UX Writing
Introduction
All the digital interfaces of websites, apps, and software — which have become an integral part of our lives — I used to browse in English, despite my love for and pride in the Arabic language. The problem was glaringly obvious in the Arabic interfaces. The moment I switched the settings to Arabic, I’d enter a maze with no way out, because of the vocabulary used. Words were translated literally and ended up with meanings far removed from their intended purpose.
In recent years, I’ve noticed that the situation has begun to change noticeably and very quickly. About a year ago, I bought a popular game my daughters love called Horizon (Forbidden West). I was more amazed by the beauty of the Arabic in the game’s interfaces and instructions than by the game itself, and that made me wonder, “What’s the secret? What has changed?”
I then read two books about UX writing and discovered the growing interest in it from many global companies in tandem with the rising interest in digitisation and digital experiences.
In this article I’ll give you a brief introduction to the field, the difference between UX writing and other kinds of writing, its relationship to user experience and customer experience, and how this specialty has become one of the most in-demand career paths.
What is UX Writing?
It is the art and science of crafting texts that are easy to understand and clear in their message, helping the user of digital interfaces (web, apps, and software) take the right action and complete the task they’re trying to accomplish intuitively, without any cognitive burden. It also ensures the user can use the interface again with ease, as if they’d memorised it from the very first use.
UX writers work closely with designers and software engineers to make sure the texts they write are consistent with the product’s overall look and feel. They rely, when choosing texts, on agreed-upon guidelines (in a content style guide) to ensure consistency and a unified voice across all the channels through which they communicate with their customers.
It’s worth noting the use of the titles “content designer” and “content strategist” as alternative names for the same specialty. These job titles became widely used in the UK and British companies, but their responsibilities revolve entirely around the same field.
How Does UX Writing Differ From Other Types of Writing?
While there are some similarities between UX writing and other kinds of writing, there are also fundamental differences. For example:
The copywriter focuses on grabbing customers’ attention to persuade them to use or buy a product, tends towards storytelling, deals mostly with marketing, and their role often comes in later stages after the launch of services.
The UX writer, on the other hand, focuses on helping the user and meeting their needs through the use of simple, clear, concise words directed toward the product. Their style tends to be conversational, they work most of the time with designers and product managers, and their role comes in early stages and may begin before the product launch.
Journalistic writing and narrative or fiction writing have other goals, too, and no writer specialised in one type of writing can easily take off one hat and put on another unless they understand the details of the craft.
The Impact on User Experience and Customer Experience
Let’s imagine we’re travellers and we’ve arrived at a destination we’re visiting for the first time, with a huge airport that has no signage of any kind, what’s called wayfinding signage: signs whose purpose is to direct travellers to baggage claim, the transit lounge, or the bathrooms. Or let’s imagine that these signs are available, but only in a local language, with no international language like English. Or that the signs are there but in small sizes or in the wrong places, and on top of that, none of the airport staff can communicate with us in a language we understand. How would our experience at that airport be, and how would we rate it if we wrote a review of it?
The emotions and feelings produced by an experience have a significant impact on the customer’s decision to continue dealing with a company (their loyalty). In digital experiences, the challenge of creating positive emotions becomes far greater in the absence of the human element. Designs alone, no matter how attractive, are not enough to create a positive experience if they aren’t backed by clear, understandable text.
This is where the role of the skilled UX writer comes in: humanising the text by writing clear, intuitive copy that helps reduce frustration and confusion for the user, supports them in achieving their goals, generates positive feelings in them, and makes them feel as if they’re talking to a real human and not a machine. This is something the user can’t quite describe but can feel, and what makes them keep coming back to one product over another.
A UX writer’s knowledge of the fundamentals of user experience and user interface enables them to take the initiative and flag scenarios in the experience that nobody before them had noticed, especially those outside the happy path. This makes their presence an asset to any company they work with or for.
Our need to use apps and websites is growing by the day, and competition is rising in step with it. Only those who provide a more flexible, easier-to-use experience come out ahead. One of the essential success ingredients in achieving this is effective UX writing.
To talk about the return on investment from UX writing, there are many indicators a UX writer can use to prove the impact of their contributions, but I’ll keep it to this example so as not to drag the article on. Maggie Stanphill, Head of UX Writing at Google, said: “When we changed one piece of text in the hotel booking process from ‘Book a Room’ to ‘Check Availability’, which was closer to the users’ mental model, engagement increased by 17%.” (Translated with some adaptation.)
A Brief Look at the UX Writing Framework
Effective UX writing requires a set of user research and competitor analysis (before) the writing process begins, to understand the vocabulary used by the target users and to know the most appropriate tone for addressing them. Otherwise, the output of the writing will be merely assumptions and personal opinions. This is the scientific side of the specialty.
Writing targets a specific segment, not everyone, so the writer relies on the empathy map and on customer persona analysis to understand the target segment’s needs and psychological drivers, in order to try, through their texts, to achieve both the user’s goals and the company’s goals.
The writer also tries to understand the context by reviewing the user journey map or the interface designs, and uses several models and tools to arrive at the final versions of the texts. They apply several considerations and follow guidelines that differ depending on the components of the user interface, which I cannot detail in this article.
(After) the writing phase, once the first drafts have been written, the writer comes back to test the texts (in isolation from the design) with users, to confirm their impact on usability, the users’ understanding of them, the emotions they generate, and to make sure they don’t cause any confusion or uncertainty when users try to perform a particular action.
The artistic side of the specialty depends on producing texts in a tone of voice that reflects the brand’s personality, and this is no less challenging than what came before. The Arabic dictionary is incredibly rich, with dozens of synonyms for a single word. So how can we creatively pick words that make the audience feel that there are specific, unique attributes to the personality (the brand personality)? And how can the company succeed in generating the feelings and impressions it wants to generate in our customers when they interact with it?
In Closing
Easy reading is damn hard writing.
When you read something and feel that it’s simple and easy to understand, rest assured that the person who wrote it spent a long time thinking, writing several drafts, testing, reviewing, revising, then testing and revising all over again before approving the final version that’s in your hands. UX writing is an independent and respected specialty. Wrong is anyone who thinks just any person in the company can do it, and wrong is anyone who dumps this responsibility on software engineers, or settles for investing in the English interface and then translating it to Arabic in the traditional way.
A Note of Thanks
“Whoever doesn’t thank people doesn’t thank God.” From this platform, I extend my sincere gratitude and all my appreciation to Mahmoud Abdrabou, who has taken up the banner of teaching this specialty in Arabic through his excellent platform:
This course enabled me to master this skill in my work (I still consider myself a beginner), and it also enabled me, thanks to the course, to author a content style guide that we’ll use at our company to standardise and unify all types of content that go out from the company to its customers.
For anyone interested in this specialty (and especially new graduates in tech-related fields), I’d say: don’t hesitate to take the course with Mahmoud, because he has done such a great job preparing it that he has raised the bar for anyone who comes after him. It isn’t a course like other commercial courses: two months of learning and practical exercises, dozens of exercises and assessments, will enable you to practise this skill with mastery (either as a full-time employee or as a freelancer offering this service). The number of people skilled in this specialty in Arab countries is very small, which means it’s a golden opportunity.
For those interested in attending the advanced course on the platform, you can use the following code when registering:
UXWAR2
A 10% discount will be applied, valid through the end of February 2023.
Disclosure: I have no financial interest in the use of this code, and my thanks to the trainer or the platform isn’t a paid promotion. It’s of my own free will and based on my personal experience.
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