5 myths and misunderstandings about UX Writing
By: Karine Lima
Tags: Design, Ux Writing, Ux Strategy, Design Process, UX Design

5 myths of UX Writing

Being careful about our own words can help to avoid misconceptions about UX Writers Karine Lima Follow Jun 8 · 5 min read

Photo from Pexels CC0 (Free to use) | Image: number 5 wrote on blackboard

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Day by day, during job interviews, informal conversations or meet ups about career, we face some ideas that could provoke misunderstanding about our abilities. As happens with Design, myths usually ignore evidence.

Let us make the exercise to rethink some of these sayings?

1- Less is more

2- Popular vote

3- Who never makes mistakes

4- Lovely field

5- Evangelizing UXW

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1- Less is more

Photo by Miguel Á. Padriñán from Pexels | Image: pieces of four letters with INFO, abbreviation of information

Less is more, by van der Rohe, Bauhaus context, Sullivan and Gropius, is questionable in UXW.

I mean, it’s obvious that we will always claim for brief texts and less superficial content but it’s important to say we have to reduce words, not information. Writing less considering complex or too sensitive scenarios, could fit millimetrically perfect with aligned layouts, but it doesn’t attend to communication goals.

Be beautiful and be brief, but don’t say anything: it isn’t a copy expected from UX Writing.

So, when we are assuming writing techniques to offer the best user experience ever, it is important to understand if we are truly explaining our content (action, value, business, step by step, user journey and so on). Will that interface caracteres length be fair enough? Or will it be worth inserting additional links for more information? Will that action really be sized to fit one step or will it still be necessary to be supported by the FAQ? Will the users be correctly oriented to Customer Service and will the CS be prepared for that help?

The power of synthesis from any communicator and any communication is indisputable. And exactly for that reason, we know at the right moments that less (text) will not always be more.

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2- Popular vote

Photo by Luis Quintero from Pexels | Image: hands up as a popular vote.

What do you think about this copy? It is not an expected question in social media and conversation platforms. It’s because copy depends on context. Each particular solution brings along its background, past explanations and too many references aligned by a strong storytelling.

It’s not expected that copies will act like a big challenge competition or some popular auction of who is guessing the best word based on sensations and feelings. It’s definitely not like that, and as many others design solutions, everything will depend on how we do it.

That does not mean that UX Writers do not accept criticism from other designers and people from the Product Team. It means that evaluation to the UXW work needs to be very well grounded and related to every single project and its context.

Otherwise, those opinions will be lost in their subjectives. Points of views such as “I read before in a book that it’s always safe to use it like that” or simply “I think that it is weird” or “It sounds old fashioned” are typically explanations well below professional basis and intentions of UX Writing solutions.

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3- Who never makes mistakes

Photo by Timothy Paule II from Pexels | Image: shining phrase of “Be Brilliant”

It’s not about being sensitive nor perfect. No magical role here, please.

UX Writers will not always make the last decision or the perfect copy, and the perfect copy does not exist. Actually, there are many people involved (from engineering, support, operation and so on) in that project. Also, tests, feature evolutions, discoveries, new pain points, new user profiles and frequent insights, all that boils down to redoing things, adapting words and reordering copies.

Moreover, UX Writers are the professionals who practice technical abilities with writing and active listening around, learning not just from users but from their own team.

As any other experience, communication is not error proof either.

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4- Lovely field

Photo by Thought Catalog from Pexels | Image: romantic layout of book with pink-affective composition

I used to read many articles about how lovely UXW is and I remember reading quotes like “I’m in love with UXW” or “I’ve found myself in writing”. Yes, we are able to love what we do and love our jobs (and, to be honest, many times we do), but that feeling is much more about finding value and purpose and less about meeting UXW by chance.

The problem starts when articles full of these sayings enhance the romantic idea that this is a field that creates, every single day, incredible and disrupting copies. Whoever works day by day with UXW knows: it’s definitely not like that.

“But, hey. I’m just saying”, ok but again, even then it’s worth our attention in order to avoid the irreversible distance from our true intentions.

Once you say that strategic content design is a type of divine calling, it means to isolate it from technical and pragmatic skills, which involves data, research, strategy, business and methodical process.

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5- Evangelizing UXW

Photo from Pexels CC0 (Free to use) | Image: empty chairs in the auditory

Not just in UXW, but in any other area, the mindset of “We need to evangelize our team” is a very complicated point.

Evangelizing someone means preaching doctrines or ideas, with strong meanings and spreading the Evangelical and converting loyals. In contrast, when we say that, what we are really trying to share is a movement of instruction, building and education of mindset.

Through the visibility of our process we can, very gradually, instruct people about our roles and build the necessary maturity and comprehension of the UXW principles. In other words, we need to educate our time if we want to guarantee a clear understanding, not as something learnt by heart or as a result of being convinced of something.