UX writing is not yet a well-known role in Singapore. Of course, my Google Trends screenshot doesn’t really prove much because — as marketing ninjas and rockstars proved us — your title can be whatever you want it to be. My statement is based more on the very limited data sample of people working in Singapore who have asked me what is UX writing and how is it different from copywriting or content writing.
In the past, I’ve tried to be smart and answer with a soundbite:
It’s the button and not the banner.
I soon realised I was not being smart, I was being pompous. No one had the faintest idea what I was talking about. And why should they? As a UX writer, I should have reminded myself that clarity trumps being “smart”. So here I am going to try and explain it in an actual sentence that makes sense.
UX writers create the copy that helps people use your app or website. Or, to borrow the words of Voislav Dimitrijevic, UX writers give meaning to user interface.
Copywriters focus on selling the stuff on your app or website and, even though good UX writers do that too, their main focus is to help users achieve the task at hand, e.g., add a new credit card, verify their mobile number, retrieve a forgotten password.
If you’re considering becoming a UX writer or hiring one and wondering how to write the JD, here are three other areas in which UX writing differs from copywriting.
There’s less writing
Days will pass and you will not write a single word. Apart from all the emails and Slack messages, of course. You’ll be writing those because UX writers spend a lot of time talking to product managers, engineers, UX researchers, business heads and designers.
For example, what kind of time format would fit emails, push notifications, SMSs and multiple use cases? Is it possible to display the singular or the plural noun depending on what number precedes it — if the sentence has more than one number — , e.g., You’ve selected 1 ticket but 2 seats? What are the nuances of the new pricing policy? How to reveal it to the users during the shopping flow to ensure they are not overwhelmed yet know exactly what the fees are about?
There’s less creativity
Your content is going to be “clear, concise, useful” and, if you are a good writer, “original” — to quote Guy Ligertwood — but you probably won’t spend a lot of time writing the kind of eye-popping content that gets your name in the papers. Instead you may spend a whole day digging around the depths of your product’s backend to figure out why three perfectly good error messages have been jumbled up into one hot mess.
Or take the “Can we be honest?” pop-up from Really Good Emails. It’s great, it catches attention, it says something about the character of the company — and it would never work in the context of UX writing. Marketing messages need to catch your attention because, more often than not, they are disruptive (as a marketer myself, I say this with all the love in the world) whereas UX writing should help the users do what they came to your app for.
It’s not to say that UX writing can’t be fun, but it’s a more subtle kind of fun. Especially when it comes to calls-to-action. One of the holy grails of UX writing is to have clear and descriptive CTAs.
There’s a lot to worry about
Especially if you’re working regionally and your product needs to be internationalised and localised. Each country may have different regulations and needs, which means changes in customer service operating procedures, which means changing how you guide the user through the product, which means you may need to customise some parts of your product, which means talking to product managers, engineers, designers.
Though this one may depend on the company. In bigger organisations product managers may take on more responsibilities when it comes to localisation and internationalisation.
It’s amazing and I love it
Because I am helping to build a product
Everything I’ve said so far is true — apart from the “less creativity” part. That is not true at all because creativity has many forms and it is up to you whether you see the opportunities around you or stagnate.
For me, the best part has been learning about user-centered design — how to put yourself in the user’s shoes, how to see things from another person’s perspective and feel real empathy for them. How to understand what they really want and then, hopefully, build something even better.
