Last night a copy saved my life
The importance of copywriting, storytelling and UX writing in your product.
What if we change this lyric a little?
Last night a ̶D̶J̶ Copy saved my life
Last night a ̶D̶J̶ Copy saved my life, yeah
’Cause I was sittin’ there bored to death
And in just one breath he said
You gotta get up
You gotta get off
You gotta get down, girl
You know you drive me crazy, baby
You’ve got me turning to another ̶m̶a̶n̶ woman
Called you on the phone
No one’s home
Baby, why’d you leave me all alone?
And if it wasn’t for ̶t̶h̶e̶ ̶m̶u̶s̶i̶c̶ the copy, I don’t know what I’d do, yeah
Where was I? Ok, going back to the time and I listen to myself saying things like:
People don’t read!
This copy is too wordy and kills my design!
And you know? It’s good to know that that old me died some time ago. I’m talking to my teammates that I would not design with Lorem Ipsum now and I’m not afraid to do my UX writing anymore.
I think although we have a lot of posts, books and professionals telling us that we must have the content first. But designers, marketers and some creatives are in my old state of mind. But one thing it’s true is that the people get mad if they see like a thousand words post.
1. Lorem ipsum issue
The message we can share with our teammates/clients not using a real copy
- I’m not interested in this brand or this product.
- I don’t know anything about your/this product.
- I’ve not spent five minutes.
- I’m not as professional as I have sold you. As you see, I don’t give importance to all the details.
This is something I learn from Noelia Terrer — Creative copywriter and partner at Ladies & Gentlemen in July event of LW&D Valencia.
Designers couldn’t design without knowing what would be told on the page.
How many times you see a portfolio and see almost the same structure and design in many designs? Well, sometimes what we do knowing nothing is a wireframe like this if we don’t have information.
No talk about how to put images, illustrations or even icons if you don’t know what you will talk about.
2. Write it for humans, not robots!
An Error is always the great forgotten. This is where you can see how much the designer and the UX think about how to solve a problem.
They are humans and don’t want to play to guess which button could click without it small world explode. So please try to use human-centred words even in buttons, errors, and everything.
Small tips from our partner in crime and UX writer Chabe Rollán:
- Don’t use cancel and acceptance, try to use something a person will answer to a real question.
- Be clear and concise and try to reflect the spirit of the brand.
- Try the user smile and is reading something.
3. Research, research and research!
As designers, we always start doing a little research, well is the same for making copies, if you are not a pro writer, you will need some inspiration to create the copies. You could search the competitor’s websites or other websites you like the voice and tone they are using.
Look into the small details like modals, CTA and buttons. Here you can see how the UX writer is making magic.
4. Create a blueprint and create a brief if you don’t have one
You need to know the audience, their needs and the achievement of the digital product you are creating.
- Who’s your target? Get specific. Create a pair of User personas would be the best to know your user.
- What does your user persona care about? Consider all their emotional needs and pain points.
- What are you trying to achieve? This could be a general action or a particular one in a specific page
5. Create an appropriate voice and tone as important as logo and colour.
Voice and tone are essential as logo, colours or illustrations, maybe even more. Do you know MailChimp? They have one of the best guidelines for this purpose.
The brand has to be a unique voice. Imagine you’re talking with someone, and that person is changing their form of they are talking to you in any conversation. Don’t you feel like you’re talking with Mr Jekil and Mr Hide? It is the same thing on a voice and tone.
So what can we do to make the unique personality of a brand?
Describe it as a person.
Yes, like a person, think about a real personality, you want your brand to have. Is it funny or it is serious? Is it sophisticated or casual? List it and create your character, create your brand personality.
Make a strong Style guide with examples.
Well, this is better to see some examples of what your brand is expected. The next person needs to see which are the best forms of answer a support email, talk in Social Media or even if you want a Yay! instead of Yes. We tent to be super formal and maybe our brand is bold and funny, so this is super important to document it.
Review and update the brand personality
Your brand would evolve and change during the time, as a human being does. So review your style guide, document it and improve it from time to time.
And one last advice.
Don’t worry about failures, yes I know it is dumb advice, but if you’re working in a digital product, you can always improve it. So don’t be afraid! Copywriting is not an exact science. Remember you can always…
