The UX Writing Process in Tech — Demystified
UX writing is not just words, but it is about understanding, collaborating, analyzing, and then writing!
The tiny words sprinkled across the digital products, sometimes you see them as notifications, error messages, or buttons, are the microcopies otherwise known as UX copies. When you see the words on the screens, they seem like a piece of cake– easy, straightforward, short, and one would think that anyone could write them. But what goes behind each of these tiny words is a secret that nobody tells. UX writing is a grueling long process that requires numerous discussions with different stakeholders, several ugly drafts, and countless rounds of edits while comprehending the business and technology constraints to come up with a UX copy.
So, what’s the process behind writing a UX copy? Let’s demystify that for you and take you on a saunter to explore UX writing mystery.
First, let’s find the most common scenarios in which a UX writer works and branch them into three themes. Here are the three themes and what they entail.
- Writing UX copies for the whole product: A UX writer needs to understand the business and user, formulate voice and tone, identify different kinds of UX copies, build vocabulary, and more. This is a long process; it could take up to 3 to 4 months.
- New copies for a feature: When writing a copy for a feature, a UX writer needs to learn about the features, analyze the competition, recognize how the content will function. It is a shorter process and can take up a few weeks or a month.
- Improving copies: It’s a day-to-day job for UX writers to check UX copies and review them quickly. It entails an understanding of what is wrong with the copies and how UX writers can improve them.
Huddling the scenarios
Jumping right away to write the UX copy is not the most effective way to set out.
It is crucial to grasp the scenario more profoundly to write a UX copy which aids clarity about what and how communication has to be.
To get the context, collaborating with PMs, developers and designers will help to understand customer expectations, competition, business, and more.
Writing UX copies for the whole product
The goal behind developing UX copies for the entire product is to bring consistency in communication and let the product stand out. So, start with understanding business and user’s needs and constraints and then create a brand personality with a voice and tone.
- Get to know the organization, understand the mission, vision, brand perception, and constraints.
- Hold interviews with the organization’s key personnel.
- Understand user needs, pain points, problems, and preferences.
- Conduct user interviews and customer surveys to understand the frequent feelings users display when using your product.
- Gather all the information in a document to create a brand personality and user persona.
New copies for features
It’s a prerequisite to apprehend the feature’s nitty-gritty before writing its copies. You should collaborate with the Product Manager or the Designer and ask them the following questions:
- What is the feature?
- Why are we doing the feature?
- Is this a customer request?
- Who’s the customer?
- What does the competition offer?
- What is the copy’s implication on the business?
- How are we different from the competition?
- What’re the timelines?
Improving copies
It is crucial to understand the current copies’ problems, whether technical jargon or conveying wrong information. It is vital to question the need for improvement and what happens if it is not improved.
- What’s the problem with the current copy?
- Why is there a need for improvement?
- What happens if we don’t improve the copy?
- Does the user always get stuck here?
- What is the user’s pain point?
- How did we get to know about the problem?
- What can we do to improve the copy?
Know what you are writing
After getting the whole picture, the next step is to choose, analyze and categorize the type of UX copy to know what you’re writing. So, are you writing an error message or just a CTA for a button? Are you writing to educate or inform the user about your new feature? Or are you intriguing or charming them about the latest upgrade?
Categorizing and analyzing what to write helps with consistency; it only builds trust with the users.
Writing UX copies for the whole product
When working on an entire product, it is essential to develop the voice and tone. It helps to build a brand character and brings uniqueness to the product. To start writing consistently, categorizing different message types into UX patterns helps in quicker scalability of UX copies.
- Develop a voice for the product by understanding the fundamental product principle.
- Create a voice chart and include vocabulary, grammar, verbosity, punctuation, and capitalization.
- Set up a tone hierarchy with an understanding of the user’s emotional state.
- Categorizing messages in different UX copy patterns such as titles, descriptions, error messages, empty messages, notifications, labels, input fields, controls, success messages, and more.
- Set rules for each UX pattern will help remove ambiguity.
New copies for features
Writing copies for a feature and learning about how the component behaves is the crucial step to writing an effective microcopy. Also, build rapport with cross-functional peers to ask questions and understand the limitations of the component that you write for.
- Start with looking at the different types of UX patterns and components that are used in the flow.
- Follow the guideline you have made for each of these UX patterns and components to bring consistency and scalability.
- Before you write, get more context around what action the user takes before arriving at the screen and the prompt message.
- To get the direction, ask the PM what the copy needs to have?
- It is also vital to understand whether the copy you are writing is just information or description or directional.
Improving copies
UX copies need to help the user to move forward on the UI. A UX copy triumphs when it melts into the screen. But when it flops, it can get the wrong kind of attention. So, it becomes crucial to improve copies to make the experience better for the users. When you have to improve a UX copy, look into the following things:
- What needs to improve in the UX copy?
- Does the copy have jargon or a wrong message, or is it an incomplete message or lacks clarity?
- It is also essential to understand whether the copy you are writing is just information or descriptional or giving directions to move forward.
Write, edit, write, edit.
Once you have understood all the constraints and grasp the situation better, it is time to pen down the microcopy.
Well, editing is a fluid process that can take up to several versions of a copy to arrive at the right one finally.
Be useful
When writing a UX copy, the words should make sense for the context and echo the meaning of what you want to put across. Always keep in mind what is the purpose of copy for the users as well as the business. If it is too complicated and then you can break down the information.
Cut the unnecessary
Cut the unnecessary, so it’s easy to scan. Remember, nobody has come to read here, so try to limit yourself to 40 characters or at maximum three lines. Remove any redundancy, omit the needless word, be precise, and don’t over-communicate and make the copies concise. On the other hand, when we make the copies more compact, it helps the screen’s limited space wisely.
Make it human
Users should recognize they are interacting with words and having a conversation. Try to make UX copy meaningful by expressing something memorably, empathizing with a user’s situation, or making them laugh. You can also use positive language and emphasize on what the user can achieve instead of what they can’t do.
Add the voice and tone
Adding the voice and tone can transform the UX copy. It helps to build trust and a lasting relationship context. With a strategic voice and tone, you can craft a personalized experience that speaks to the user.
Strive for clarity
Before we finish writing the UX copy, look for maximum clarity. Analyze every word and ask yourself if it’s serving the purpose. The right words would be those that the user will immediately recognize.
Round of reviews
Make your copy jump through hoops before it goes live.
Get feedback from your peers; it will help you measure the efficacy of the copy.
You can involve different stakeholders from different teams such as PMs, designers, engineers, and marketers. You can commence with a self-review.
Self-review:
In self-review, you should look for
Peer reviews:
In peer review, the PMs and designers should look for
- Conciseness to fit in the screen
- Functional and technical accuracy
- Anything that you have missed out
- Delighters
Bringing it to a close
The magic of UX writing is not about typing words. It starts with seeking an understanding of our business and user, collaborating with the people around us to get hold of the blind spots, and then revising, tweaking, and rethinking words many times. The original words never stay the same. Editing and revising UX copies assists the user on a journey where they don’t read the text but scan it.
This process enables us to streamline our UX writing work. We’d love to know what your UX writing process is.
