Frontiers Media | Strong as a UX

Project: UX writing for the platform rebuilds

About:

Frontiers Media is the world’s 3rd most cited scientific publisher, running peer review and editorial operations at a scale few publishers can match. As the underlying platforms aged, Frontiers began rebuilding its core editorial tools from the ground up—starting with Review Forum, Editorial Office, and Research Topic Manager.

Frontiers needed:

Consistent, clear UX copy across three major platform rebuilds—used daily by reviewers, editors, and Topic Editors—that reduced confusion, cut support queries, and gave each tool a distinct but recognizably “Frontiers” voice.

Work included:
Writing UI copy for Review Forum, Editorial Office, and Research Topic Manager in close collaboration with product, design, and engineering teams across each rebuild.

Establishing a shared UX writing style guide and terminology list to keep language consistent across all three platforms—same actions, same words, no duplicate terms for the same concept.

Writing microcopy for high-stakes moments: review decisions, manuscript status changes, editorial assignments, and Research Topic invitations, where ambiguity has real editorial consequences.

Simplifying dense editorial workflows (multi-stage reviews, assignment logic, RT lifecycle states) into plain-language labels, button text, tooltips, and empty/error states that non-technical users could follow without training.

Partnering with editorial operations subject leads to validate that simplified copy still held up to the platforms’ underlying business logic.

Running copy through accessibility and tone review to ensure consistency for a global user base of researchers and editorial staff.

Outcomes:
A unified voice and terminology across three previously fragmented platforms, reducing the “which tool speaks which language” confusion for staff and external users moving between them.

Clearer in-product guidance at decision points, reducing reliance on external documentation and support tickets for basic workflow questions.

A reusable UX writing style guide now applied to future feature releases across all three platforms, cutting review cycles for new copy.

Faster onboarding for reviewers and Topic Editors, who could navigate multi-stage workflows without needing a separate walkthrough.

Established UX writing as an embedded part of the product development process for editorial tools, rather than a late-stage polish step.