Web copywriting for Boston Children’s Hospital

Business challenge
In the early stages of redesigning its website, Children’s Hospital Trust* needed a Web copywriter with information architecture and usability experience.

What I did
I gathered and converted hundreds of text and image files, wrote about a hundred pages of copy and edited another fifty. My copy included everything from marketing communications to the site’s privacy statement. I also wrote all kinds of help text, mainly confirmation pages, autoresponders and error messages for numerous online forms.

Impact
I’m confident that my clear, friendly writing helped strengthen the Trust’s relationships with its donors.

High points: Digging out a statistic that demonstrated Children’s financial trustworthiness; writing error messages for online forms (‘ground zero’ for the user experience!); writing a privacy statement that site users (not just lawyers and IT experts) could understand; identifying opportunities for cross-links and new content for other sections of the Children’s site; cranking out PDFs of Trust print newsletters for first-ever online publication.

Other web work for Children’s
After the site redesign, I happily stayed on at the Trust for about 3 years, immersed in learning about e-philanthropy. I wrote and edited donor profiles and success stories, news reports and banner ads, and managed production of a quarterly enewsletter.

Working with the Web Administrator, I wrote and helped champion a Web Handbook and editorial workflow that streamlined content development and improved content quality.I also designed the information architecture of several new sub-sites and coordinated a search engine marketing program.Before leaving the Trust in March, 2008, I wrote and produced an interactive photo album (a thank-you to donors) and significantly improved the site’s “My Account” and enewsletter sign-up usability.

* Children’s Hospital Trust is Boston Children’s Hospital’s fund-raising organization

Work samples