The persuasive powers of UX Writing
Sell an experience as opposed to a design
I see a lot of beautiful mockups and concepts online, whether it be Dribbble, Behance that try to sell people on beautiful UI, filled with Lorem Ipsum. And yes, it gives the illusion; yes, superficially, it paints a visual picture, but if you want a picture, go to an artist.
We are UX designers, we are supposed to be not only be bringing an interface to life, but an experience.
Our words are a critical tool in our arsenal that differentiate us from the herd and this skill is finally being appreciated as a powerhouse of its own right.
Words are the means of users successfully navigating a product as well as defining it. We may laugh but as simple as it may seem, the word on the call to action button is more important than its container. Beautiful UI may be one thing but the text that sets the context for the proceeding user journey establishes how comfortable a user feels from the beginning; the copy throughout your products has the power to delight or confound and frustrate people. And ultimately, make or break your offering.
“Words are singularly the most powerful force available to humanity. …Words have energy and power with the ability to help, to heal, to hinder, to hurt, to harm, to humiliate and to humble.”
Yehuda Berg
So for me, there’s always time for a good word.
I have always been a writer.
My attic floors strain under the pressure of over 50 diaries spanning from the age of 6. They’re accompanied by boxes upon boxes, filled with all manner of stories, poems, songs and plays, as well as a thousand scribbled notes of ideas on restaurant and hotel napkins. I was obsessed with words and the power they had to evoke passion and feeling.
At a young age, I was already highly aware of the impact a well phrased concept could have, as well as the different note you could strike with the same concept in a different approach.
Recognising the power of voice and tone
I have very lucid memories of my first experiences of news writing in secondary school English class, where at the age of 13, we learned the differences between sensationalism and fact driven prose, ultimately leading to amazing exercises in creating scandalous tabloid articles as well as stiff upper-lipped broadsheet reporting.
At this point, I was already appreciating tone of voice, brand and identity in words without realising it. I was already starting to associate values to the words coming from specific voices and most importantly of all, I recognised the necessity to stay true to these voices, to remain consistent if you were to make a piece meaningful.
It was a simple exercise but a resonating lesson.
I’d like to think Ms. Whelan back in Taylor’s Hill would be proud.
More and more, I am grateful for my love of words and love for writing because it serves me on a daily basis, when I am supporting my clients and my users through my designs.
At the end of the day, an incredibly important part of the user experience are the words that talk us through.
Can you create a decent walkthrough of a user journey for a client with Lorem Ipsum? I’m not sure. I’ll tell you why.
We’re the bridge between the client’s core concept and the user they’re trying to reach. Language plays a massive part in this. How we invite them to engage, how we congratulate them on completion, how we comfort them when they can’t achieve their goal - As much as real people talk, encourage, cajole and comfort each other in different ways, our copy, our word choice distinguishes the voice of that concept, the ‘character’ of that product and these characters can be remarkably different. They have to be if we want them to resonate with our users. Empathy is our greatest ally here - Know your users, know your character and talk to them appropriately.
This ability to write from an empathetic place is only going to become a more sought after skill with the rise of Voice UI and the need to communicate the way only through words, as well as massively so with Chatbot design and AI technology. Moses Kim, UX writer and researcher puts it perfectly when he writes:
Designing logic means operating psychology.
You need to actively do the deeper dive into the personas you’re dealing with and their needs, behaviours and habits and speak to them directly. The needs for those select words to not only be on point and hit home, in terms of usability and message but also in the part they play in the illusion that you are communicating with someone real on the other side.
Writing in the Rise of the Voice User Interface (VUI)
I remember this need for more character becoming increasingly clearer in the early naughties, when I felt the shift to the language I was coming across on applications and software moving from “Enter” to a way too familiar “Right on, let’s do it!” You might say a leap too far.
I appreciated the move towards a more humanised approach but at the same time, I felt “Well it’s talking to all the enthusiastic 17 year old surfer kids in the room, but maybe not necessarily to me…”
Propel forward a few years and we seem to have gotten the balance right, writing for language that’s accessible, conversational and relatable, which is exactly what’s required in the advent of Alexa and similar voice controlled devices hitting the world stage.
VUI is an incredible new challenge and one that is definitely worth brushing up those word-smithing skills for. Not only do we as designers have to understand the power of hitting our messages effectively but now that we’re actively writing scripts for people to vocally interact with and building elaborate user journeys based solely on dialogue, user empathy and clarity of message is more critical than ever, as well as a refined brand voice and intent.
