UX writing is the way to build communication between the human and the digital product. It includes the copy for menu, notifications, error messages, terms and conditions and everything that requires UX writing.
How many of you appreciate a website or an app because of its easy-to-understand UX design? Well, the design and navigational planning of the website/app is not sufficient to give a good user experience. It is necessary to involve words or to be precise, correct words in a creative manner.
It is only possible when you focus on the user interface as a combination of good design and quality content. In this blog, we will explain what does “quality content” and “effective UX writing” refers to.
Tips For Effective UX Writing
There are no hard and fast rules to make an impactful UX copy. However, there are some ways and strategies that can enhance the quality of UX writing.
Pro tip:
The very first step of writing is to recognise the motive behind the communication. If your message is clear in your mind, you just need specific words to make it effective.
1) Maintain Consistency
Not every business communicates in a similar manner. Some may prefer professional tonality, others may find a casual tone good for their business. Therefore, it is important to keep a consistent tone and language.
Usually, writers have a mindset that using the same words over and over is not a good practice. Which is true in some sense. But, for effective UX writing, you need to be consistent with your words too. For instance, you can not write “Sign Up” on one page and “Create An Account” on another. No matter if they have the same meaning. In the case of UX writing, writers should avoid putting many words for single communication.
2) Be Specific
Users do not like big instructions, they seem complicated to them. Be particular about your word choice and the length. Do not include unnecessary words.
Make sure your sentences make sense but stay as short as possible. Also, use synonyms wisely. Sometimes using synonyms to make the sentence shorter changes its entire meaning.
For example: (Don’t): Please Log In first to proceed with the order
(Do) Login To Order
3) Be Clear And Helpful
Clarity comes from understanding. You should know what information is appropriate at what stage. Keep your feet in your target audience shoes and try to understand their point of view and level of understanding. If you do this successfully, your UX copy will be more effective.
While researching, focus on questions like, what a user needs to know about the product? What must be the user’s pain point? Is the written content clearly communicating the message?
4) Avoid Negative Statements
Words create a great impact on the user. If you want the users to make a positive picture of your digital product in their minds. First, you will have to make the move. Do not use negative words or statements. It leaves a bad impression.
However, is it not a strict rule. Use negative terms to convey something positive about the product or service. The overall message should have a favourable influence on the user.
5) Use Active Voice
Well, everyone likes to have an explanation and instructions but it should make someone feel bored. Come on, you are selling a product. You can afford to have monotonous communication.
Passive voice makes things unnecessarily complicated. We are not saying you should never use passive voice, but minimise its usage in UX writing.
Ok, let’s have a test. Tell us which one would you prefer?
- You need to set a unique password for creating an account
- Create an account with a unique password
You have got your answer.
6) Instruct Your Visitors
The visitors do not know what to do after coming to your website. Instruct them properly to get engagement. They should not feel left alone on your site/app. Stay with them helping to navigate and understand your digital product. Converse and make them feel comfortable exploring your website. It helps users to better understand and engage with your website.
For example, “Welcome! Sign Up for Offers” or “Contact Us for Appointment”
P.S. Make sure to not irritate users with lots of pop-ups.
7) Start With The Objective
People often skim the content rather than reading it thoroughly. You must start your sentences with the objective. If the objective matches the user requirement, there could be an engagement.
To illustrate,
- Tap The Button To Book Appointment (Wrong)
- Book Appointments Here (Correct)
8) Avoid Using Jargons
Your visitors could be anyone. It is not necessary that everyone understand technical terms. If your audience is unable to understand your language, there are high chances you lose them.
You should not use jargon until it is mandatory. If using, try to explain them right there to not lose the audience.
The Bottom Line
Good user experience depends on an appealing UX design that includes UX content too. It is essential to have effective UX content to get more user engagement. UX writing doesn’t need to have creative and fancy words. They just need sophisticated writing to help navigate through the digital product. You must understand the context of the message to be delivered in order to communicate precisely. Avoid using complicated words and passive voice. Make the content useful, and easy to understand for the audience. In short, stay in the user’s position and then write. For more informational blogs, keep following our website.