Don’t call us copywriters: the role of UX writers
What UX writers do and what should you expect from them. Spoiler: they don’t (always) just write.
Cigarettes during meetings, whiskey bottles, and never-ending brainstorming until dawn. What you saw on ‘Mad Men’ isn’t the reality anymore, especially when you’re part of the user experience team at Telepass Digital.
Written by Gaia Federighi and Giulio Baiunco.
From copy to UX
A few years ago, copywriters were the primary writers for businesses. However, as digital technology has advanced, the world of writing has expanded, leading to new, specialized roles. One of these roles is the UX writer, which is what Gaia and I do.
We started as copywriters, deeply passionate about words. But things have changed. Instead of creating advertising content, we now focus on guiding users through digital experiences. We craft short, user-friendly text that’s seen in apps and on websites.
What has changed for us? In a nutshell, we used to write advertising copy and give voice to the company through words and imagination. Now, we guide users through the right flow of information and design experiences for people, establishing the hierarchy of content, determining what is important, and how and where it should be presented.
Our collaborators have also shifted. In the past, we worked closely with art directors and accounts, but now our main partners are UX designers and mobile developers.
Our bread and butter? Buttons, call-to-actions, notifications, emails, and error messages. The secret to conveying dislike on the first call? Being called copywriters — we are UX writers. To get here, we’ve attended numerous tutorials, participated in meetings with developers, test engineers, and product owners, and learned how to use tools like Figma.
We won’t ask for donations, but we’d love to share how our roles have evolved over time, particularly in our experience at Telepass.
So, join us, get excited, and be amazed.
Vade retro, silos: team up from the start
A new day begins, and our colleagues from the business team wake up with a great idea. They want to introduce an exclusive service to the Telepass mobility app. They discuss the project with the product owner to understand deadlines and the business requirements.
Product owners then create tasks for our designer, who designs the app’s user flows, interfaces, and adds some user interface elements. This is where our UX writers come in. They enhance the interfaces by adding microcopy where there was previously “Lorem Ipsum” or empty placeholders. Unfortunately, sometimes they need to trim a word to fit within the interface, even if it was crucial information.
Okay, this is how an immature UX process operates, and it doesn’t showcase the true potential of UX writers. This is a siloed mindset where teamwork is compartmentalized, with each team member handling a specific task sequentially. Information isn’t shared, goals lack data-driven insights, and teams fail to collaborate effectively.
At Telepass, we approach collaboration differently from the outset. We kick off our projects with a noteworthy co-design session, where our exceptional designer and UX writer work closely together. This dynamic duo collaboratively designs user flows, wireframes, and interfaces, creating a user-centric context for the final product.
The relationship between UX designers and writers optimizes the overall user experience, from layout to accessibility, allowing us to reach a wicked result in the established time. A good session of co-design is the beginning of doing the right and functional work and now people from business are happy.
This close collaboration between UX designers and writers enhances the overall user experience, layout, and accessibility, resulting in a superb outcome within the established timeframe. A successful co-design session sets the stage for delivering the right and highly functional work.
Now, the folks from the business team are indeed delighted.
In collaboration we trust
Occasionally, we come across statements like these, which create a sense of urgency to wrap up projects quickly, sometimes at the expense of collaboration.
“If we finish it now, the flow manages to go into the next release.”
“The OP is breathing down my neck, you create the views I then go into the file and enter the text.”
Every now and then it happens that you hear phrases like these and feel some pressure to close projects on speed, “however it goes.”
That’s why we want to offer some valuable tips to help mitigate the chances of bypassing the collaborative design phase, even when time is limited.
- Plan in advance. Make the most of your downtime, those half-hours between calls, coffee breaks, and post-work social gatherings.
- Utilize Slack for communication. If there’s a valuable tool that acts as a hub for discussion, that tool is Slack. It maximizes the most critical resource in any conversation: the participants’ attention.
- Practice active listening. Share your ideas without being overly protective of your personal boundaries.
- Be “liquid”, that is, adaptable in your communication, tailoring it to the individual you’re engaging with.
The dynamic duo
One valuable lesson we’ve learned from ‘Mad Men’ is the collaborative approach. Whether you’re a UX writer or a designer, the key is to work closely together right from the project’s inception. The traditional ‘art and copy’ pairing may be a thing of the past, but a new and dynamic duo has emerged. Think of this partnership like Lego bricks — you need to find the perfect fit to create a seamless and delightful user experience.
For those involved in designing digital experiences, it’s crucial to nurture this partnership by encouraging joint thinking before embarking on any design, UI, or content creation. Take the time to learn each other’s language, share your perspectives, and ultimately put yourselves in the users’ shoes. This is the secret to a long-lasting and successful collaboration.
Meanwhile, kindly avoid labeling us as mere copywriters.
This article was written by UX writers Gaia Federighi and Giulio Baiunco, and edited by Marta Milasi and Gaetano Matonti, respectively UX Content Lead and Managerial Software Engineer at Telepass. Interested in joining our team? Check out our open roles!
