UX Writing Challenges
Fifteen days of UI and UX copywriting practice
A friend on LinkedIn wrote me - I see in your bio that you’re a storyteller. Do you have any tips/resources on UX writing? That’s any area I’m interested in growing in.
Glad you asked! I’ve been scribbling since I was a kid. I majored in English, and honed my editing skills on church newsletters. But UX writing is a different sort of animal.
UX writing is focused on short, snappy text. It may have humor, and it may not. You have to focus on what people are doing, and where they are at in the process. They need information about what action they can take, what options they have. And everything needs to fit in a limited number of characters.
UX writing is the realm of poets and Twitter experts. I skipped both of those classes for novel writing. I excel at weaving disparate ideas into a tale. And here, I feel like a hobbit told to tighten my belt on a long journey. There are only rations for one breakfast.
I'm a better UX designer because I work on the copy in my designs. I know how clear and succinct it needs to be. There are also challenges to anticipate. What if you have a really long street name? Will they ever translate this into another language?
The journey is not without cost. It takes me three times as long to write emails and messages. An email to my old writing teacher took half an hour. I scour my brain for strong verbs while adverbs lurk everywhere. But I can already see improvement.
Here are resources I’ve found helpful so far:
Books:
"On Writing Well" by William Zinsser
“The Elements of Style” by EB White and William Strunk Jr.
YouTube videos:
Torrey Podmajersky – Strategic writing for UX
The Four Dimensions of Tone of Voice in UX Writing
Practice and support groups:
The Daily UX Writing Challenge - fifteen days of challenges with prompts and limits.
Microcopy and UX Writing - Facebook group