Launch HN: Strings – Delegated App Copy Management
Hey HN.
Brad and Jasper here from Strings (www.strings.design). Strings is a tool for writers and product teams to search and edit your app’s copy without learning how to code. Developers save time not having to edit copy while retaining control over their code. When writers edit copy, Strings automatically generates a pull request for engineering approval in Git.
While working at our prior companies, we always felt it was painful to get a simple copy change done: - A task is created in eg Jira. - A PM then looks at the tasks and prioritizes it. - An engineering lead looks at it and estimates it. - At last, the sprint starts and an engineer picks up the task for the copy edit. She looks at the edit request and maybe jumps into the design tool to look at the screen in question. Then she goes to find the right string file in the right repo and find the correct copy string to edit, copying or retyping the updated content.
A copy change ends up involving many people, handovers, context switches, processes and may take weeks to get to your users. It creates so much organizational waste and friction that many copy improvements die a slow death. Content bugs and typos live on, inconsistency hurts the brand and the user experience suffers as a result.
Having developers changing copy is a terrible use of engineering time.
It’s busy work and requires context switches that distracts from harder problems. Strings sits on top of your code repository allowing writers, designers and product managers to browse and edit in-app copy. Its purpose is to remove the friction and handover steps required to edit copy in a controlled environment where developers retain the final approval.
Strings only take a few minutes to set up
Strings doesn’t require any complicated implementation. Developers install the Strings GitHub app and link their string files. That’s it.
Try it out here and let us know what you think.
Brad & Jasper Excellent! From a Project Management perspective, it also reduces overhead having to estimate a task and consider for backlog. A ticket can be created for copy changes, and then once Devs approve, tickets can be closed. Yes, that's the hope. Fewer handovers and fewer people involved. My experience has been that there is an exponential time factor based on how many people need to touch a given task. Really slows things down especially for larger teams. I've been waiting for something like this - can't wait to try this. How are permissions managed for different levels of users? The permission structure is basic at the moment - the admin can decide who can join. Devs have final approval rights for any edits that make it into the apps. In the future we are planning to build out more permission functionality that supports more complex workflows. This is great! Giving non-coders a clean way to interact with engineers using Github is really useful. Thanks robdmc. That's the idea to empower others to interact with code without having to learn how to code. And takes an annoying tasks off the devs. This is awesome. Have been looking for something to help with this! Thanks Jamie