How to Implement Effective UX Writing

UX writing is starting to get the attention it deserves to positively influence audiences online by offering highly digestible and understandable copy.

Just as its UX design sibling allows for seamless communication and user-friendliness through careful attention to detail – primarily, what people need to see to understand something easily, not what computers need to see.

Good UX writing is a bit more complicated than it might initially seem at first glance, so in this article, we take a look at what you need to consider if you want to implement the highest possible quality writing online.

1. You are writing tips to get you started.

Although acceptable SEO practices will help drive people to your website, it’s UX writing’s role to keep them there. Much of this is due to SEO not in itself is a user-friendly tool – its function is to influence search engines, so if you positively impact Google by featuring thousands of words on each page, you’re not doing much to influence humans positively.

Although this is a general writing point, the active voice is even more critical in UX writing. This not only allows for additional directness, but it also saves you a lot of unnecessary words in spaces where real estate is already at a premium.

This directness is furthered with numerals rather than numbers – numbers will require less mental processing for your readers, and digits are far slimmer than their wordy counterparts. This clarity and brevity are also important when it comes to jargon.

Although something you’re writing about might be technical, using unnecessary words and numbers that might end up confusing your reader is exactly what you don’t want. Use simple, familiar phrases wherever possible, as these will often be less confusing than their counter-intuitive counterparts.

2. Visual design about writing

With all this talk of writing, it’s important to remember that graphics can still play a big part in your hand, particularly if you’re looking to minimize your use of words. Rather than just babble, you can use simple images that better demonstrate your point and save the reader a lot of frustration.

Another critical way to approach writing about UX is by breaking up any large chunks of content into neat little packages in terms of visual design. This allows a reader to skim where necessary and pick up important pieces of information, rather than finding themselves stuck in the middle of a giant, confusing paragraph.

To make this as simple as possible, write with brevity in mind and then cut smaller sections into two. As the last piece of useful visual writing advice, make sure to use your copywriting prowess to label any visible elements on any given page properly. Clear communication is essential to ensure that a user doesn’t end up in a different part of the website than expected.

3. Ready to get stuck into UX writing?

Understanding how to write good UX copy can be considered an art, and because of this, it requires a fair amount of practice and understanding of the art form as a whole.

By taking a look at what competitors and big brands do write, you’ll be able to get a much better understanding of where you should begin on your exciting UX writing journey.