Each year more and more people are hearing about UX writing. The title doesn’t give much away and so many people are left wondering what exactly it is and how to learn more about it.
We have put together the ultimate beginner’s guide to the wonderful world of UX writing, explaining what it is, what purpose it serves, how you can learn more about it, and more! If you want to impact your business positively, keep reading!
What Is UX Writing?
UX writing is based on a visitor’s experience on a website. UX stands for user experience and so UX writing is essentially researching, creating, and testing digital content to ensure it results in a positive user experience.
Any text you read or hear on a user interface has likely been crafted by a UX writer.
All of this text is put through a rigorous process with the desired outcome is to have that text guide a user through an interface and to urge and help them to take action.
UX writing has become hugely important in big companies such as Google, Facebook, and Booking.com which are all very user-focused interfaces.
Types Of UX Content
There are a number of different content types within the scope of UX writing. The most common would be:
UI Text: text written to impact how users interact with an interface
UX Copy: text there to aid the user’s experience
Interface Copy: the main bulk of informational text you will find on an interface
UI Content: for boosting engagement by providing touch points to help a user work through an interface
Microcopy: usual the boring legal stuff, such as terms and conditions, etc
Content: anything that can be consumed visually or aurally, such as blogs, images, or videos
Product or In-Product Copy: any marketing-based copy that explains what a thing is and why it should be purchased
These content types would predominantly be used within software but some web-based interactions which also require the above too.
Some UX writers will be responsible for crafting each of these types of content but larger companies tend to have employees that are specifically employed to focus on one content type.
Benefits Of UX Writing
One of the main benefits of implementing UX writing to your company website is that you have the ability to influence how a user interacts with your content, be it marketing emails, social media, or your website.
This influence helps you to coax users into thinking and acting like consumers which can reap great rewards for businesses big and small.
The content is adapted to be specifically for your target audience and enables you to reach out to them on a consumer level rather than as a pushy salesperson.
Principles of Good UX Writing
When writing content every word should serve a purpose and be chosen carefully.
Explaining things to death will have people check out from boredom so UX writing gives the opportunity to give information in a clear and succinct manner that users on your interface are sure to engage with.
When writing UX there are a number of principles you should bear in mind to ensure that your writing is good and will do its job! These are:
Set expectations
You have the ability to influence how your product or service is perceived.
Explain the main information, give instructions where necessary, and reassure the consumer why it’s good for them to get.
Keep the language concise to maintain engagement.
Consider possible user questions
As you go through your content, website, or marketing materials consider what questions may arise for someone looking at it outside of your business world.
Whatever questions they might have, consider whether you can answer them or provide a link to a page where any questions can be answered.
Show your knowledge
At the end of the day what you are offering is something that you have a lot of knowledge about, so share it. Break complex products into simple things for consumers to understand.
Research is key
Consider what your product or service could do for someone, take time to research reviews, and allow this research to help you write better copy that will be of benefit to consumers.
It is also important to research your competition and to see how they write about a product or service to see how you can make your product or service stand out amongst the crowd as the better choice.
How To Learn UX Writing?
As UX writing continues to evolve there are now more jobs than ever in this field of writing and as a result, there is a huge amount of resources available to learn UX writing from scratch.
There are YouTube tutorials, websites that offer courses, and podcasts that all have the ability to teach the basics of UX writing.
For a business owner or service provider, it can be useful to learn the basics so that you can not only write better but also get an understanding of what information you need to provide.
Once you have learned the basics you can then look through the interfaces that your consumers are interacting with and identify what needs to be adapted or improved so that users will have a more positive experience when engaging with your interface.
Elevate your interface by making improvements that will be simple to implement, not cost you anything, and will benefit you, your business, or your organization.
Final Thoughts
When you are writing content for your business next you should focus on writing something that compels a reader rather than creating content and copy for the sake of it.
You will notice a huge difference in how people engage with your content and this can help grow and develop your website.
Hi, my name is Justin Shaw, I started my career with a Masters in Computer Science but found writing to be my forte'.
I'm now the Principal Tech writer for GshiftLabs.com as well as a few other well known publications. I help make the complex world of Tech-Jargon easy to understand.
