Hi there, I’m Hillary Bassett Ross.
Writer | Designer | UX Professional | Storyteller
Kinetic Pencil is my digital consultancy, named for my creative spirit—a kinetic energy waiting to take form.
Microsoft Sustainability Content Strategy
Via Kinetic Pencil, on contract with PKGlobal
In a recent role I was the Senior Content Strategist for Microsoft Sustainability. I performed content audits, content planning, and worked with data-driven insights to develop new information architecture.
This role was a great fit for my skills as my background is in content strategy, design, and managing production teams. While my role was predominantly strategic and I provided guidance and led the creative teams, in many cases I stepped in and executed updates myself to help drive the initiative forward.
Driving design and content production
I provided creative direction to both design and content teams, including wireframes, character counts, and details about what was needed.
Working within a design system
The site was built with a set of predefined site modules, which meant that custom development was not an option. My role was to help determine which modules were most ideal for the user goals and overall pages.
Content audits
I drove a site-wide inventory to determine what assets and information was included, and what might be missing or overused. I compared our inventory with site analytics; using data-driven insights to make recommendations to streamline the approach and keep the team focused on high-value directives. This was helpful in urging the stakeholders to prioritize assets with a strong business case.
New information architecture and updated navigation
Working with data-driven insights, we could see that the page traffic mirrored the left-to-right order of the top navigation. Upon moving our higher-impact and top-priority content to the left side of the nav, site traffic increased. This made a significant impact on the traffic to the product pages, which was the main objective of the site.
Page restructuring and consolidation
The Tools and Resources page which–based upon the amount of content needed–absorbed significant resources, yet didn’t receive enough traffic to warrant the investment. Additionally, the modules used didn’t allow for scale. We solved this problem by proposing a new experience that allows for filtering by topic, content type, and industry.
Producing design and content when needed
While my role was to provide content strategy and direction, I am also a designer and a writer. In some cases I stepped in to execute the solution. This is an example of how I developed the page update for the Emissions Impact Dashboard.
