On Becoming a UX Writer — A Personal Journey & Advice for Newbies

7 min readAug 27, 2022

For the longest time, I simply enjoyed writing both as a hobby and source of income. It just came to me naturally unlike those calculations I had to do in Maths class which I always failed anyways. Don’t laugh, please.

I knew writing was my thing when I could easily switch my voice and tone to fit the type of content I was writing. I just always knew what to say, how to say it and when to say it.

I could also determine a speaker’s mood, the meaning of their words and even imagine what situation they are in just by reading and creating colourful imaginative pieces in my head. Thanks to my degree in English Studies…and my mind, of course.

For instance, I never thought I would write this post today until I read a satirical post about designers and how to deal with them. It inspired me to write this in a very weird way, I must say. It made me wonder why I decided that UX Writing is where it's at for me.

How I Became A UX Writer

One way or another, I wanted to get into tech too. Tech is another thing that fascinates me so much.

I considered getting into Artificial Intelligence (AI). It seemed so cool to me yunno; building robots, programming computers, and creating algorithms for social media platforms just seemed so extraordinary and fun to me (It still is)

But it wasn’t for me, sadly.

Then I decided to become a developer. Look, I was reaching for all the tech careers that promised huge pay. Many of my developer friends were so excited to help my journey, if you are reading this, I’m sorry I disappointed you all (that’s a lie, I’m not sorry and I know you’re happy for me too).

I started learning to code but it quickly became tiring. Writing strings of codes and spoon-feeding the computer to carry out basic commands was boring to me. My brain would refuse to cooperate every time I began to code, I knew I would get frustrated in the end, so I quit.

I was determined to find my place in tech. I wondered if there was a place for people like me who can’t do the techy stuff but still want to be in tech.

Then I found Product design.

I love Product design and it’s not because product designers are well-paid. I just love anything that involves design. In fact, I was enrolled in a fashion design school for about 3 years (that’s a story for another day).

I digress.

I took courses in Product design, got many research materials and started studying. A good friend even gave me his Udemy login details and signed me up for a course that his company was offering to newbies at the time.

One thing led to another and I couldn’t keep up with the lessons. There was no time for me to properly study and it all began to look so confusing so I left it. I believe I’ll find my love for Product design again someday.

I found UX writing and we were such a perfect match. It checked all my boxes.

I’m an empath who loves helping people and playing with words. All I needed to do was learn the rudiments of this field and get into it.

It seemed so easy until I got into it.

I read as many articles as possible to get more information about UX writing. I also joined this UX writer group on Twitter, I was invited by a mutual. At the time, UX writing as a career wasn’t as popular in Nigeria as it has become now.

I found it interesting but UX writing processes still seemed confusing to me and none of the books I read could help me. I knew I had to get more knowledge but I wasn’t ready to pay for a course as I still wasn’t sure I wanted to make financial commitments yet.

The thought of how to get out of this dilemma lingered in my mind until I summoned the courage to send a DM to Amos Adejimi. He scheduled a call where I discussed my pain points and he offered advice. You could reach out to him too, he’s a really cool guy.

How to know UX writing is for you?

Do you love interacting with digital interfaces?
Do you love to write and read?
Are you a natural at problem-solving?
Are you an empath?
Are you good at research and documentation?
Do you enjoy breaking down technical jargon into easily understandable concepts for people?
Do you genuinely care about helping people solve problems they encounter while using digital interfaces?
Does crappy and unhelpful user interface (UI) piss you off?

If your answer to all or most of the questions above is yes then you might have found the perfect career for you.

Study Resources

I’ll list some of the resources that have helped my journey as a UX Writer. I kept links to them in a Notion file for the sake of future references, you can do the same too. You’ll find both free and paid resources for your personal study below, I’ll also include books you can read.

Here we go:

Articles:

What is UX Writing by Lisa Sanchez
Open-source UX Design Resources by Interaction Design Foundation
User-Centred Design: An Introduction by Ekaterina Novoseltseva
UX Writing: Study Guide by Norman Nielsen Group
Writing is Designing by UX Matters
Copywriting is Interface Design by Eugen Esanu
UX Writing and Content Design Basics
How To Define A User Persona
5 Tips to create a stand-out UX Writing portfolio by Emerson Schroeter
UX Writing for Beginners by Amos Adejimi
Principles of Writing by Material Design
Content Strategy, UX Writing And The (Confusing) Relation Between The Two

Communities

Courses

You can access some of these courses for free but you might need a subscription plan or need to pay a token for others.

Free

Foundations of UX Writing by UX Writing Hub
Daily UX Writing Challenge: This can help you build your portfolio so you can start applying for jobs.
Think like an Editor by Anne Ditmeyer
UX Writing by UXcel: This is a freemium course. You can study the free parts they offer and pay if you wish to proceed to the next level

Paid

Fundamentals of UX Writing by UX Content Collective
Foundations of UX Writing
Microcopy & UX Writing: The Complete Course by Kinneret Yifrah
UX Writing at Berghs
Introduction to UX Writing by Dr Katharina Grimm
Introduction to UX Writing by Mario Ferrer
Fundamentals of UX Writing for Beginners by Pedro Quintino

Books

Bonus: UX Writing Library has a combination of all these resources. They also have tips on how you can build your portfolio and ace your interviews.

I don’t enjoy listening to podcasts but I found a few you might like from a Medium post by Katherine Bradshaw-Jones. You will find more podcast options in the resource archive provided by UX Writing Library.

Podcasts

The Content Strategy Podcast hosted by Kristina Halvorson
Insert Content Here hosted by Jeff Eaton
Scriptorium, a content strategy podcast
Content Design Podcast hosted by Vanessa Barlow
VUX World hosted by Kane Sims

Nigerian UX Writers

Although UX writing as a career is yet to be mainstream in Nigeria, you can still find people making waves already. I believe you might need to ask some questions for the sake of clarity just as I needed to when I started my journey.

Here are a few Nigerian UX writers you can reach out to:

Rounding Up

UX writing is an exciting field and so far you enjoy writing, you can easily switch careers. You will find most UX writers have a degree in Creative Writing, English Studies, Psychology, Anthropology, Linguistics, Human-Computer Interaction and Journalism.

This is not to say that you can’t become a UX writer if you come from other backgrounds. If you’re a UX designer, Journalist or Copywriter; you won’t face so much of a challenge trying to switch to UX writing.

However, don’t be discouraged if you don’t fall into any of the aforementioned categories, if you have a genuine interest, you can still make the switch.

We need more foot soldiers to preach the gospel of UX writing in Nigeria and the community will be more than ready to welcome you. If you’re interested in UX writing, don’t hesitate to give it a shot and put in the work needed to succeed.