A mega list of UX writing resources
Books, articles and podcasts to feed your UX writer mind
A little over a year ago, I landed my very first job in UX.
UX never felt like a career option for me. It just wasn’t on my radar, because it’s for designers right? People who are good with visuals and typography and all that wizardry? And design doesn’t have much to do with words, does it? (Oh now there’s an article for another day…).
So, anyway. It turns out I was wrong. Words have a LOT do with design. I knew it at the time, even if I didn’t Know It. But to a freelance copywriter who’d spent six years churning out content in the haze of little-person parenting, it felt many worlds away.
Then, a job ad. With the BBC. Well hello, behemoth employer on my doorstep. But UX Writer…now what the heck is this shiny new job title all about? I mean, I write. I’ve written professionally for over ten years. UX though? Hmmm nope, that’s not what I do. Is it? (Plot twist: turns out that yes, I was doing UX — I’d just been describing it with different vocabulary. Irony much?)
Of course, I apply. And I get the job. Yesssss!!
Then…oh crap. What the hell are you doing you nitwit! You know nothing about UX. Hello, imposter syndrome. We’ve been here before, haven’t we. I’d better slay you before this gets out of hand.
Cue a panicked search for brain food. Some knowledge to use as a lifeline while I figure out how to be ‘legitimate’. I trawl Twitter. Google my heart out. Scroll Medium like a woman possessed. I find lots of treasures, consume them, and tuck them away in a list on Evernote.
Fast-forward almost twelve months, and I realise the list is wasted on my eyes only. So I send it to my fellow UX writers at the BBC. They add a load of their go-to gems (three cheers for collaboration — thank you Gillian, Shilpa and Fiona!).
And now, it’s a mega list.
So here it is.
I hope you find it helpful.
Books
Content Design by Sarah Richards
Conversational Design by Erika Hall
The Content Strategy Toolkit by Meghan Casey
Why you need a content team and how to build one by Rachel McConnell
Microcopy by Kinneret Yifrah
Content Strategy for the Web by Kristina Halvorson
Microcopy by Niaw de Leon
Copywriting by Mark Shaw
Everybody Writes by Ann Handley
Writing for Designers by Scott Kubie
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
Talks
Stop writing for the web, Erika Hall
Content strategy isn’t just for content people, Sarah Richards
Content strategy interviews YouTube channel
Everybody hurts: content for kindness, Sara Wachter-Boettcher
Articles and how tos
So you’ve got a product writer on your team. Now what?
Natural language and conversational search
How to write any error message
How to develop a website content evaluation plan
How to use Airtable for content audits
Why PDFs should be avoided on GOV.UK
How the New York Times redesigned their homepage
10 things UX writers hate to hear
End note: this list is no doubt missing some amazing ‘whatttt how did you miss that?!’ resources. Please do share them with me! Let’s turn the comments into a tasty list of UX writing goodness :)
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