Telepathic payments, writing to an elephant wash and other test tasks for UX editors

    Once upon a time, when I was engaged in web development more than with texts, every six months I definitely looked at vacancies: who are looking for and what they want. Even if she was not going to change her work at all - just to be aware of the requirements and technologies. And sometimes I even did test ones - to check what I can, what I cannot, and what it takes to pull up. And one day I almost accidentally stumbled upon a wonderful test task: “Imagine that Yandex.Money began to accept payments with socks. Write the text for the banner to the main page and the letter for the partners. ”


    The first reaction: "Ha-ha, who comes up with such test ones, and most importantly, who makes them." Three hours later, I re-read all the newsletters, banners and articles from Yandex.Money that I found in the public domain, and I knew everything about socks: what are they made of, how many people are on Earth, what distinguishes men from women. And most importantly, in front of me lay the finished test - I had to send. So began my journey into the universe of interface texts. And at the same time - work in Yandex. Money.



    In this article I will talk about how we come up with test ones and give a couple of examples. And a little more about our hard editorial work, otherwise it will be unclear.


    Why does the editor need a test task?


    Indeed, why? After all, we usually do not take absolutely newbies, and a person with work experience can ask for a portfolio, evaluate skills - and go ahead. Backenders have a link to a github, examples of scripts are at the front, and the editor has a couple of articles.


    Unfortunately, there are not so many people who are specially engaged in texts for interfaces. Even fewer are those who not only fixes mistakes and put commas in what developers have written, but how we work on the project from the very beginning, together with the UX-designer and the product team (I really want to tell about it in more detail, but this is the topic for a separate article). If a person at an interview says that he invented names for buttons in a mobile application or helped to make a couple of complex forms on the site, the Yandex.Money editors may even dance a little on the table - for joy.


    “Hey, when will there be elephants and telepathy?”
    - Be patient a little, elephants bathe. Telepathic module customize. All will be :)


    When we are looking for a new editor in our funny text band, we do not expect to find a ready-made one who will sit down and immediately write everything to us. We are looking for a person who will be interested with us and whom we will be able to teach everything more or less quickly.


    The test task is an ideal way to see how a person thinks, what he considers important, what he pays attention to and what questions he asks. And at the same time - to evaluate literacy and the ability to “get into style” (but this is already quite standard for the editor's requirements).


    How do we come up with it


    The sponsor of this section is the Yandex.Money project office. Taking this opportunity, we say hello to all project managers, and especially ...


    At the very beginning I told about the test, for which I “caught” myself - about paying with socks. Repeating it here is not so interesting, so here is similar in essence, but with a different entourage.


    Task 1. Some Telepathy


    Imagine that you received from the project manager a description of a new service and an order for texts. You need to come up with a name and description for users and slogans for the banner (3 options, up to 40 characters).

    Project justification: we want to give Yandex.Money users the opportunity to pay anytime, anywhere, without any special equipment or devices.

    Solution: we will implant a special chip into the user's brain, which sends the payment order via telepathic channels to the Yandex.Money server.

    Known problems:
    - the risk of accidental operation (for example, in a dream or intoxicated state),
    - the high cost of the chip itself, as well as operations to implant or replace it,
    - the inability to pay in certain categories of stores.

    Limitations:
    - for successful payment it is necessary that after payment in the user's wallet there remains an amount not less than 17% higher than the amount of the operation itself
    - at the time of payment the user must be focused and calm, otherwise there may be errors in the quantity of goods or delivery address, the
    chip can implant in only two specialized clinics (in Moscow and St. Petersburg).

    People who get it are often addicted to entourage: they insert esoteric terms anywhere, invent a telepathic robot, or even invent the language of the future. But they forget about quite serious product limitations described in the task.


    Try to replace telepathy with payments from the wallet, and the implantation of the chip to identification. The problem will immediately become “closer to life” (at least to ours).


    When we come up with such tasks, we add to them the conditions that we meet every day. And we look at how the applicants will take them into account and process what they understand and what questions they will ask.


    Why several tasks and how they differ


    Task 2. Something about washing elephants


    This is the form that will allow you to pay for washing the elephant. Here are the conditions:
    - you can wash the elephant right after the payment,
    - after being paid to the indicated phone, the
    elephant’s manager will call you back, - a full wash of the elephant costs 2,000 rubles,
    - only hind legs - 1,000 rubles,
    - only ears and a tail - 700 rubles,
    - you can use balm after washing - plus 900 rubles,
    - we also have an elephant manicure (but this is a separate payment form on another page).

    Payment forms for example:
    https://money.yandex.ru/taxes
    https://money.yandex.ru/shop/4217

    We have a lot of different services and different formats for which you need to write texts. Forms of payment, payment process, mobile applications to pay for everything in the world or something specific, payment solutions for business. All this is accompanied by newsletters, banners, landing pages, explanatory texts, hints, errors and rather large help texts.



    It is important for us to see how a person copes with different things, so in the test task there are always several small tasks (usually three).


    Form is a simple way to check what a person knows about interfaces. He will think about what is convenient, what he calls the buttons, whether the labels will match the margins of the margins or not, what clues and errors will show the user.


