Clear, Concise, and Useful: How to Find the Balance Formula in UX Writing
And craft the perfect copies every time!
After understanding what it takes to craft a user-friendly copy with the three UX writing principles (clear, concise, and useful), it’s now time to find out the balance in between. As a UX writer, I guarantee you will face limitations in working with the copies because our working space is just within a few inches wide. Now, add other design elements such as buttons, icons, illustrations, and proper spacing; the copy working space will be more and more limited.
On the other hand, we are responsible for communicating instructions or information to the users, no matter how complicated it is. Whether their account has turned dormant due to inactivity, they failed the KYC process because of wrong positioning of their face during the liveness, or when they faced some technical issues in their account, we should always be able to give clarity to our users.
It’s frustrating sometimes, I agree. But it’s manageable if you can strategize your content. Now, back to the three principles you know, you must be wondering, “How do I fulfill these three criteria whenever I write copies?”. The answer is that you can’t always create the ideal copy that fits all three in the same weight. You will find certain scenarios when you have to compromise, and that’s why you have to find the balance of all three.
Be creative with the sentence structure
The general rule for UX writing is to use active voice as much as you can. But wait until you find out that writing in an active voice is not ideal sometimes because the passive voice helps you frontload the information better and makes your copy more effective. Passive voice also helps you to direct users’ focus to the action and maintain neutrality when something bad happens (for example, in the case of an error message).
So, what I always do whenever I’m stuck with my copies is try to explore various structures and re-read them loudly until I find the most ideal version. Don’t be too rigid with the rules; feel free to explore your creativity!
Don’t be obsessed with the “correct” grammar
Now, talking about the structure, this is actually something I realized quite early in my journey as a UX writer. I often find myself sacrificing grammar due to the limited space, and voilà, the message is still conveyed perfectly! Since space is often the biggest challenge in UX writing, don’t worry if you miss an article (a, an, the) in your copy. If omitting it works (and even makes it more concise), then you’re good to go!
Some common examples of simplified phrases in browser navigation:
See? The “perfect” version only makes it much longer and contributes nothing to the clarity of the left copies.
Cut the non-essential word
Logically, if you only have small space to write, you should also write short copies that don’t look stuffy. But how? One trick I often do is to try removing some words that I think don’t give enough value (or are redundant) and check if the message is still clear without distorting the context I want to convey. If it changes nothing, I will go with the shorter version.
Let’s see an example of this notification when users have created their Pocket in the Jago app:
The word “successfully” is deemed unnecessary because the logic is that if your Pocket is already created (which is indicated by the “has been” in the present perfect tense used), then it means that it’s a successful process. Don’t forget that we also have the green check mark, which clearly symbolizes a successful process.
Finally, if I find no other way to simplify my copy without sacrificing its clarity, the last resort would be to explore the design instead, which brings us to the next point.
Communicate with the designer
The user interface consists of both design and text, ideally complementing each other.
Since you’re working hand-in-hand with designers, be open with them and communicate your needs. Let the designers know if you need more space or think an icon/illustration/banner should be added to complement and represent the message better. Even in my junior years as a UX writer, I often help the designer create the landing page wireframe along with the kind of asset I want to include. Be collaborative and think outside the box. Remember, as a UX writer, you should be able to design the content as a whole, not just fixing the typos or translating the text!
This is the example where actually the message is already highlighted by the design, and my copy is just there to give more clarity :)
Remember, as a UX writer, you should be able to design the content as a whole, not just fixing the typos or translating the text!
Those are the things I usually do to find my balance when writing copies. What about you? If you have any other tips to do, please feel free to comment below and share the trick 🙂
Happy writing!
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