The authors of the article "wanted to know more about what really helps scientists talk to the public". Science is essential to solving many of society’s biggest problems, but it doesn’t always find a receptive audience. Today, when curbing COVID-19 ... it’s more urgent than ever for scientists to be able to communicate effectively with the public.

Probably my biggest frustrations ... is the utter contempt they seem to hold content in. ... they won’t hire a professional copywriter to work on the content ... never teach content creators how to create appropriate web content.

"understand the digital reader’s brain, and to get a couple of concrete writing tips for your next digital text." "Nothing can surpass a text when it comes to transforming abstract thoughts into concrete expression."

"Carefully examine the user’s context, task at hand, and next steps when deciding whether to open links to documents and external sites in the same or a new browser tab."

Gerry McGovern on skills needed for digital communication people. For example: - choose the right word to drive action; - make it easy finding content allowing users to complete a task quickly; - design for maintenance and evolution; - love metadata, be an information architect. I wished I had all of those.

"Never be afraid to speak up, simply because you feel there are more valuable voices in the room. [...] Just be sure to express it as your perspective and not absolute truth!"

An interface to control a spacecraft - how complex and complicated does it have to be?

Using "job-stories" instead of "user-stories": "remove any sort of biases that the team might have for that persona. Personas create assumptions about the users that might not be validated."