Milestone 1 : UX writing and the roles of a UX Writer
Overview
- Week 1: What UX writing is, what it is not, and who UX Writers are
- Week 2: Roles of the UX Writer and how they fit in the design process
- Week 3: The UX Writer’s toolkit
Check out the complete publication outline here if you haven’t.
Week 1 : What UX writing is, what it is not, and who UX Writers are
Here’s what this post covers:
- What UX writing is, what it is not, and who UX Writers are
2. Practice assignments
3. Additional resources for further reading
What UX writing is
User experience writing in its simplest definition is writing the words that appear within a product which people see or hear in order to properly use it.
Think of your email, how do you find your way around it?
With the words on the interface.
And these texts written within the app, often referred to as microcopy or simply ‘copy’, act as the communication link between the product itself and you — the user.
What experts say user experience writing is
“UX writing is a professional activity of writing texts for user interfaces both web and mobile. It includes creating texts from small labels of buttons and icons to tag lines, error messages, navigation prompts and instructions, guidelines, and so on.” — Marina Yalanska, Writer and Design researcher.
But UX writing is more than just microcopy,
- User experience writing is a conversation
“ UX writing is the process of designing the words people see and hear when they interact with software. It’s about designing the conversation between a product and its user” — Lisa Sanchez, UX Writer
A conversation is a two-way street. Meaning when someone uses a product because of a need, they usually have questions and expectations which have to be answered by that product. And the only way the product can communicate is via its microcopy thoughtfully crafted by the UX Writer who already anticipated such questions and expectations.
As with our everyday conversations, the way we speak is not ‘technical’, rather a relatable and easily understandable way. The same applies to UX writing. The words used should be just like a conversation (in alignment with the brand’s voice)
- User experience writing serves as a guide
“UX writing helps users understand how to use and interact with software products, including desktop and mobile apps, games, and other “multimodal” experiences that include voice interactions (think talking TVs, Google Home devices, or car interfaces).
The primary goal of UX writing is to guide users to complete tasks in any digital product.” — UX Writers Collective
Back to our earlier example, let’s assume you want your drafted email to automatically send at a particular time but you’re confused as to how to go about it. UX writing is meant to anticipate that need and be your guide.
- User experience writing is design
“ UX writing works together with interaction design and visual design to create an experience that’s greater than the sum of its parts” — Lisa Sanchez, UX Writer
Interaction design focuses on structure, designing the interaction between users and a product to allow users achieve their objectives in the best way possible.
Visual design focuses on improving the aesthetics of a product with color, images, typography, layout and space.
So while a good visual design can attract users to a product, good UX writing is what determines if they’ll use it or abandon it. We don’t use digital products because they are beautiful, we use them because of their content. What they can do for us.
To quote Lindsay Munro, a Lead social media strategist at Adobe Creative cloud, “It’s important to work on text early because text problems often reveal design problems”.
Including UX writing in the design process from the beginning will help with designing the product’s user flow as every text on the product’s screen serves to lead a user to the next step.
UX writing as a craft is not just a part of design, it is design. Before microcopy is written, the UX writer often goes through a series of processes from understanding stakeholders’ objectives to user research, and many other steps which we will learn as the publication progresses.
Words included in the microcopy are not gotten through guesswork.
What user experience writing is not
UX writing like other forms of writing, comes with its own rules. For UX writing, the secret is in the term ‘user experience’ and this is what makes it different from other types of writing.
It’s important to know that:
- User experience writing is NOT copywriting
If you search on the internet for the term UX writing, you may come across people who refer to it as UX copywriting. But that doesn’t make it copywriting.
As we mentioned earlier, the texts on a digital interface are sometimes shortened from ‘microcopy’ to just ‘copy’, and this is where the mix-up comes in.
Actual copywriting is the art and science of writing words in a persuasive manner that prompts people to take a certain action which usually results in the sales of your services. It is writing for marketing purposes.
Copywriting is the exact opposite of UX writing.
- User experience writing is NOT technical writing
Technical writing focuses on sharing information via text in a professional, clear, and precise manner often devoid of personality. Unlike UX writing, which focuses on communicating with users in line with a brand’s voice.
What’s more important however, is the difference in their processes and deliverables.
For UX writing, tasks range from writing onboarding screens to tooltips and so on, while technical writers tend to focus on instruction manuals; how-to posts; and similar tasks.
UX writing takes technical jargon and makes it conversational
- User experience writing is NOT ‘showy’
While as a writer you may have marvelous writing skills, UX writing is not the writing form to showcase it.
As a UX Writer, you are not tested in your ability to get noticed for your genius mastery of words, rather your skill is tested in the ability to make your words blend with the product and stay in the background occasionally showing your genius once in a while to make users smile — and this is dependent on your brand’s voice.
