Becoming a UX Writer for My Mom
Someone closely related to you can motivate you into a career that helps you become a better person.
Story of My ‘Not Technologically Advanced’ Mom
Deciding on a career is usually based on something personal. For growth, wealth, passion, survival — you name it — none is better or worse than the other. It only needs to be strong enough of a reason to keep you going.
For me, one of the reasons why I became a product copywriter was because I did not understand what my mother found difficult from a seemingly simple interface of technology.
As a person born in the 60s, my mom is not very familiar with technology. She did experience working with a typewriter in the 80s and having handphones in the late 90s, but handphones in the late 90s were not as ‘complicated’ as they are today. It was merely a tool for texting and calling, and it was an upgrade from pagers. The technological advancement at that time still made things easier for her.
However, that only lasted until she had a smartphone. The unfamiliar interface with a big screen and built with many apps made her struggle to operate them. She felt that it was way too complicated. On top of that, she often overlooked her passwords for email accounts, social media accounts, and e-commerce or ride-hailing app accounts. She would ask her children to help her operate her phone and some app features that she found difficult, and it was common for her to create a new account because she forgot her password.
When asked what she found difficult, she’d usually answer, “It’s just difficult for me. I don’t understand.”
As expected, she can’t provide a clear answer, and the question remains:
Is it the copy, the interaction, the design, or simply her reluctance to learn something new?
I started observing her interactions with those technologies to obtain an answer.
At first, I thought she simply didn’t understand the copy. So, as someone who studied communication and worked as a copywriter, I tried to simplify what was being conveyed to help her understand better and hoped that it would solve the problem.
Obviously, it didn’t. She’d keep asking and asking and asking. She still couldn’t finish a task independently.
At first, I got angry. But as I continued to observe her behavior with technology, I realized that she was scared of the interaction. For example, when she registered an account, a pop-up appeared. She immediately asked me what the copy meant and what she should be doing even though the instructions were there and clear enough. I explained the copy to her and asked, “What made you so reluctant to read the text completely?”
Unexpectedly, she finally gave an answer,
“A pop-up interaction feels like something serious or wrong is happening. I’m afraid I’d click on the wrong button and crash my phone. That’s why I don’t even dare to read the text.”
Getting to Know UX
From there on, I gained an interest in UI/UX. I started to read about the subject, tried to incorporate the principles in my copywriting, and started to assess a design based on how my mother interacted with it. Her interactions with UI/UX helped me decipher what’s good and what’s lacking in a design.
I didn’t want to stop there, I wanted to learn more. So, what’s better than learning by doing? With that in mind, I dared to apply as a product copywriter at Traveloka.
For the first few months, I was busy adapting and learning. The most notable thing that I learned at Traveloka is the importance of research and empathy. So, not only we are expected to do thorough research on a design problem, but we are also expected to be empathetic.
It might sound simple, but as someone who often got angry at her mother for not understanding an interaction or a copy, it took me working at Traveloka to fully understand that we can’t force our point of view and principles on someone else. We can’t force people to understand. We must be willing to listen and iterate our design if it’s not comprehensible.
After all, design is not always about being ‘aesthetic’. It’s a communication system and a tool to make people’s lives easier.
With that in mind, I became more hungry and excited to learn more about design. I want to understand better, I want to communicate better, and I want to help other people.
Whenever I became an observer in a concept or user testing, I’d try to ask the right questions, be a good listener, and be empathetic with their situations — and I found myself genuinely interested in their thoughts. I began to observe more and more of a design and not just copies, and it leads me back to the thought of my mom.
Her understanding of design has become my benchmark whenever I crafted a copy or joined in a discussion for a project. I’d try to look at things from her point of view and begin asking,
“Would my mom understand this? Would my mom be able to finish this task independently? How can I design something that my mom can easily understand?”
I also became more patient with my mom and more willing to help her whenever she found difficulties operating an app. I became more empathetic with her. It’s amazing how being a product copywriter helped me get closer and communicate better with my mom.
So, what is UX?
At its core, UI/UX is more than a fancy job title, more than making an aesthetic and fun design.
It is about communicating and making things more accessible for people to understand the unknown. It is about making the scary new things less scary. It is about guiding people to simplify their day-to-day tasks.
It is about helping people like my mom to be friendly with technology.
