5 Myths about UX Writing
UX writing: it’s hard, it’s easy, it’s boring, it’s funny... There are lots of myths circling about what it’s like to be a UX writer. Let’s unpack five of them.
You fill in “Lorem ipsums.”
From the side, it might look like UX writing just involves taking screens created by the designer and swapping out their filler text, whether it’s “Lorem ipsum” or something they jotted down quickly. Sure, sometimes that happens. But that’s not the bulk or the essence of UX writing. So much happens behind the scenes: research and user testing, voice and tone discussions, conversations with designers and product managers, suggestions about how to change the flow, discussions about correct terminology… all of that so you can weigh in on both the layout and the words.
It’s quick and easy.
How long could it possibly take to write a few words or a sentence or two? Just pick something and move on, right? Wrong. Personally, I’ve spent hours deliberating over a word or two. Recently, on my team, we had a whole call about “Got it” versus “Close” for one button and whether a certain product we were working on should be extra polite—meaning lots of “Please”s and “Sorry”s—or just the regular level of polite. 😄
Some of those conversations took far longer than you would expect for such few letters, and there were times where we even had to take a break so we could sleep on them and come back with fresh eyes. So, no, in most cases, UX writing isn’t just quick and easy, jot something down and be done with it.
3. You have to be creative and funny.
The UX writing that we notice and talk about most is the UX writing that’s witty and clever, that makes us laugh or take a screenshot and send it to our friends. If you base your knowledge about UX writing on that, it’s easy to think you have to be creative and funny to compose that type of copy.
But that’s just one tiny portion of UX writing (and it’s not the goal—see this post). Most UX writing is boring and invisible—and I mean that in the best way possible. 😄 It gets messages across and helps users complete processes. That’s the most important thing, far more important than being creative.
4. You have to be a native English speaker (if you’re writing in English).
This is a topic for its own post, but I’ll admit: for a long time I bought into the trope that said that you have to be a native English speaker if you want to be a UX writer in English. My reasoning was that with such short strings and few words, getting one preposition wrong would have a bigger impact than in other types of content.
I was wrong, my thinking impacted mostly by the tech ecosystem I’m part of—the Israeli one, where scrappiness is a goal, which often means hiring one English speaker to do anything related to content in English. We all know that knowing a language doesn’t mean you know how to write. I’ve seen lots of non-native English speakers excel in UX writing in English. In some ways, the precision of UX writing makes it even easier for people who have mastered English as a second language to apply their knowledge.
And what does “native” even mean? Neither of my parents was born or raised in the US, but at this point they’ve spent more than half of their lives there, and English is definitely their strongest language. Are they not “native”? 🤔
5. You have to have a tech background or experience in the industry you’re writing for.
Not a coding prodigy? Not to worry. Does it help to understand how products work or what industry a specific product is in? Of course it does, but it’s far from a must, and I’d argue that if you’re too deep into the technology or the subject matter, it could even stand in your way.
As a UX writer, you’re responsible for “translating” the product into something the users can understand and use. In other words, you need to know it really well, but you also need to be able to explain it to others who don’t at all. A big part of UX writing is approaching a product with the user’s perspective and therefore making it easier to use. You can learn the technology, and you can learn the industry terminology—all while constantly asking, “Is this something users will understand?”
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