business principles
Audience
People currently responsible for words in the UX
Owners of the product’s brand
Leaders who want to ensure usable, loveable, recognizable experiences