Learning UX is a long-term process and there are so many elements to discover in UX at every stage of learning.
Other than appealing design, a satisfied user can be boiled down with another element in the user experience – words. Content.
Therefore, major giants in UX design are now hiring talented UX writers. If you are interested in writing just about the right content and you are interested in career options in UX design, this article is made for you.
UX writers help make an incredible customer experience through the composed content. This article is intended to help you add UX writing as an important skill to develop your career in the UX industry as well as how UX writing is an important part of the overall user experience.
What is UX writing?
First of all, copywriting and UX writing are similar with minute differences. Both skills are used to make a product easier to understand and attract users. The difference we mentioned in copywriting and UX writing is, copywriting starts after the design phase is completed and UX writing happens in between.
Here is an example to help you understand easily – a design team creates layouts and functionality for a new app page. Then, they send screenshots or mockups to the writing department with ‘Lorem Ipsum’ spaces. Then, writers decide what message will be suitable in the spaces and fill it out with the content of proper length.
The issue with this approach is that everything the customer sees on that app page was made by the organized efforts of the design team. The only different thing with the whole design will be the content appearing in the design. Due to the writing, the team is separate from the design team, the content won’t match with the design.
With UX writing, content designers are an essential part of the design group whether that is for an application, software package, webpage, or online content. Any content or copywriter knows how difficult it can be to communicate the right message when it’s a question of inches and length. But when UX writers start writing content for the design, it’s easy for them as they work alongside the designers.
For product and design companies with a group of UX designers, this is the best of both worlds. User experience is enriched with the right content and those creating it also have a deep understanding of communicating the message.
What are the career prospects for UX writers?
Tech companies like Spotify, Google, Amazon, Wix, CVS, Honeywell, Nordstrom, and others with giant UX design teams tend to have UX writers on staff. These are just some examples of major players in the game. Popularly, companies with UX design teams hire UX writers to strengthen their offerings.
What is the role of a UX writer in a team?
UX writers are also called microcopy writers. They write the content that users see as they are surfing their way through apps, websites, devices, and software. They provide the content for error messages, CTAs, on-screen help text, pull-down menu content, and more. In some product companies or UX companies, this is an entirely different position from copywriting.
UX writers help in creating a better user experience by writing clear and intuitive messages. UX writers must know the branding element while creating effective messages.
What are the necessary skills a UX writer must possess?
Not all writers can do UX writing. They should be concise. In any event, when content is important for the design cycle, there is consistently a limit in what can be fit onto a screen. Space turns out to be significantly more limited on smartphones and IoT products.
UX writers need to communicate diplomatically. In many cases, a UX writer is creating a simple CTA or an error message text, for example. They must do that without confusing or frustrating the customer more. At the same time, they must also maintain a brand voice.
Here are 3 skills a UX writer must have:
- Understanding and thinking like a user
Just like copywriters consider customer personas while creating communication effectively, so must UX writers. This means looking at screens, considering the role of the user, and understand what they are trying to do. A good UX designer will consider the potential friction and frustration of the users. They can also find out opportunities to offer extra information, even push the user further down the sales funnel.
- Technical skills
- Developing experience with flexible and other development methodologies
- Using collaborative tools like Google Docs
- Learning the UX design process
- Using A/B testing software
- Using Videoconferencing tool (for user research/discovery)
- Learning prototyping tools
- Use of project management and collaboration tools
- Learning to recognize the brand voice and to apply branding to microcopy.
- Soft skills
Above all else, UX writers need to work in teams. They invest a ton of energy in meetings and sessions. It assists with being creative. They should have the option to clarify thoughts and see how their objectives work together with those of others. It is additionally useful to be normally curious. While a UX writer doesn’t have to understand innovation at the coding level, they should be ready to learn fundamental concepts.
Get started with UX writing
Becoming a UX writer and implementing these skills start with developing or adapting the right skillset and proper training.
Currently writing copies and working in software design are already ready to put themselves ahead of the game. But, if you are new to this field, there are just a few steps to become a successful UX writer.
At Felix-ITs, we try to develop your skills both in writing and design with our UI-UX Design course. This course is designed to equip you with the latest trends in user experience design along with basic concepts.