Week 5 : Writing with empathy
- How to write UX copy with empathy
- Mapping the user journey
- practice
Last week, I shared how empathy in UX writing could be built by knowing people have different language levels; staying up-to-date with language trends; and being conscious of the tone your copy adopts. This week, we’re going further to see how to apply empathy to UX writing.
How to write copy with empathy
- The simpler the words, the better the experience
Using simple everyday words; words that users themselves use, is a great way to relate with your users. Since not everyone will have the same level of language use as you, having tools such as Hemingway editor to keep your writing in check is essential. This way you’re able to see the difficulty level of the words you choose and make the right adjustments. However, nothing beats testing out your copy with some of your users and using their feedback to make improvements.
Using simple words also extends to the technical and legal information presented to your users. Legal speak doesn’t have to be confusing. It can be in simple words everyone can understand just like Virgin Atlantic’s.
Have you ever visited some websites where they require you to accept cookies but the way the information is written is so technical you can’t understand exactly what you’re agreeing to, which gives you privacy concerns about sharing your data with the website? I know I’ve run away from a few websites because their cookie policy nearly gave me a headache!
It shouldn’t be like this. Empathizing with your users involve using simple words people can easily understand without needing to google the meaning.
- Consistency is key
Another way to apply empathy in your writing is to be consistent with your word choices. The more consistent your terminology, the less confusion people face.
For example, if after a user places an order for a ‘pack’ of food in a shopping app, and the checkout page uses the word ‘bag’ instead, the user would most likely end up going back to confirm if they’re on the right path because of the confusion.
Using closely related words interchangeably in a product can cause people to wonder if they have different meanings and if they lead to different actions.
In Shopify’s homepage, we see the same words ‘start free trial’ ‘pack’ and ‘email’ repeated consistently.
Consistency builds trust.
- Stay up-to-date with language trends
One of the best ways to stay up-to-date is to listen. Listen to what your users say, how they phrase it, and the context in which they use it.
The best words for your copy are often the very words your users themselves use
Places like forums, social media, customer service, review sites, and so on, are great for observing what people say and how they say it — especially in relation to your product and similar products.
Another reason to stay up-to-date with language trends is because people and societies by extension, are complex and constantly changing. Words once generally accepted become unacceptable, new words are formed and widely adopted, old words take on new meanings, and the way words are used change.
What we write is powerful, but even more so are the words we don’t write. For example, if certain information are not necessary, don’t ask for it.
Here, users are asked to select gender but only two options are given. Situations like this can be avoided by staying up-to-date with the way language is used.
- Is your happiness your users’ happiness?
We know that error messages need to be carefully thought out because they can frustrate users but what about confirmation messages or supposedly success messages?
Depending on the type of service your product is offering, confirmation messages may have different interpretations by your users. An example is a pregnancy testing app.
A test that comes back positive which is written as ‘congratulations!’ seems alright, good even, but what if that wasn’t the result that was hoped for? what if the user didn’t want to have a baby?
Phrasing the message that way at that moment doesn’t empathize with your users. In fact, it creates a disconnection between them and your product as they may experience certain negative emotions because they are made to feel society — through your product — expects them to be happy in that situation.
- The tone of your copy matters a lot
When we say tone the first thing that usually comes to mind is error messages. But empathetic UX writing is more than just writing good error messages, it is adjusting your writing according to how users feel at every point of interaction between them and the product.
This comes by being aware of the context in which people use the product, and what they feel at each point.
Empathetic UX writing involves mapping out the tone of voice across touch points in the user journey.
A user journey (or user journey map) is a visual trip of the user across the solution. The user journey considers not only the steps that a user takes but also their feelings, pain points, and moments of delight — Lindsay Munro, Senior social media strategist
For this example, let’s assume the user is completing a checkout process for buying a book online. The steps go from selecting a payment method to getting a success message and at each step, the user goes through different emotions.
It’s based on these identified emotions that UX writers are able to empathize with users and write copy that is needed for that particular time (i.e objective), with the right tone of voice.
Here’s a step-by-step breakdown of the example
Empathy and Tone
You can create an empathy-driven experience by understanding what people are trying to do at different stages of a journey, and setting your tone accordingly — Laura Robertson, Co-founder of Contentious
Empathy doesn’t just help you know the right tone to take, it helps you know the right thing to say and at the right time.
Saying the right thing the right way takes a strategy, and it’s been known that practicing empathy is the best strategy to produce intuitive UX. — Karen Priyanka, UX Copywriter
Mapping the user journey
According to UX Booth, Journey maps are a visualization of the entire user experience and outlines everything a user does, encounters, thinks, and feels interacting with a brand across touch points.
User journeys are done after research and user personas have been created. It’s from the point of view of the chosen user persona that the journey is mapped.
User personas are fictional characters representing your target customers, whose characteristics are built based on actual research.
“For a UX writer to become better at delivering copy for a journey, it’s good practice that they fully understand the end-to-end user journey as it helps create boundaries and keeps content focused and grounded.
As a UX writer, it’s easy to get carried away. So understanding the user journey helps provide context, as you can write for their needs. But it also helps you to spot the gaps and identify where the holes are — helping you to improve the overall user experience.” — Jas Deogan, Head of experience at giffgaff.
See you next week!
Let’s Practice! 👩💻
Hi! 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 5 Challenge
Based on the project you chose last week, create a user journey for it using the template below.
You can create this table via Miro or download a copy of this template in google spreadsheet.
2 resources to help with the practice challenge
⭐️ Experience mapping for UX Writers — Amy Leak
⭐️ Using emotion map in UX writing — Karen Priyanka
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.
