5 UX writing tips that help you create the best user experience
UX writing is not something new, actually it exists for quite some time. In recent years, this skill has become more and more important because companies realise that solely relying on great UX design is not enough, a product needs a better microcopy so that the interface can communicate with its users more effectively. In this article, I am going to show you some UX writing tips. Don’t forget — your microcopy is as important as your visual elements.
Spend as much time on copy as you do on visuals. — John Zeratsky, Design Partner at Google Ventures
Tips 1: Avoid Jargons, difficult vocabularies and complicated sentences
Speak Human. Feedback is for human beings, so address them as such. Use the words your users use. — Dan Saffer, Author of “Microinteractions”
When you write a user manual, the microcopies on a website, apart from making sure that there is no spelling and grammatical mistake, you also need to make sure that your users would understand what you are trying to say — try to avoid any jargon.
If most of the users of your website are small business owners, they may not know what “KPIs” mean. You can try to rephrase the term as “business performance metrics”, your users would be able to get the idea directly instead of googling the meaning of KPIs.
Besides avoiding the use of jargons, you also need to take your users’ education level into consideration. For instance, if your user manual contains lots of long and complicated sentences with many difficult vocabularies, your users might get really confused. In the end, your user manual wouldn’t solve any problem but would add an extra obstacle when they are using your product. The last thing you want to see is that your users are leaving you because of your user manual.
Tips 2: Try to make a connection with your users
When writing for UX, you don’t want to make your microcopy sound like a legal document. For example, in an employees handbook, usually you will see a term like below:
Holiday requests must be made to your direct supervisor. Requests of 5 or more consecutive days must be made at least 4 weeks in advance.
When you read the above, how do you feel? It feels like you would get fired if you applied for a holiday 3 weeks and 6 days in advance. In addition to this, the copy has no soul or connection with the readers. If your user manual or website copy sound like the above, you really need to rewrite everything unless your business requires such formality.
So how to make a connection with the users? First of all, try to avoid using the passive voice, like the example above. Instead of saying “Please wait, your order is being processed.” or “Your message has been submitted. Thank you.” , you can rephrase the sentence to make it sound more “human”:
“One moment, we are preparing your order.” or “We have received your message, thank you for taking the time to contact us!”
Secondly, try to use the word “you” more often. By using the word “you”, you make your interface speak and you are establishing a connection, a relationship with your users. Don’t underestimate the power of this 3 letters word.
Tips 3: Make your brand personality shine through the words
The microcopy on your website or in your user interface creates the very first communication between your users and your brand. Similar to the colour palette and typography, your microcopy reflects your brand personality. If your brand personality is playful and casual, let your users feel that through the interface. Let’s look at a good example on asos.com:
As you can see, ASOS uses the language we speak every day and the smiley makes the copy looks more playful — this resonates with their target audience perfectly.
Don’t forget to stay authentic and you should use the same tone across the entire business. If your brand personality is like ASOS, make sure that all the communications, like the website, the newsletters, the customer service emails and so on are translating exactly the same personality — consistency can make or break your overall design.
Tips 4: Keep it short and concise
Confusion and clutter are the failure of design, not the attributes of information.— Edward R Tufte, Author of Envisioning Information
When your users are using your app or website, they do not really read every single word on the interface, they just scan. In the example above, the image on the right has too many words and the users would need to read everything to get the idea of what is happening.
The image on the left, on the other hand, is easier to comprehend, the users would understand directly that the order is being processed. The process bar above the text already shows the ordering progress, there is no need to add an extra explanation as in the image on the right. Most people have experience with online purchase, they know what to expect when placing an order.
Tips 5: Don’t forget to test your microcopy
If you want a great site, you’ve got to test. After you’ve worked on a site for even a few weeks, you can’t see it freshly anymore. You know too much. The only way to find out if it really works is to test it. — Steve Krug, Usability Consultant & author of Don’t Make Me Think! A Common Sense Approach to Web Usability
When you design a new landing page, a new website or a new user interface, you will do A/B testing — this is the same for your microcopy. No matter how perfect you think your microcopy is, your users may think differently. You can try to use different tones and different choice of words to see how your audience feels and reacts. Based on the result, you can fine tune your text to create the best microcopy — for your users.
Summary
Visuals and microcopy are equally important. When designing an interface, don’t forget about the text. A great visual design needs well-written text to make it shine. These two elements assist each other to create the perfect user experience. I hope the tips above help you write a better microcopy and feel free to share with me if you have other tips!
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