Good UX writing is unnoticeable. So seamlessly woven into the product’s experience that it seems like it isn’t there.
For example, you’re currently reading this post on Medium but has any of their microcopy stuck out to you?
- User experience writing is NOT manipulative
In design, manipulation comes in the form of dark patterns. That is, carefully designing a user interface to trick or compel the users to carryout an action they otherwise wouldn’t carryout.
For UX writing, this is designing the product’s microcopy in a way that hides important information, deliberately confuses users, or forces them to click on a particular CTA (Call to action) button.
When unintentional, it is simply a case of bad UX writing. But when deliberate, it is classified as a dark pattern.
For example,
Context: The user is in the process of transferring files to another connected user.
Now there’s a pop-up presenting the user with two options: Exit or Upgrade.
The user clicks on Exit, thinking it will close the pop-up so the file transfer can continue, but to the user’s surprise, it closes the entire app! Now the user realizes they only have one choice: Upgrade.
That is an example of manipulating users with UX writing.
Contrary to dark patterns, this is a case of bad UX writing which may cause users to take an action they didn’t intend to take.
- User experience writing is NOT an afterthought
“UX writing is not simply receiving a design and then add copy at the last minute, barely interacting with design teams” — Patrick Stafford
In the recent past, it was common to have user experience writers as add-ons who just put text after all the designs have been done. But that is rightfully, and thankfully changing.
UX writers should collaborate with design teams and share inputs throughout the product design phases, most especially when building prototypes. In other words, using ‘Lorem Ipsum’ for prototypes is a practice that can be considered a taboo in these times.
Who UX Writers are
Literally, a UX writer is anyone who designs copy for digital interfaces to improve user experience.
But UX Writers are more than just writers;
- UX Writers are designers
“UX writers are essentially product designers who are part of the product design team and help create the website, app, or feature from the outset” — Yuval Keshtcher, Founder of UX Writing Hub
Product designers are responsible for the user experience of a product, usually taking direction on the business goals and objectives from product management — Product plan
UX Writers ‘think’ like product designers but with an extra layer; they advocate for the user.
They assess the overall product: how a product interacts with users, how each element on the user interface affects the users, how the product’s user flow can be optimized for a better experience, basically everything that can have an impact on the user during use.
This is because they have ‘content’ in mind. What the product has to offer to its users and how that value is being communicated to them.
- UX Writers serve as the user’s advocate
As a user experience writer, it is your duty to advocate for your users in the design process.
Yes, the company and their stakeholders are building the product with business objectives in mind, but it is your job to point out decisions that can lead to a bad experience for users.
As a UX Writer, you would carryout research or work closely with UX researchers to understand how your users think, what their needs are, how they interact with the product, and the pain points they have when using the product. This helps you empathize and design your content to improve their experience.
It’s also with such information that you advocate for design solutions which benefit your users and call out the design solutions that will have a negative impact on them.
Like Google (the company) says, “Focus on the user and all else will follow”
- UX Writers are team players
UX Writers don’t work in their own literary bubble, they interact with the entire design team. From UX designers, to engineers, to UX researchers — everyone.
This is because an understanding of what others in the design team do is helpful for your work success, asides from the advantage of building good work relationships as a person.
We’ll show how being a team player is critical to your success as a user experience writer in the next post.
Let’s Practice! 👩💻
Hi guys! Hope you enjoyed this week’s topic. Leave a clap if you did :)
At the end of every week, there are challenges for us to complete. You ready?
Week 1 Challenge
Purpose: To train your eye to take note of UX writing practices around you
- Go through any app or website and examine its microcopy. Does it follow any of the above definitions of what UX writing is? (Conversational, serves as a guide, is design).
Take a screenshot and highlight the copy. Briefly tell us how it meets your chosen definition.
2. Go through any app or website and examine its microcopy. Does it follow any of the above definitions of what UX writing is NOT? (Is the microcopy showy, technical, manipulative, etc)
Take a screenshot and highlight the copy. Briefly tell us how it meets your chosen definition.
3. Based on the previous question (number 2), how would you rewrite the copy?
(Hint: If you’re having problems finding an app or website that meets the above questions, visit Pinterest for UX writing designs)
6 UX writing resources you should check out!
- What is UX writing? by Lisa Sanchez
- UX Writing examples by Oz Chen
- Technical writing and UX writing by Mandy Patterson
- Practical tips on UX writing by Alina Arhipova
- UX writing — A beginner’s perspective by Uzoma Ibekwe
- Dark Patterns in UX by Agnieszka Cieplińska
See you next week!
Hey there! Do you want to contribute to UX Writers Learn by sharing your experience or insight on any area of UX writing? Feel free to reach out to me on LinkedIn here. I’d love to hear from you.
