Slack integration

When researching features our users wanted most, integrating our new Notebooks product with Slack was a reoccurring request. Inspired by a voice and tone workshop led by Anna Pickard, one of the founders of Slack’s voice, this project-in-process brought with it the challenge of combining our own voice with Slack’s more quirky iconographic style.

Before I could play, I had to work (and so did our product)

Before I could engage in the more fun and crafty writing that came along with this project, I had to make sure the user was able to navigate through auto-post settings and permissions. This took deliberate writing and a full understanding of how our integrated system would work. I also updated our screens to reflect our current visual and copy style guide - something I look for every time I work through a project.

Below you’ll see a screenshot of the functional aspects of this project. Every change had to be thought through carefully because they effected the layout of our Git Hub and Jira integration settings.

Notice the Slack setting is carefully worded. Finding a way to communicate to the user that the settings selected here were by a project by project basis took many drafts.

Playing with words

Once I had guided the user through settings, I had the opportunity to pitch the project to the user using my version of Slack’s iconic voice. This copy will be tested with our users at the end of August 2021. The first image is a hand-drawn Slack window that shows the placement of the copy and the second is a series of three rotating teasers to encourage our users to integrate Abstract with Slack. Until our users integrate with Slack or dismiss the messages, they’ll receive a new message each time they copy and paste Notebook content into Slack.

In conclusion:

The growth I personally experienced came from the contrast of the technological work done in the settings panel and the creative writing used in the unfurled teasers. While I enjoy the occasional opportunity to write creatively, I find myself far more proud of the ability to parse technical problems into easily communicated instructions.