Available to make decisions clearer Leo Smits · Amsterdam, NL

UX Writing & Content Design

I design clarity for moments where things can go wrong.

UX writing and content design for complex digital journeys, decision flows, and services with real-world consequences.

I help organisations reduce friction, remove ambiguity, and create experiences people can move through with confidence.

I work in environments where decisions carry real consequences.

30M+ users  ·  Loyalty, financial and operational systems  ·  High-stakes decision flows

View work
Leo Smits

Most conversion problems are not design problems.
They are failures in how systems communicate decisions.

Selected work

Different situations. Same challenge.

When communication is not clear, decisions break down. I work on systems where language has to do more than sound good. It has to reduce doubt, align teams and help people make the right decision at the right moment.

Making AI output reliable across languages

Flying Blue · GenAI Help System

  • Problem Members asked the same question in different ways and received different answers, especially across languages.
  • What I changed I helped the system refer back to verified source content and reusable answer templates, instead of generating a new explanation every time.
  • Result More consistent answers across languages, fewer support issues and more trust in the information members received.

Keeping language consistent across brands and teams

Flying Blue · Unified Glossary

  • Problem Air France, KLM and Flying Blue teams used different words for the same concepts. That slowed down decisions and created confusion.
  • What I changed I helped create one shared glossary with canonical terms, usage guidance, source logic and multilingual alignment across English, French and Dutch.
  • Result Teams worked from one source of truth. Drafting became faster, translation became safer and terminology drift was reduced.

Creating clarity between multiple organisations

EverydayMiles · Open Banking

  • Problem Progress stalled because Flying Blue, Legal, Mastercard and May interpreted the same topics differently.
  • What I changed I turned broad discussions into 17 concrete open questions, made blockers explicit and structured the answers so every party responded to the same reality.
  • Result Stakeholders aligned faster, open issues became actionable and the Terms and Conditions could move forward with less room for reinterpretation.

Helping operators act before problems escalate

Royal Schiphol Group · Wilbur

  • Problem Airport teams worked under pressure with separate data sources. Managers often saw problems only once they had already become operational issues.
  • What I changed I helped shape a real time dashboard with shared data, forecasts, role based advice and explicit alerts for the teams involved.
  • Result Teams could act earlier, queues were reduced and flights had a better chance of leaving on time.

Making financial decisions easier to understand

ABN AMRO · Onboarding and Tikkie

  • Problem Users had to make important financial decisions without clearly understanding the consequences before committing.
  • What I changed I moved key legal and financial implications earlier in the journey, used concrete scenarios and made review moments clearer.
  • Result Users understood what they were agreeing to earlier, with fewer drop offs, less hesitation and fewer mistakes.

Across these projects, the pattern is the same.

The work is not just writing better copy.
It is finding where decisions break, then designing the language, structure and governance that help people move forward.

Capabilities

Systems I fix

Content systems How decisions are communicated across product, marketing and UX.
Decision design Making outcomes clear before users act.
Governance and scale Keeping meaning consistent across teams and markets.
AI content infrastructure Scaling output without breaking trust or consistency.
Localisation systems Preserving meaning across languages, not just translating words.

People don't hesitate because they're confused.
They hesitate because they don't trust what happens next.

If that's happening in your product or process, we should talk.

Get in touch

About

Leo Smits

Where trust is won or lost

I help organisations make complex things easier to understand, especially in the moments where things can go wrong.

My work sits between UX writing, content design, and decision architecture. I focus on journeys where people need to make important decisions, understand complex systems, or complete tasks with real-world consequences.

Because when language doesn't match what a system actually does, people hesitate. They make mistakes. Trust disappears.

That's the work I'm drawn to.

I work in cross-functional teams, alongside designers, researchers, product managers and legal, to create experiences that are clear, predictable, and easy to move through. Often the solution is not more content, but less ambiguity at the right moment.

I care about clarity that helps people continue with confidence.