Design: Writing User-Interface Text

Good UX writing delivers an important aspect of any good user experience. The quality of UX writing shapes how users feel about using a product or service. So getting UX writing right is a crucial requirement. In this article, to help keep UX writers on the correct path, let’s consider five all-too-common mistakes to avoid. But, before we do, let’s look more broadly at UX writing and its importance in UX design.

What Is UX Writing?

UX writing expresses the essence of what the user encounters when using a product, Web site, or service. Good UX writing uses words to paint a picture. Another way to see UX writing is as a series of guides that steer users in interacting with a user interface. Read More

Digital experiences get better through user-centric design. Among the various elements that contribute to a seamless user experience, do not underestimate the role of textual content. When you use text strategically, it can improve the brand value of a product, Web site, or application whether by guiding users, conveying information, or establishing a meaningful connection with customers.

In this article, I’ll describe the art of harnessing the potential power of textual content in UX design to create compelling, memorable Web pages.

The Psychology of Content Consumption

Understanding how users process and interact with textual content is a crucial aspect of effective UX design. Textual content is the primary means of communicating with your users through a product or service. If text fails to engage users or convey the right messages, the entire user experience can suffer. Read More

Our User-Interface (UI) Text Team began with an editor whose goal was to organize a team that could keep all UI text consistent and manageable as our company moved to a new development technology. This shared vision united the UI Text Team, which comprises two writers, two UX designers—one of them being me—and the editor who founded the team. However, during our first meeting, we weren’t sure what to do or how to get started, so we started small, with the objective of promoting and enforcing consistency in our products.

We knew what was currently inconsistent in our user interfaces, including terminology, spelling, the use of abbreviations, labeling, case—sentence or title case—and the use of colons in labels.

In a little over a year’s time, the UI Text Team had started implementing guidelines—defining, publishing, and communicating them—and getting leadership approval for their inclusion in Research & Development (R&D) guidelines. Read More