We communicate with words...why don't we design for them? - A conversation with lexicographer and dictionary evangelist Erin McKean

by Kate Rutter

July 29, 2009

Words. Words. Words.

We love them. We hate them. We fight over them. (We fight with them.) We celebrate them. We fear them. We embrace them. And we just don’t think about designing for them as much as we should.

We are completely reliant on these assemblages of letters and spaces to articulate everything…to share what we think, to connect with others and to better understand the world. So what’s the connection between words and experiences, and how can we make it better?

This and similar questions have sparked a lot of recent dialog about content strategy, brand voice, and the trajectory of language. So this year at UX Week in September, we’re heating up the conversation with speakers that address these topics head-on:

• On Day 1, Kristina Halvorson, Principal at BrainTraffic and content strategist extraordinaire will cover how content strategy and experience intertwingle.
• On Day 2, Erin McKean, CEO of Wordnik.com, independent lexicographer and fisher of wily and wonderful words will share her enthusiasm and vision of the future of language.

If you use words, don’t miss these awesome sessions!

I recently had the pleasure of speaking with Erin McKean and asking her a few questions about words, language and experience. Erin is an independent lexicographer and editor of Verbatim, a language quarterly on language and linguistics for the layperson. As a self-avowed Dictionary Evangelist, she was most recently Chief Consulting Editor of American Dictionaries for Oxford University Press, and was the editor in chief of the New Oxford American Dictionary, 2e. Her latest adventure is Wordnik.com: an ongoing project devoted to discovering all the words and everything about them.

In addition to her dictionary work, she’s authored 4 books on wonderful words, blogs at Dictionary Evangelist and Dress A Day.

Erin’s presentation at TED 2007 delighted and inspired the audience and set a new benchmark for lexicographical humor.

I asked Erin 5 general questions. As might be expected from someone who lives, breathes and plays with words, Erin’s answers went beyond the everyday and into the realm of the magical.

[KR] Hi, Erin. Thanks for taking the time to talk with me today.

You’ve made strong statements about freeing the words, observed that dictionaries have not changed since Queen Victoria, and you’ve proposed that the current printed form of “dictionary” is no longer effective. Related to this, you mention in your TED talk that lexicographers are perceived as traffic cops to keep the “bad” words out of the dictionary club. You say that instead, there is a need to be a fisher who can net up the marvelous words from the depths.

So…if we free the dictionary from the current printed constraints, what do you think that would do to language? What different behaviors and usage would result?

[EM] Well, one great thing that would happen is that people would feel freer to make up words, to be creative with language. Some people are frightened by this freedom to make new words — they run around worrying that no one will be able to understand anyone else, the “Tower of Babel” scenario. But most people, when they invent a new word, are doing it to be more communicative, more evocative, not less. So I don’t think that’s a big worry. If you think of words as tools to build out your ideas, why wouldn’t you want to have more options?

I think, also, that people would spend less time criticizing superficial language things — the “but that’s not a word” criticism would go away. You could still say “You could have used a better word,” but the implication that someone else’s ideas were dumb because a non-standard word was used would disappear. I hope they disappear.

I’d like to see people as recognized for their creativity in making words as they would be for music, or design, or any other art. That would be wonderful.

[KR] You’re often quoted as saying “The Internet is made of words and enthusiasm.” Isn’t there more to it? What do you mean by this, and how can UX folks capitalize on it?

[EM] Well, now that I’m working on a new website, I’m seeing just how much more there is to the Internet. There’s servers, for one thing. :-) But really, I think that success on the Internet is all about getting people enthusiastic about you, and you measure that enthusiasm in words: what people are writing about you, whether it’s in comments, or on their blogs, or on Twitter.

People like to have meaningful (or at least entertaining) conversations, and to feel a sense of excitement and and discovery. You give people all that and you’ve made good Internet!

[KR] You recently launched wordnik.com, an ongoing project devoted to discovering all the words and everything about them. What’s different about Wordnik.com and what does it do that merriam-webster.com/ or dictionary.com or google don’t do?

[EM] There’s so much new about Wordnik it’s hard to know where to start! But first of all, Wordnik believes that all words are worth learning about, so as soon as we have any evidence for a word — a sentence, a Tweet, a Flickr tag — we’ll show you what we’ve got.

Traditional dictionaries can take years to give you information about a word, and that just doesn’t fly now that we all live on Internet time. Wordnik is about showing you all the data, so you can make your own decisions about whether or not a word works for YOU.

We also believe that a dictionary shouldn’t be a one-way street, so we give people a chance to add information: notes about an entry, tags, related words, and so on. People can mark their favorite words and can even record their own pronunciations!

And although we show traditional definitions, too, at Wordnik we think the example sentences are the stars — we pull them from a corpus of more than 4 billion words of text, and we update them all the time. We are emphasizing example sentences because we know that’s how people learn words — by seeing them in context. How many of the last 20 words you learned were learned by reading a dictionary definition? More context = more learning.

Most importantly, we want Wordnik to be fun. Words are fun, why aren’t dictionaries?

[KR] Erin, you’re speaking on day 2 of UX week, where the theme is Expressions of UX. What’s the role of words in creating and delivering great experiences? How does interesting language create aspects of an experience?

[EM] Your writing style contributes hugely to the user experience. We know this intuitively — I mean, think about the difference between “I ain’t got none” and “I’m afraid I don’t have any”!

Every single word helps to construct the experience you want users to have. And of course the more you know about how words work — not just what they mean, but how they create impressions and evoke feelings — the more adept you will be at creating good experiences.

[KR] In your opinion, what are 3 things that UX folks should know about words and experiences?

[EM] These are the things that we all need to keep in mind:

• Petty and thoughtless “grammar” rule-following is really off putting to users. It is something up with which you should not put. :-)
• Don’t be afraid to be create a word if you need to, but don’t go overboard. (Resist the urge to put a big TM after created words … it strips all the fun off them!)
• Focus more on the overall feel than on any particular word. If you’re building a house, keep each brick in perspective!

[KR] And one last bonus question…As a word-guru, I’ll bet you see amazing and wonderful words. What’s your favorite?

[EM] I really love the word erinaceous, which means “of or pertaining to hedgehogs” … but I probably have a new latest favorite word every day. Lately I’m fond of awesomepants and antimetabole.

[KR] Wow, I think I’ll have to adopt awesomepants, too. And with that, we are good to go as we go towards good! Erin, thanks for your time with me and see you at UX Week.

More about Erin:

• View her awesome TED talk
• Read her books on words
• Check out her blogs: Verbatim, Dictionary Evangelist; Dress A Day
• Explore new words at Wordnik.com
• Hear her at UX Week 2009!