What does a UX writer do?
Making people who know nothing about your job understand your work is a litmus test of your career progress.
“Tell me about your job,” Mr X asked me on a sunny Thursday evening. I sat in the front seat of his car as we drove to a meeting. I had become accustomed to similar enquiries since I concluded my graduate program in Economics at the University of Ibadan.
I am proud to tell people what I do but don’t be deceived; making people understand a niche career field like user experience (UX) writing is hard. This is down to two things: UX is still new to a large section of the public, and I was going to explain it to Mr X, a Gen Xer. The novelty of UX and the generational gap (I’m a millennial) make for an arduous task. But how well did I perform?
Mental model to the rescue
I followed a tried and tested mental model, starting from the known to the unknown. Mr X is familiar with writing and navigating digital interfaces. But he probably does not think about the texts that guide him. Leveraging this knowledge, I said, “I am a UX writer.”
Since user attention is priceless, making them feel at home eases tension, boosts confidence, and prepares them for something new.
Getting users to do something they’re unfamiliar with starts with getting their attention through what they are already familiar with. Familiarity bias—as the concept is known—is a powerful heuristic for learning through prior experience. And since user attention is priceless, making them feel at home eases tension, boosts confidence, and prepares them for something new.
Mr X paused for a while. He’s likely to pick out the writer
part, but how about the UX? I described how difficult (if not impossible) it is to navigate an interface without texts. Next, I tied the frustration from such an experience to its impact on user emotions.
Words do make a difference
Let’s say you applied for a job and forgot to check your email for follow-up. The prospective employer emailed that you’ve been accepted but requested you to record a 5-minute video showing proof of skill for the position. Once you can send the video, you have a new job (a life-changing job!).
However, you saw the email fifteen minutes before the deadline. You did a quick Google search for a video recorder and found Loom. But upon opening the app, you were greeted with a screen without texts, just the company logo, an image, and two rectangles with rounded corners.🤬 Based on user expectation, you might be tempted to select the purple shape, but where does that lead you?
What would you do if this were you? Share your frustration and wildest imagination with me in the comments—I’ll read them.
A UX writer ensures that frustrations and failures are reduced to the barest minimum—if not eliminated—through thoughtful and helpful texts called microcopy.
The scenario I just described may be an edge case, but it shows that words do make a difference. A UX writer ensures that frustrations and failures are reduced to the barest minimum—if not eliminated—through thoughtful and helpful texts called microcopy.
Shapes, images, illustrations, colours and other UI assets stir emotion and communicate a message, but action can only be taken when users read and understand interface texts.
By the time we got to our destination, Mr X was confident. Now, he knows what a UX writer does. I didn’t try to go into the nitty-gritty of the job, nor did I highlight the difference between UX writing and other forms of writing.
Next time, he knows UX writers craft words to help perform tasks without stress. Then, microcopy, to him, is a much-needed relief, a way to avoid getting stuck. And that’s what truly matters.
Much more than writing
On the surface level, a UX writer guides with words. But they also shape expectations. Users expect a product or service to speak like a human. They also expect a positive vibe each time they use an experience. You’re excited to meet and chitchat with someone if every conversation makes you feel at home, whether you're excited or sad. The same is true for experiences blessed with good microcopies.
A microcopy also acts as a bridge between the user and business goals. A user cares about using a product or service to solve a problem; the business cares about its bottom line. How do the goals align? By finding the right balance between experience and profit. And UX writers, together with marketers, designers, and engineers, help get it done.
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I’m not a trained teacher, but I love simplifying complex concepts. Did I make the UX content community proud?
Next week, I’ll be dropping my first post in the hands-on series about what to consider when UX-writing. I’ll be sharing my on-the-job UX writing process, so I’m excited.
As always, I’ll love to learn from you, so drop by in the comments section, whether you’re into UX content or not.✌️