UX Writing: writing at the service of the User Experience

Can words guide the user towards completing an action?

Certainly, but they must be chosen carefully to facilitate pleasant navigation. With UX Writing you can do it!

USER EXPERIENCE: always take care of the user

Let's start by taking a step back. What will the acronym UX that is seen so much on the net be? Simple, it stands for User Experience .

That branch of design that deals with creating a pleasant and interesting navigation for the user within a website.

In fact, the user must feel at ease and easily find the information he is looking for. In this way he will be encouraged to return to that site again, mindful of the engaging experience he was subjected to.

Cheerz, an example of winning UX Writing

In support of the designer, there is a very important figure who deals with the creation of the so-called microcopy , i.e. all the textual part of a website designed ad hoc to direct the user towards completing the action. This figure is called UX Writer, and is essential in a web development team. Think of the empty cart page on e-commerce.

How many times do we find ourselves in front of a nice caption that has led us with pleasure to click the purchase button to fill a sad and desolate cart?

A brilliant example of UX Writing is that of the Cheerz brand, famous for printing polaroid-style photos online. On the app, the empty cart shows this microtext:

Your trolley is taking a nap… Do you want to wake it up? Click the button below!”

In the button we find written:

Good morning

By clicking on it, we land directly on the product selection page.

In this case, therefore, an empty shopping cart interface with a text box and a button linked to a section of the site was studied by the UX Designer . The UX Writer then found the most captivating words to lead the user to click the button to start his shopping experience.

The mission of the UX Writer (it is not the same as the Copywriter).

Microcopy is not just limited to entertainment: it has the important task of "filling" the layout of the site with words capable of explaining to the user everything there is to know in order to navigate within it. It then names your Call to Actions , menu labels, meta descriptions and title tags – keywords for any self-respecting SEO expert.

But not only that, it also customizes the error pages to make a possible platform bug a little less annoying.

It also takes care of creating the descriptive texts of each section or product, carefully studied from an SEO perspective to promote good organic indexing of the site on search engines.

The UX Writer may appear to be a Copywriter , but it is not.

The former is in fact a product-oriented figure, who uses simple words and short texts to guide the user-consumer in navigation. Work closely with programmers and designers to package user friendly websites. Sometimes he writes the texts before programming, to develop the body of the interface starting from the words.

The Copywriter, on the other hand, is a sales-oriented figure. He works closely with marketers, which is why his main mission is to find the right words to sell. He doesn't explain things, he tells stories. Fascinating stories, which enchant users and attract them to a landing page or directly to a website. Search for persuasive words, choose your tone of voice based on the target. All to build traffic and later convert it into sales.

Both figures are extremely creative: when drafting microtexts, a more technical approach is preferred, while when creating copy for social content, one can give more vent to one's imagination, without losing sight of marketing objectives.

5 useful tips for flawless microcopy

Here are some useful tips to approach UX Writing in the best way.

1. Simple words and short sentences  

The stay on the site must be as long as possible to show our potential customers everything we have to offer and tell them. The necessary information must be immediately available and above all easy to interpret.

2. Think SEO-wise  

Use simple but well-studied words. That they act as keywords for correct indexing on the SERP. Also pay attention to the length of meta descriptions and title tags without deleting imported parts of the sentence, such as articles and prepositions, to save space. It will all go to the detriment of the content.

3. Choose the TOV well  

The Tone of Voice must be consistent with that of the brand in all its means of communication. The reference target must be visualized and then the textual body built according to the needs of the users who are part of it.

4. Be technical, but with creativity  

The fact that the UX Writer must be like a sniper and hit the mark with few words does not imply that one cannot be creative too. Cheerz's example confirms the rule.

I can explain something clearly and be fun doing it too.

The important thing is to persuade the user to perform an action in the shortest possible time and to repeat it a second or third time in the future.

5. Experiment, always.  

Never stay in your comfort zone. We need to keep constantly updated, in step with the development of ever newer and more performing platforms. Study the big brands and get inspired. Understand what reasoning is behind the choice of a word or an entire sentence.

Experiment, observe the movements of our target and anticipate their wishes.

In this sense, UX Writing can be an excellent ally.

Unfortunately an underrated job

The drafting of these texts is greatly underrated, but it is not as easy as it seems.

At the base of a good microtext writer there is always an excellent knowledge of the mechanisms of neuromarketing .

It's not enough to know how to write, you have to think big. In addition to words, there are people, human beings with desires and fears who need to be guided (even unconsciously) in their digital choices.

The secret ingredient is a good team of designers to work with and synergistically create a noteworthy user experience.