    When designing a form for writing on an elephant bed, they usually try to come up with a “selling slogan” - and they write about pure elephants, great happiness and care for pets. Although the problem is not the point. It is better to offer to recalculate the amount when choosing different options and explain to the user why we ask the phone.


    Why tasks sometimes not entirely clear and even contradictory


    Because everything is like in life: tasks are set by different people, there may be contradictions and not very clear formulations. When you get a puzzle, it is important not just to do it, but first to understand what they want from you, but to ask about the incomprehensible.


    Task 3. Zebras and Bison


    Yandex.Money opens a new service, the internal name is “Zebrovnik”. The service will allow visitors to look at different animals and feed them.

    Offer the official name for the new service, write the instructions for using it for the Help section and, if necessary, attach a list of questions that you would ask the manager.

    Note that:
    - so far there are only zebras and buffaloes,
    - zebras can be fed, but there are no bison,
    - to stay there more than 40 hours a week, you need to show your passport (this is fixed in the legislation of the Russian Federation, see Federal Law of 24.08 .2001 № 201-ФЗ),
    - it is impossible to bring food for zebras with you, but it is sold on the spot,
    - the cost of food should not exceed the cost of the entrance ticket,
    - A ticket for visitors costs 300 rubles, for disabled people and large families for free.

    Feed the animals can only carrots.

    In this task there is one very unpleasant understatement: it is not clear where this service works, online or offline. This is not immediately noticeable, but it is very disturbing in the process when you try to describe how to use it all.


    We expected people to notice and ask a question. Or they will choose one point of view and write: I do not quite understand how this thing works, let's assume that this is so. If I get it wrong, I’m ready to fix it.



    But almost everyone who tried to write about Zebrovnik somehow tried to disguise this fact: if the task did not say, then we will go around it in the text. It turned out not very: it is impossible to write clearly about what you do not understand yourself.


    And this task also assumes that the description of the service is not advertising, but primarily informational (it has a special reference to our Help, you can read and be inspired). But no. It seems that graceful graceful zebras and courageous buffalo from the responses to the test ones will haunt me all my life. I've never thought of zebras in this way before.


    Why are some tasks so strange


    Sometimes (quite often) we are asked the question: why invent funny tasks, strange heroes, if this seems far from ordinary life? You can just copy the right one from your task. And it is not necessary to invent anything, and it is easier for people.


    There are several reasons, some are very subjective:


    1. Real tasks to invent and choose as difficult as unrealistic (you may not believe, but it is).
    2. When we write about elephants, we are not afraid to pull something out under the NDA.
    3. This is such a compatibility check: if a person believes that we are too frivolous, it means that he will most likely be uncomfortable working with us. Yes, we have a lot of work, the topics are serious, and we ourselves - well, not so much :)
    4. There is always the risk that we have already written about this real one and it can be found somewhere on the Internet.

    What do you think happened to this uncomplicated test - a letter asking you to pay taxes?


    Task 4. A letter about taxes


    Imagine that a manager came to you and said:
    “We want to make a newsletter about taxes: https://money.yandex.ru/taxes.

    We send out a thousand people who last year paid taxes at that time. And in this something is not paid. We want to remind them that we have such an opportunity - to pay everything quickly, to receive an electronic receipt. Well, at the same time hurry: the tax is waiting for payments until December 1. "

    That's right: people found our last letter, slightly corrected and rrraz! - sent the result. But, first, we remember our letters well. Secondly, it was this letter that we didn’t like very much, and we wanted to look at the options better.


    Approximately the same story happened when we took a rather complicated legal text from our site, spoiled it a little more and offered to edit it. Approximately half of the people found our text in a search engine and gave it away.


    At this moment you want to beat your head on the table and exclaim: oh, people, well, do you really want to see a copy-paste in our place? It seems obvious: no.



    In a nutshell, about our test and what we look at


    So, if you read this far, it seems that you deserve a brief summary. In our test, there are usually 3 small tasks: for example, you need to write texts for banners, prepare a newsletter and come up with a form. Something to edit, something to criticize.


    We are waiting for the person who sends us a test:


    • carefully read the task and handle all the restrictions that are specified in it,
    • look, as we write, and try to write in the same style,
    • will take into account the format: for example, if there are already three headers on the page, then the fourth will agree with them,
    • correctly writes and declines the names of our services in all texts,
    • will not make mistakes (this seems to be obvious, but still: it seems to us that the editor is a person who writes without mistakes, and if he doubts, he can look in the reference book),
    • will think about users and do better than us.

    And you also need to understand that the test task always has another side. A person who does a test can evaluate how he works with us. Everything that falls into our tasks (even about elephants and telepathy) is actually very, very, very similar to what we do every day. If the test is interesting to do, if it is hooked, it means (most likely) you will be interested in working with us. If it seemed that writing about telepathy was a hellish routine and hurray, it ended - it means that you will be bored at work.



    Where to see more tasks


    We do not post tests in open access, not because we feel sorry, but because it is impossible. Usually about 200 responses come to the vacancy of the editor. You can view 200 resumes. Carefully read and analyze 200 test - it seems, then we will only deal with this.


    If you are interested in what we came up with this time, respond to our vacancy , write a cool cover letter, and we will send you a new test one. We do not promise that there will be something fun, but there will definitely not be such as in this article :)

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