UX Writing for brands that want to multiply and transcend
At Soluble we make good companies look as good as they really are. That requires strategic brand work to encapsulate essence and align people, but also creative and technical work. Both to translate concepts into effective visual and verbal identities and to design digital products that become a true home for the brand. A touchpoint that captures and builds loyalty with customers and talent.
In this post we tackle, precisely, the creative and technical ambition that product design requires. Because the usual thing is to focus on the visual elements of user experience, but we also work obsessively with words. From strategy down to the microcopy of a button or the hard-hitting message that should appear in a hero.
We welcome you to a journey through the realm of UX Writing, the discipline that handles writing, in a careful and intentional way, content that speaks to the context, needs, and behaviors of users. Both in digital and physical products. A reflection in Soluble's style: understanding brands as a key business asset that is developed from authenticity, consistency, and agility.
UX Writing, crystallizes the experience
Writer Nathaniel Hawthorne said that easy reading meant (very) very difficult writing. And if this reality was important for the use of a century-old and timeless object like the book, it's even more so in the context of the attention economy.
As users, we read less and less.
There is no alternative: we must land the key messages to ensure we create the experience needed to meet objectives and purpose.
Without noise, without lack of context, without uncertainty. A mission for the UX writer. But not just any: one who understands a brand's essence and, moreover, its verbal identity. Because technical requirements go hand in hand with consistency.
What does content design contribute?
According to NNGroup, quality copywriting allows a digital product to speak directly to people. This, in turn, builds trust and makes it easier for users to take the actions necessary for organizations to meet their goals.
If a product excels visually but isn't understood, there's a leak both in terms of brand and in variables closer to daily operations, like the ROI of an advertising campaign. It's a matter of efficiency, and also of impact.
The four pillars of UX Writing
Content design is a creative and technical task that also requires a multidisciplinary vision. From brand strategy to business decisions, through research and, of course, design. A great complexity that can, to some extent, be reduced by attending to four variables that define content designed with confidence.
- With purpose. Any block of content should provide context, drive user conversion or retention, or strengthen brand awareness. For example, take a look at your website's first impression. Does it really convey what it should? Is it an intentional and conscious message? Review your strategy to avoid inertia.
- Conversational. Interacting with a digital product is, at its core, having a conversation with it to achieve an objective.
- Clear. If content raises the slightest doubt in the user's mind, it's not effective. Torrey Podmajersky, one of the discipline's leading voices, talks about using words the user recognizes instantly, without having to think.
- Concise. Research on consumption habits has made it crystal clear that we don't read: we scan information. So if you can explain an idea in three words, why would you make the user read five?
Clockwork precision
Defining a strategy that distills a brand's reality through theoretical concepts is an exciting challenge for a team that places capital importance on words.
Using that platform to unite all the gears and ensure words round out a digital experience is a way to amplify brand authenticity and make them endure.
UX Writing is a declaration of intent. Putting people at the center, enabling and conversing to multiply opportunities.
