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March 19 · Issue #4 · View online
Every busy UX writer can save time reading this.
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Iāve been in a whirlwind. šŖ For the past EIGHT weeks, Iāve been marinated in all things UX writing. Iāve been constantly eating, living, dreaming about tone and voice, UX research, conversation mining, job stories, style guides, content elements, proto-copy and 11-star experiences. šµ Among MANY other things, here are my 3 key take-aways from this awesome experience:
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Writing always starts with research. Ann Handley says it best in her book, Everybody writes: āThe more the think, the easier the inkā.
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Talk to people, and then use their words in your microcopy (itās called vocabulary hunting and conversation mining).
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Kill lorem ipsum foreverĀ ā use Whimsical to write early on for wireframes, and use Figma to collaborate with designers in the prototype phase. šÆāāļø
Enough about me. Now itās all for you:Ā Ā
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A UX Writerās Journey Into the Deep ā¦ Parts of the Brain, and 3 Insights From It.
The truth about how the brain works holds great insights for UX writers. Letās dive in to the world of the cerebellum and glucocorticoid.
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Hereās the thing: Whatever decision people end up making, the brain is where the action happens. To better understand which word to choose, become best friends with your brain and othersā brains. From the almost 800-page book Behave, Swedish designer and UX writer Samuel Stenberg delivers three great insights on words and our brain.Ā |
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The take-aways:ļ»æ
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Be boring. The frontal cortex and the cerebellum (pardon my Latin) are two important parts of your brain. Think of the first time you drove a car. It was probably hard and required all your attention ā that was your frontal cortex at work. Once youāve learned to do something more routinely, the cerebellum takes the wheel. So donāt name things in unconventional ways, since that draws unnecessary attention to the unusual word choices. Sometimes, being boring is better.
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No new stuff for stressed people. Weāre not designed to learn or memorize stuff when weāre stressed. Go more conservative in places where people using your app are stressed, and be a little more innovative and surprising when you teach them how things work (to keep engagement up).Ā Ā
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Surprise sometimes. Youāve heard of dopamine, right? The reward chemical? Hereās some news: Dopamine isnāt about the rush from the reward. Itās about the good chance of a reward happening. We love that uncertainty. Therefore, let your words surprise sometimes, but not all the time (think of the flying Asana unicorn or Slackās random welcome messages). Bam!
The quote: āDonāt put more work on the userās frontal cortex than necessary. Cut down on the words.āĀ Ā
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UX Writing: cuando pronuncio la palabra futuro, la primera sĆlaba pertenece ya al pasado
Mi poema preferido de Wislawa Szymborska (1923ā2012) se llama āLas tres palabras mĆ”s extraƱasā. Los primeros versos dicen:āCuando pronuncio la palabra Futuro, / la primera sĆlaba pertenece ya alā¦
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Hereās the thing: Hablas espaƱol? Well, maybe you do (quite a lot of people from Spain, Mexico, Peru and Brazil are reading these lines right now). If you donāt: Google-translate this nicely philosophic text from Carlos Candiani, UX writer at BBVA in Mexico City, to fully grasp it. Or just read this: The take-aways:
- The future for UX writers starts now, and the discipline continues to be formed. Hereās a great definition: the UX writer creates the content of a product, with a focus on people and based on the objectives of the company. Create content with a focus on people!
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Every story has a beginning, a climax and an ending, said Colombian Noble Prize-winning author Gabriel GarcĆa MĆ”rquez. The same three-stage formula can be used in UX writing. Ask yourself: What is the first thing that I tell my reader? Whatās that personās most important decision? And how do I close? See: beginning, climax, ending!Ā
- Write in your language. Avoid anglicisms such as āpasswordā. The Spanish word ācontraseƱaā is way better.Ā
Bonus: Bruno Rodrigues and Camila Tavares (both in Rio de Janeiro) are thought leaders within UX writing in Latin American countries such as Brazil, Mexico, Colombia, Peru, Argentina and Chile. |
The quote: āThis is just the beginning. UX writing is here to stay.ā
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How I work as a UX writer ā One Design Community ā Medium
Hi. My name is Shawn, and Iām a content strategist and UX writer at Capital One. I simplify user experiences. UX Writer seems to be a pretty hot role in tech companies these days, yet even my momā¦
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Hereās the thing: As a UX writer, youāre the words ninja in the team. You are also the newbie at work. Getting to know your teammates, understandingĀ your customers and askingĀ tough questions is the way to go. Shawn Roe, theĀ authorĀ of the article,Ā is a content strategist and UX writer at Capital One in Washington DC. The take-aways:
- Meet as many people as you can (designers, managers, interns, directors), and let them know that you care about the same things they care about. Do what you can to help them achieve their goals!Ā
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Imagine that youāre explaining what to do to your grandma. What would you tell her? Often, the final content isnāt far from the words I say aloud, says Shawn Roe. And ānobody loves a simple solution more than Grandma!ā
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The UX writer is not the only one in the team writing; itās everybodyās job. A great UX writer can help educate the team by asking simple questions, like: Whatās the customer trying to do? Log in? Okay, and what happened? āThe data she inputs doesnāt match our system recordā. Okay, is it definitely her password, or could it be her username? Could it be either of them? How about: āLooks like you entered the wrong username or password. Please try again.āĀ
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The quote: āUX writer seems to be a pretty hot role in tech companies these days, yet even my mom isnāt sure exactly what I do. Mom, I write the words you see in your mobile app.ā
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Just imagine yourself in Copenhagen, Denmark in mid-September, drinking Mikkeller beer with more than 800 new designer and writer friends at the two-day UX conference, Design Matters 2019. All day, you will learn great new stuff from the best people at Figma, Duolingo and Robinhood. There will be nerd tracks, workshops (one about UX writing!), nice coffee breaks and night talks. Again ā¦ imagine yourself in Copenhagen on the 18th and 19th of September. It can happen!Ā I went there in 2017, and it was just great. Hazel Jennings, content strategist at Instagram, talked about writing just like Kurt Vonnegut: brief, simple and conversational. Tamara Hilmes and Marina Posniak from Spotify held a workshop on how to write error messages in a sane way. And Amy Roberts, designer at Google Chrome, advised all designers and writers to āget out of the way ā and stay out of the wayā.Ā |
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Our son Elis and I in Parque de MƔlaga.
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Youāre still reading. Thank you very muchas! Iām Mattias, by the way, an officially trained UX writer and father of two from SƤvedalen, a suburb of Gothenburg in Sweden with 10,000 inhabitants.Ā For the past 5 weeks, Iāve been on the Costa del Sol in sunny Spain for a āworkationā with my family of four. What a great time weāve had! Weāve strolled along the beach, dug deep sand holes, eaten ice cream ( Desiderio in Malaga!), seen the magnificent caves in Nerja and the massive bridge in Ronda, tried out numerous playgrounds and enjoyed several bottles of wine (new favorite: El Loco Verdejo from Vinos Sanz in Rueda).Ā šŖšøšŖšøšŖšøšŖšø |
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The next issue will be out on April 16, 2019.
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