Speaking the User’s Language
How to create a UX Writing Guide
UX writing helps create better digital experiences by using clear and helpful language. It’s all about choosing words that make people feel understood and supported when they use apps or websites. Whether you’re helping users complete a task or solve a problem, the right words matter. Even if you don’t work in UX, these tips may help you write in a way that connects with your audience and makes their experience better.
In this article, I would like to share what I learned and show you how we created our writing guide.
Short Backstory
My design colleague and I started a new project that involved improving the overall text. As a result, I created a writing guide that should help us in the future to create texts that are more satisfying and consistent for the user. The product we were working on was still relatively unknown to us. Since we knew little about our users and how they interacted with the product, we began by gathering these essential details.
Creating a UX writing guide is about more than just setting rules for the words displayed on a screen — it’s about building a connection with the people who use the product. This means the process must begin, as it did in our project, with developing a deeper understanding.
Analysis & Understanding
Start by getting to know the product
Why does the product exist, what does it do, and who is it for? Gather the following:
- The product mission
- The key features
- The target audience
This basic knowledge will help you align your writing with the product’s purpose.
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Our brand team had already gathered some research and survey results for an upcoming rebranding project of the product, which we were able to use. We also spoke with people who had been working with the brand for a while and compiled all the existing data and insights into a document.
As part of the project, we analyzed the platform’s user flow and information architecture, integrating these findings into our writing guide.
Get to know the people behind the screens
Who are your users? To write copy that resonates, you need to understand the people using the product — their habits, preferences, and challenges.
- Use existing data from interviews, surveys, or usability tests
- Review personas
- If possible, observe real users interacting with the product
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At that time, we unfortunately didn’t have completed personas.
However, we did have data on the usage behavior of the current platform, which we could analyze. We looked at analytics to gain insights into how users interacted with the product (e.g., common drop-off points or areas of confusion).
Together with our UX researcher, we also wanted to explore and gather general user feedback. What are the users’ problems and desires? For this, we also worked with the Customer Care team, who provided us with very helpful feedback.
To better understand our users, we looked at data from reliable sources like the Pew Research Center. We also did our own research to learn how our users think and talk. We looked at social media posts — both from our own brand accounts and other places where our target audience spends time. With text analysis tools, we identified the common words and phrases that our users frequently use.
This information was extremely helpful for writing our UX guide in a way that would connect with our users.
It’s important to understand how your users use language, what words they choose, and the overall character of their language.
Review what exists today
This refers to the existing product and copy.
- Explore every touchpoint: Go through the app or website and note how it “speaks” to users at each stage — sign-in screens, buttons, error messages, etc.
- Watch for inconsistencies: Do some buttons say “Next,” while others say “Continue”? Does the tone shift between friendly and robotic? Mark areas that need improvement.
- Ask for feedback: Customer service teams or user reviews are gold mines for understanding where users are confused or frustrated.
- Connect with experts who work with the product regularly (designers, developers, brand teams, etc.)
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As already mentioned, we worked closely with our customer service team to understand what users were saying about our product. We also looked at reviews from the app store and other review websites. Not only were these data helpful for the writing guide, but they also allowed us to identify recurring problems that were insightful for the project.
To get a complete picture, we took screenshots of all important text in the product, including error messages, helpful tips, buttons, empty screen messages, and so on. We did this to find any places where the writing wasn’t consistent or clear enough.
In the next step, we used the collected data to create our writing guide.
Creation of the Writing Guide
Define Voice and Tone
Just like a person, a product has a unique way of “speaking” to users that reflects its values and identity. The voice represents the product’s consistent personality, while the tone adjusts this personality based on context or situation.
Whether your product is serious, playful, or soothing, its voice should remain consistent across all touchpoints, including error messages, onboarding flows, and help sections.
How to Define the Voice
Identify the personality traits of the brand:
- Brainstorm with stakeholders (e.g., marketing, branding, product teams) to define the core personality of the product. Choose 2–3 adjectives to describe the product’s voice. These traits should reflect the brand’s values and meet user expectations. Example: “Empowering, friendly, trustworthy.”
- Provide realistic descriptions of how these traits come to life in writing:
- Empowering: Write in simple, direct language to help users understand exactly what to do.
- Friendly: Write in a simple, clear way that everyone can understand.
- Trustworthy: Tell the truth and keep things simple — don’t overstate or make things sound bigger than they are. - Connect with your audience: Ensure the voice aligns with the emotions, needs, and preferences of the users.
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In our writing guide, I summarized the identified personality traits that I had compiled with our brand and marketing team. I divided it into “How we are” and “How we are not.”
How to Define the Tone
Tone changes based on the situation while keeping the same overall voice. Think of it like how you might speak differently to a friend who’s happy versus one who’s upset. The tone should also match how the user is feeling (frustrated, happy, confused, excited) and what’s happening (celebrating something, giving instructions, or apologizing for an error).
Write for different situations a user might face:
- Success: Completing a task, achieving a goal.
- Error: Something goes wrong or the user encounters a problem.
- Neutral: Regular informational messages, such as tooltips or navigation instructions.
- Encouragement: Onboarding or motivational messages.
Describe the tone for each scenario: Explain how the voice adapts and provide concrete examples to illustrate the tone.
Create Tone-of-Voice dimensions
Use a tone spectrum to visually represent the tone shift. This can help better understand tone adjustments and apply them consistently.
Additional Guidelines and Tips
Include a cheat sheet and style tips in your writing guide to make life easier for anyone writing for the product.
Cheat Sheet
A cheat sheet is a simple list of words and phrases that everyone working on the product should use. It helps writers and designers use the same language that matches the brand’s style. Think of it as a quick guide that shows which words to use in different situations to keep everything clear and consistent.
You can also describe how word choices change depending on the user context:
- Success: Use positive, action-oriented words like “Good job” or “You’re done.”
- Error: Use empathetic, neutral phrases like “Let’s fix this together” instead of “You made a mistake.”
Additionally, you can include guidelines for space limitations (especially for UI elements with limited space like buttons, tooltips, or mobile interfaces).
Tips for Writing Microcopy
Add tips to help write clear and simple text, like:
- Be specific: Avoid vague phrases like “click here.” Instead, describe the action: “View Profile.”
- Focus on the user: Use “you” to make it personal. Example: “Your settings are saved” instead of “The settings have been saved.”
- Use active language: Prefer direct, action-oriented sentences. Example: “Upload your file” instead of “Your file can be uploaded.”
- Avoid negative phrasing: Frame messages positively when possible. Example: “Please enter your email address” instead of “Do not leave the email field empty.”
This can also be represented visually. In our writing guide, I used positive and negative examples to illustrate these tips.
With our writing guide complete, you can still explore additional helpful resources and add them to your document. While many AI writing tools exist today, websites like hemingwayapp.com remain excellent tools for crafting clearer, more accessible text. Grammarly is also a useful writing tool that checks your spelling, and grammar, and helps make your writing clearer and better.
A UX writing guide is more than a list of rules about words. It’s a tool that helps you connect with the people using your product.
Every word you choose matters — from the smallest button to the longest message. When you write clearly and thoughtfully, you help users feel comfortable with your product, trust it more, and see it as something made for real people, not just machines.
Don’t aim for perfection — focus on getting better over time. Watch how people use your product, try out different ways of writing, and update your guide as you learn more. When you write in a way that’s clear and friendly, you’ll create something that truly connects with users and makes them want to come back.
I can highly recommend this book on this topic: https://www.microcopybook.com/
Thank you for reading and: Good writing!