What is UX writing and why is it important?

There’s a high demand for people who can write copy for digital products.

Companies with good UX have enjoyed the engagement of their audience. Making other companies increasingly prioritise creating a smooth and seamless user experience across their digital products.

What is UX writing?

User Experience (UX) writing is the art of creating clear and comprehensive user-centred texts or copy to facilitate the best user experience possible. UX writers are also called content designers. UX copywriting provides and guides users through a digital experience, be it a website, mobile app or other interfaces. The primary goal of User experience writing is to help users establish a relationship with the product. User experience focuses on emotion and ensures that the path is clear for the user. It makes the user's journey unquestionable and seamless whiles navigating the application or website. Users shouldn’t have to focus on reading buttons. A good copy ensures that users’ actions are intuitive. Basically, UX writing in simple terms is writing for design, where words have a purpose and are driven by user goals. Here’s what Zip recruiters have to say about UX writers' salaries.

How do I become a UX writer?

For me, I learned with a series of free and available resources I got online. My friend then recommended me for a gig in UX writing which exposed me more to the full scope and I learned more on the job.

The best way to become a UX Writer is to take UX writing courses, have an understanding of design principles, look for people in the same field to network with and start applying for gigs ( Contract and full-time)

Where to get UX Writing Resources

• UX content collectives
• Udemy
• UX writing hub
• Coursera
• Career foundry
• You can take daily challenges on Daily UX Writing

Some skills you need to become a UX Writer

• Technical writing

Technical writing is writing about technology, or writing to provide technical information. UX writers need a good understanding of how the user interface of digital products works, understand the design process and collaborate with experience designers.

• User Research

As a writer, it is necessary to understand how user research works to help complement your skill. To be able to understand what the user wants, the writer needs to write from the perspective of the user.

User research also helps the UX writer to know what tone of voice to use, the target audience and their level of understanding of the product as well as the type of language to use for that demography.

• Design Skill

User experience writers with good design knowledge thrive in the field. Understanding how a user will navigate the app or website will help the writer create a good copy for the product for a better experience.

• Communication Skill

UX writers work best when they have the ability to collaborate with the rest of the team in building a product. That includes UX designers, product managers, engineers, researchers, and content strategists.

Know your users

Before we build anything, we need to know:

• Who the users are?
• What they’re trying to do, and why?
• How do they want to do it?

UX Writing and Copy Writing

In simple terms, a User experience will focus on how the audience is able to interact with the product and their experience throughout the journey. The difference between a copywriter and a UX writer is that the UX writers have a responsibility to guide a user through using the product in an intuitive manner. One uses bigger words to attract customers, and the other one uses simple words to explain concepts. A typical copywriter is sales-oriented and works with the marketing team to tell stories.

The examples of copy and microcopy written by UX writers include small components of text like:

• Microcopy like buttons, controls, chatbots popups, form fields
• Navigation menus
• Macrocopy like error messages, instructions, headers
• Security notes
• Call-to-action messages
• Disclaimers
• Info copy
• On-screen help text
• Notifications

The Goal of UX Writing

• Support and reflect users’ journey.
• Guide first-time users in the simplest and most helpful way so they can take the required actions to proceed or go back.
• Help them complete certain tasks on the page they have landed.
• Build trust and credibility to increase acquisition, conversion, and retention.

Whereas UX writing is entirely user-centric with the design in mind and the goal to make a product easier for the user to navigate across and to complete certain actions. UX writers collaborate with designers and developers.

Tips on Writing UX Texts: The Good & the Bad

No matter whether you are a transitioning copywriter to UX writer or a professional UX writer, these tips will serve you well.

Are you able to spot the difference?

Do’s:

• Use concise, scannable blocks of texts and keep the most important texts upfront.
• The copy should be plain, understandable and easy to read. Avoid trendy languages, they can make the copy outdated quickly.
• Start with what will be achieved when performing an action. Example: To proceed with the fill-in form, click next.
• Provide all necessary information to the user.
• Keep the UX writing consistent, no need to use synonyms to avoid repetition. This will lead to confusion.
• Write in an active voice and use the present tense and avoid future tense.

Don’t:

• Use numerals instead of words to save space and make the text more acute.
• Use the document has been downloaded Use: Document downloaded
• Label buttons correctly to avoid confusing the user.
• Keep the balance between users’ language and the company’s voice and tone.
• Perform usability testing and user testing to see what works and what doesn’t.

Dont’s:

• Using humour everywhere in the UX microcopy or microcopy. This might be inappropriate and even difficult to translate to other cultures.
• Guess the user's needs. Make extensive research before writing a copy for a product.
• Use articles (a, an, the) for instructions.
• Vague messages may cause confusion such as “Error has occurred”. Hmmm, what error? Where? Explain the error in a precise way to help the user take better action.
• Avoid long texts. In case it's necessary, cut the text in half.
• Indicating dates will slow the process down do not ask the user to check the calendar. Instead try to write “yesterday”, “today”, or “tomorrow” if possible.
• Overdoing with interactive elements. This may distract the user from their main goal and even increase the bounce rate.

Conclusion

The goal of a UX writer is to make the conversation a user has with a product effective and seamless this is one of the most important parts of the design process. UX writers need to have a close working relationship with software developers, designers, researchers and other people who are responsible for a product to create a user-centred design that users would be comfortable using and navigating, truly it takes a village.

Companies around the world are becoming much more aware of the significance of good digital content in their products which has led to the high demand in the product market.