The most taboo subject in UX writing: measuring success, OKRs, and KPIs

If you’re into UX writing and content design, you know that even a small change like a title can dramatically boost a page’s conversion rate.

Take the famous case of Google’s hotel search, for example. In 2017, UX Writer Maggie Stanphill and her team switched the call-to-action from “Book a room” to “Check availability.”
The outcome? A 17% increase in user engagement.

But measuring the success of UX writing goes much deeper than that.

In this post, I’ll break down OKRs and KPIs for UX writing to help you:

• Understand what we are talking about.
• Evaluate how you measure UX writing success.
• Set clear objectives, results, and metrics to track progress.
• See how Lorem can help you define your strategy based on your business goals and team needs.

1. Measuring the success of UX writing

Evaluating the true impact of content optimization on user experience and business value is a big challenge. In my opinion, here are two key steps we should consider for measuring UX writing success:

I use “we” because some actions can be taken individually, while others require our community to collaborate on building a solid framework.

1. Define KPIs for UX writing: it means, to create a specific measurement model tailored to our field. I’ll provide examples below, but I’m still refining the framework myself.
2. Set clear objectives for progress: it means, to develop an effective tracking and evaluation method based on your situation (whether you’re managing/part of a mature team or a solo UX writer) and your business goals.

2. OKRs in UX writing

When defining OKRs in UX writing, I’ll start to say we can split them into two main categories:

Internal OKRs: focused on content quality and collaboration

These OKRs are crucial for measuring the success of UX writing by assessing how efficiently and consistently teams operate.

Examples of internal OKRs:

• Objective: Ensure content consistency and quality across user interfaces and journeys.
  Key results:
  - All terms used in the user interfaces are consistent.
  - Component guidelines are consistently followed.
• Objective: Standardize UX writing processes across all projects.
  Key results: Train 80% of the team in writing components by {date}.

External OKRs: focused on user experience

These OKRs aim to improve the user experience with clearer, more intuitive, and engaging microcopy.

Examples of external OKRs:

• Objective: Simplify navigation within the interface.
  Key results: Increase task success rate to 90%.
• Objective: Reduce support requests related to misunderstood features.
  Key results: Decrease support tickets by 25%.

3. Understanding the difference between OKRs and KPIs

OKRs set your goals, ambitions, and roadmap for improvement. How do you achieve these results? By aligning KPIs with your key results.
In short, OKRs define where we want to go, while KPIs measure how we get there.

Metrics to track internal quality

• Revision frequency: How often is the copy revised? Why are these changes made?
• Compliance with standards: How many copies released do not meet established standards? Do our teams have the right tools for producing quality content?

Metrics to track external quality

• Understanding: Do users make mistakes when interacting with the content?
• Word choice: Are you using vocabulary that users recognize and adopt?
• Ease of use: How do your word choices streamline navigation and encourage user action?

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I hope you find this article helpful!

I’d love to hear about your experiences:

• Have you set OKRs for UX writing this year?
• Do you have a list of KPIs to track your progress?
• Do you need assistance in developing your own tracking method?

Feel free to share your thoughts!

Clara