Writing for Doing, Not Reading: The UX Writer’s Role | Seattle Interactive 2017

Write for Doing, Not for ReadingThe UX writer’s role

Elly SearleHead of Content Strategy, Crowdstrike

Torrey PodmajerskyContent Strategy, OfferUp

Elly Searle Torrey Podmajersky

Make it better

What's to come

• UX, briefly

• Voice and tone

• Be purposeful

• Be concise

• Be conversational

Intro to user experience

• Identify your customer’s problems and solve them

• Would they hire this UX for this job?

“All the aspects of how people use an interactive product: the way it feels in their hands, how well they understand how it works, how they feel about it while they’re using it, how well it serves their purposes, and how well it fits into the entire context in which they are using it.”– Alben (1996)

Who are you to your customer?

• What’s your relationship to them? What role do you play?

• How would they speak to you?

• How would you speak to them when things are going well?

• How would you speak to them when things are going wrong?

* Caveats imply we’re untrustworthy

Be purposeful

DO DON’T

Fix the problem instead of saying what’s wrong

Enter your email An email address is required

Objective first, then action To remove a photo from this album, drag it to the trash

Drag the photo to the trash to remove it

Use verbs in buttons, links Cancel | Remove Cancel | OK

Motivate by showing value (no explanation why you need personal info)

Focus on what matters to your customers and offer useful paths

Be concise

DO DON’T

Eliminate filler text Save changes? Would you like to save your changes?

Use contractions it’s, can’t, wouldn’t, you’re, you’ve, haven’t, don’t

it is, cannot, would not, it’ll, should’ve

Essential punctuation only Share your photos with friends Learn more

Share your photos with friends. Learn more.

Make every word and punctuation mark audition

Be conversational

DO DON’T

Active, present tense verbs Message sent Message has been sent

Use plain language Use Turn on

UtilizeEnable

Reveal detail only as needed Remove downloaded book? Are you sure you want to remove this downloaded book? You won’t be able to access it unless you’re online.

Be positive, helpful Use 24 characters or fewer for file names.

Your file name must be less than 25 characters.

Help them grasp everything on the first pass, embrace your voice and tone

To sum up

• UX is solving problems in a way that works best for your customer

• If you talk to your customer face to face, what’s your relationship?

• Three pillars of UX writing fundamentals• Be purposeful

• Be concise

• Be conversational

Make it even better!

Resources

• https://material.google.com/style/writing.html#

• http://styleguide.mailchimp.com/

• Nicely Said by Natalie Fenton, Katie Keifer Lee

More Seattle UX writing fun times

• SVC winter quarter: UX Writing Fundamentals

Thanks!

Elly Searle Torrey Podmajersky

[email protected] [email protected]