it’s the most downloaded food app in the world, and i got to make it even better—and occasionally treat myself to mcnuggets.
the challenge
practically everyone has nostalgic feelings about stopping for a bite on a long car ride home, or letting themselves melt into a mcflurry after a long day. the mcdonald’s brand is focused on delivering feel-good moments to everyone, but how do you bring that sense of joy to a digital experience?
my solution
with mcdonald’s as my client at huge, i realized the secret sauce was embracing the scope and scale of the work, and developed an adage that informed my work: everybody goes to mcdonald’s, so mcdonald’s has to be for everyone.
i completely overhauled the existing style guide to be more comprehensive, more detailed, and overall more inclusive. modeled after the ap style guide, it established best practices for bringing world-famous customer service to the mcdonald’s app, kiosk, and website. it also outlined specifics on grammar, tone, punctuation, and most importantly, how to write out that jingle. i want to go on the record and say it’s ba da ba ba ba. no hyphens. no bah at the end.
this also meant working closely with mcdonald’s in-house accessibility team and learning all i could from them when it came to serving everybody.
we aligned on copy being written at a 6th grade level, to accommodate the average literacy level in the united states as well as english as a second language learners and, of course, younger customers.
we also outlined do’s and don’ts of writing accessibly, including language to omit when writing. you won’t find the word “see” anywhere in a mcdonald’s digital experience because it excludes people who use screen readers.
furthermore, we used guidance from the perkins school for the blind to ensure the style guide itself was accessible.
having this in my back pocket enabled me to write more meaningful copy for new features, like ready on arrival, which is a neat new offering where you can order ahead and the app will use geolocation to know when you’re close to the restaurant, triggering the kitchen to start prepping your meal so it’s ready when you are. i also got to learn a fun word in german, mehrwegpfand (literally “reusable deposit”), which is a rebate system that market uses for reusable dinnerware in restaurants.
additionally
working on mcdonald’s was a once in a lifetime experience. i even got to go to company headquarters in chicago and see the happy meal wall, and i got to meet the in-house archivist for the company. i have to say it, right? it’s obligatory. i was…lovin’ it.
emotional language. 