First there was the word… The winning factor in a pitch
To return to the crux of this article, to me, the copy sells the concept. From a business development point of view, I believe the language is critical to win over the client. When we pitch for work and the delivery demands me to create accompanying visuals, as well as when we create and test prototypes with end users, the following five things in my mind are undebatable:
- There is absolutely no Lorem Ipsum on the visuals
Even if I have to guess (and there is no excuse, if we were paying attention, for not making fairly well informed guesses), I will populate that UI with something that is relevant to that client and speaks to what they have explained to me. Even if we get it wrong at this point, we are creating the first draft that starts the conversation and pushes things in the right direction. - There will be a distinct voice in the language
I will always try, in initial meetings, to ascertain who the brand voice is:
It’s as important from a marketing point of view as a user persona from a UX point of view. We need to know if they were a person, what would they sound like, who would they be, what would their back story be, who they’re trying to appeal to and why. It may sound trite, but it actually goes a long way in enabling me to imagine how they’d come across in the different scenarios they’ll guide people through in the user journeys I craft and ultimately, my understanding of this voice lights the way for me to figure out these journeys quicker. - The words will be few and meaningful.
I understand from my love of words, reading and poetry especially, that the key is in right words as opposed to a lot of verbiage that doesn’t cut to the chase soon enough.
A haiku is powerful because its structure requires you to hit a concept in few words - Apply this type of approach to your copy, get to know your writing style and where you tend to waffle and cut, cut, cut. Bombarding a user with too much information at the wrong points is as much of a UX fail as forgetting the onboard - You risk overwhelming them and you also risk immediate drop off through boredom. Voltaire once said “The secret of being boring is to say everything.”
The man knew his UX. - My copy has already been pre-tested.
Practise what you preach - Put your designs out for feedback and have the testers pay specific attention to the words. This is a brilliant tool for testing in general, as you generally have users fixated on design and at times, not even taking in the copy that’s in your beautiful UI.
You want to know what they take away from a page. Having looked at a page for 10 seconds, can they tell you what functionality was available from it? What did the copy make them feel? Nothing? Assured? Condescended to? You never know until you ask.
Asking questions about this very specific element will open up amazing new avenues for feedback and really allow you to gauge the effectiveness of what you’re writing and the resonating impression your product leaves on the user. - My work priorities are on full display to my client.
The effort and time it takes to write meaningful copy tells the client an awful lot about me: My depth of understanding of what they’ve taken time to communicate. My dedication to quality and getting to the next stage of the game, but more so than anything else, the level of detail I will go to to reflect their concept back properly — This is our gift. When it comes to selling a concept, this is where we bring the magic that can make a client say yes and an investor invest.
Practice makes perfect
“You can always edit a bad page. You can’t edit a blank page.”
Jodi Picoult
UX writing is a skill. And like any skill, you need to practice. Which is why instead of recommending you do courses, or masterclasses, what I’d say is simply do it. Start with filling out your Lorem Ipsum and go from there. Drive your progress by challenging yourself with different writing exercises to hone your skills - plenty linked below. Take the opportunity to put yourself forward to write presentation content, proposals, business development reports — take an active role in your own self development and wait and see how this serves you long term.
Watch as your time gets higher in demand in your company, as the amount of contribution you can provide grows. Watch how your user journeys come to life significantly more than before, as you sell a more compelling and complete experience. Watch how your designs get PO-ed more efficiently because your “clarifying text” actually clarifies.
Take the opportunities you can, ask your team to review your writing and more importantly, YOU review your writing. Learning how to self edit, knowing what’s superfluous and when to cut is another string to your bow that will make you invaluable, both in your UX capacity, as well as more generally to your company.
At the end of the day, you are the conduit for your client to get their product to resonate in the minds and behaviours of the users. So take that mantle with pride and remember that the words you design around will be just as instrumental to achieving your goals.
Remember your title and remember your gift.
The visual will bring you to the table.
The experience will make them sign the dotted line.
Thanks so much for reading. If you enjoyed this, here are some great articles that are well worth a read to keep you inspired:
- Moses Kim: 2019 UI and UX Design Trends
- Jedidiah Esposito: Designing Skills for Alexa
- Kristina Bjoran: How to break into UX-Writing
- Matt Press: 41 killer copywriting tips that’ll improve any business fast
