As the first UX content strategist hired at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, I was selected to spearhead vanguard content initiatives. This was done as I wore both my UX writer and project manager hats within a collaborative UX Design Team under the technology division DigITs. Human-centered content strategy methodologies and technical writing were applied to all digital products, from mobile to desktop, with a focus on seamless end-to-end experiences.
Enterprise-Level Experience: Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSK) is considered one of the top two cancer research centers in the United States. It is located in New York City with more than 20,000 employees. MSK was founded in 1884.
UX Team Objective: Synchronizing MSK brand and user-friendly design across all products via a new design system rollout. This agile-built design system named "Oxygen" we collaboratively built off IBM's Carbon’s open source template. UX content strategy position requires nimble skillsets, including: Microcopy writing, strategizing diverse healthcare content, SEO, project management, branding, editing, and design.
"Big Win" Achievement: Led bridge-building collaborations with marketing and editorial departments to initiate the first-ever UX style guide for MSK. A highlight of this process was a robust presentation on voice, style, and tone delivered to several UX stakeholders and leadership. This lauded effort led to the UX style guide proof of concept to be integrated into MSK's pioneering design system.
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Portfolio Migration Note (Summer 2026): This space recently migrated from Squarespace 7.0 to 7.1, and frankly some aspects – like gallery or mobile view – are less-than-stellar. I am currently auditing and polishing component layouts to match this design system framework. Thank you for your patience as the final visual optimizations deploy!
Samples from Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center - 2021-22
Key Accomplishment at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center:
• Built a foundational and collaborative bridge from the UX group to the marketing and communications department, making it possible for the design system to be scaled, evangelized, and adopted for all public-facing products.
Additional Achievements:
• Aligned MSK voice, tone, and language for a new design system utilizing UX tools Figma, Miro, and Dovetail. This helped developers and product builders successfully brand their work.
• Launched content strategy alignment across several working groups and jumpstarting new UX style guide and writing business rules.
• Agile UX methodology adhered to in daily stand-ups and working closely with engineers, marketing creatives, and designers to establish and share writing guidelines for MSK digital products.
• Cancer treatment, research, and healthcare needs met with a singular empathetic focus: Making the user experience easier and more intuitive for patients and staff alike.
UX Writing for Design Systems (Copywriting Sample)
Below is a copywriting example from MSK’s inaugural design system developed on Knapsack in Q3 2021. It would eventually migrate to Storybook — an insightful work-related story to tell sometime!
See more MSK writing here:
tinyurl.com/david-shuey-msk-ux-writing
Our Philosophy: Scaling Growth. Saving Time.
Simplicity is Our Objective
By making your work life easier, this leads to more profound outcomes and manageable solutions for people battling cancer on all touchpoints.
Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center has devoted more than 135 years to exceptional patient care, innovative research, and outstanding educational programs. By saving hours using our scalable design system to build pages for the MSK audience, this frees up time for other work endeavors. The cascading effect benefits the MSK physicians, scientists, and staff who are serving patients and our greater society.
We give you the tools to build — the voice, brand, and style, as well as handy templates — and you give the world products that change lives, in the moments when people are the most stressed and in need. And hopefully you can provide solutions that can add years of new meaningful moments.
This lego metaphor for design systems illustrates focused, deliberate, and efficient ways of building. It is used by Brad Frost in his Atomic Design framework and the lego blocks visual he borrowed from Multiscreen UX Design by Wolfram Nagel. Imitation is a form of flattery, and Frost confirmed this on Twitter.
MSK Design System Intro (Copywriting Sample)
Tell designers and developers there’s one resource to rule them all: “Get Started... The styles may change but this resource will remain the same.”
Content Strategy Slide Deck Presentation
Click here for presentation. 45-minute presentation given to 20+ person UX team to jumpstart content strategy changes at MSK. Topics include:
• Copy and use cases for mobile and other digital devices
• Unity of language and voice for healthcare audience dealing with cancer
• Focus on voice, tone and style as it applies to design systems thinking
UX Style Guide Greenlit by Stakeholders
After building a relationship with marketing’s digital editorial department, I collaborated with my UX writer peer to develop multiple UX use case examples in a slide deck. This proof of concept was approved by stakeholders to create the organization’s first-ever UX style guide.
Screenshot from David Shuey presentation: On UX Writing & Content Strategy. Updated Feb 2023. Click here for more.
Use Case Example in Proof of Concept: Export vs. Share
Screenshot from David Shuey presentation: On UX Writing & Content Strategy. Updated Feb 2023. Click here for more.
Copy Editing & UX Guidelines for MyMSK Mobile
Worked closely with UX product designers to add copy and adopt new UX guidelines, including appropriately titled buttons and headers to instruct new users to mobile app. The app was being updated in 2021 for Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center patients and caregivers to support them in achieving better health outcomes.
Learn more about the MyMSK app here:
https://www.mskcc.org/experience/become-patient/mymsk-patient-portal-mymsk-app
You Say Goodbye, And I Say Hello
A key agile team skillset besides lightning quick copywriting: Gets along well with others.
Consider this farewell card my reference letter from my most recent contract gig at MSK.
UX Team Baseball Card
Each team member is asked to convey their skills and persona in a “baseball card” format. Generally, wide creative leeway was given. My design adventure took me back to the Transformer toy packaging of my childhood. 10-point ratings on eight categories shown below.
Screenshot from UX Design Team Page for DigITs
What I can humbly say about MSK’s UX Design Team: They’re an innovative, kind, and enormously talented group of creative individuals. Gratitude and accountability was shared in regular standups among two dozen designers and staff. The IT division is especially renowned, and I was happy to serve their needs daily in my seven months at MSK.
Contract Full-Time Remote Position: 6-month contract + extension starting July 2021 and ending February 2022. Onboarded by TEKsystems, a subsidiary of Allegis Group.