Finally sending you this
A year ago I started this newsletter.
This was the first thing I wrote, but I never sent it by email.
I kept it as a “pinned post” on my Substack, so anyone who found their way there could read it. Almost a statement of intent, more for myself than for anyone else.
So now that The Last Scroll turns one (today, June 11th), what better moment to finally send it to you. As a reminder of how I started, and of how, a year later, I’m still keeping it pinned as my hero post. My compass.
Here it is:
The Last Scroll - Opening scene
I’m from the 80s. So I grew up around technology, sort of.
First the Spectrum. Then the screech of a 56k modem dialing.
Internet before Google, Messenger before social media.
My first mobile phone? I was 19.
We didn’t have feeds or chase reach or write for algorithms. We just wrote.
(under a nickname, most of the time).
Now every word lives inside a system turning writing into growth. And growth, unfortunately, into performance.
So while companies work hard to sound more human, we’ve slowly started to sound like brands.
And the more we try to sound “right”, the less we sound like ourselves.
But even inside all of this — the feeds, the dopamine loops, the noise — it’s still possible to write for the screen without editing ourselves out. And meet the reader on the other side of the screen
That’s what I write about here:
How we read on a screen.
Who we become online.
And how UX influences what gets read… and what doesn’t.
Because online, we don’t write the way we do on paper. And on a screen, we don’t read the way we think we do.
Two worlds colliding: digital writing and user experience.
So if you’re still here at the bottom of the scroll, pull up a chair.
— The Last Scroll, issue one. June 11, 2025 —
And since it’s a birthday….
Here are three issues, one from each category. I picked the ones people came back to and read again. The most re-read (yes, that’s tracked too).
How we read on a screen: Why we scroll back up
Who we become online: "Write with your voice" , they say. But which one?
Digital writing: What is Content Design, really?
Before you go
Embarrassing truth (but true nonetheless): it took me a full year to launch my newsletter. A whole year between texting someone, “I want to start a newsletter” and sending the first issue. Don’t be me. Don’t wait that long.
This has been one of the best things I’ve ever done for me personally and professionally.
If you've been here since the beginning, thank you. And if you've been reading me for a few months, or you just got here … I hope you'll stick around a while. Because this is just getting started.
Until the next scroll,
V.
P.S. I always answer my emails, so if you’re on Substack you can leave a comment, and if you’re reading this in your inbox you can say hi :)
