What Is a UX Writer?

Mario Ferrer sheds some light on this role and how UX writers are key to creating an excellent interface

UX Writing consists of creating, developing, and designing an interface’s content in an app using user experience design methodologies applied to words.

UX designer Mario Ferrer (@marioferrer), the creator of the UX Writers España group, has worked on various mobile app games like Candy Crush Saga, Farm Heroes Saga, Bubble Witch 3, and is part of the product team at Skyscanner. In his own words, he ‘uses words as a design tool’ to collaborate with production teams to find solutions that deliver the best possible user experience.

Yes, a person who is dedicated to UX Writing also designs.

Read on as Mario defines the role of a UX writer, how it differs from other roles that also use writing as one of their main tools, and how a UX writer works within a product team.

What is a UX Writer?

When people interact with an app or website, they do not interact only with the visual part but also with the text. When looking at a website or an app, a user’s experience is not limited to the page layout and color. A UX writer is the person responsible for writing the user experience. They aim to help and guide the app and website users, so their text must be practical and follow the rules dictated by how the brain processes information.

What comes first: UX writer or designer?

Content and design must always go hand in hand to ensure the best possible user experience. This is not always a straightforward process. Programmers and designers often structure the software or website they are building (the wireframe) and the placeholder text (Lorem Ipsum) without relying on meaningful text. Issues can also arise when text is translated into other languages. To avoid problems in the process–such as when the text does not fit properly or is not properly distributed around the page–it is always advisable for both designers and writers to work as a team.

Role of the UX writer

This role’s name is relatively new, but the work they do has been around for many years, since digital systems were created to promote products and services. However, the idea of having an expert dedicated to designing the experience is recent. Design and production teams realized that, along with designers dedicated to a website or app’s visual side, you should have someone in charge of designing from a content and word perspective.

According to Mario, since there is no consensus in the industry for the name UX writer (often referred to as product writer, UX copywriter, or UX content writer), there is still confusion and ignorance within product teams as to what this person does.

Writing is designing

Mario likes to quote a phrase from Andy Welfie and Michael J. Metts’ book, ‘Writing Is Designing,’ to help him define what UX writers do:

‘Writing is part of the design process, and the people who write are also designing.’

UX writers address the content and the text, not from a perspective of filling gaps or boxes, but from using words as a design tool to improve the experience.

What does a UX writer do?

Mario describes UX writers as ‘a bit like Gandalf, not because we are magicians, but because we are guides.’ UX Writers use words within an experience to guide people to get what they need, be it shopping, choosing a holiday, or buying a movie ticket. Their words, alongside the visual elements, help guide users to get where they need.

Learning a process

Understanding the process and theory of UX design is key to creating content with the visual aspect in mind and helps you work collaboratively with the designers, as you will speak the same ‘language.’ You will then need to know and understand the perspective and needs of your audience. You will no longer depend only on inspiration or creativity. You will have to start researching and using data to inform your text, using metrics and data tools relative to your product.

Teamwork

As previously mentioned, teamwork is essential to create a consistent page and a positive user experience. All different perspectives from the team are complimentary. When graphic designers, researchers, PMs, UX writers, and clients work together, the end product undoubtedly benefits.

UX Writer vs. Copywriter

Mario explains that the difference is in each role’s objectives, and both are important and complementary.

The main goal of copywriters focuses on sales, brand, and persuading. Typically, the copywriter will be on the marketing or branding team. They tend to use a more complex, prettier, more striking language, and focus on a message that has to be the key to the campaign and brand.

UX writers’ focus, on the other hand, is user-centric. Working with the product team, you’ll be using a much simpler language. ‘Just as the copywriter has to make sure that their key message is super clear, for us it is not a single message, it is a whole flow, a whole experience. I have to understand where my content comes from when it reaches the screen and understand where to send it. So I have to think not about every single screen but a bigger map.’

Ultimately, the two roles are complementary as both their contributions influence the user experience and need to fit together.

If you want to know more about this role, sign up for Mario Ferrer’s course Introduction to UX Writing, in which you’ll learn to write texts that fulfill the basic concepts of UX writing: clear, concise, useful, and human. The course is also suitable for copywriters or content writers who want to leap into UX writing and for UX design professionals to understand the basic principles of UX writing to integrate it into their design processes.

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