5 books to help you become a well-rounded UX writer
But none of them are about UX writing
UX writing as a standalone disciple is still relatively new. It might not be in its infancy anymore, but it’s definitely going through an awkward adolescent stage. While there’s an abundance of information on how to write for various UI elements, there’s very little information about the other skills required to be a superlative UX writer. For a role that’s becoming increasingly popular and competitive, broadening your knowledge base is just as important as improving your writing skills.
I hope that those new to the field will find something useful here. But I also hope this will inspire more senior UX writers and content strategists to share their experience and knowledge outside the scope of just writing. We’re at a critical point right now where how each of us acts and develops as a UX writer could shape the role for all of us. By focusing on just writing, we’re funneling talent down a very narrow path, with a somewhat limited skill set.
Below are four aspects of UX writing you should work on and five books to give a starting point for each.
Communication
This is the most important skill you can develop. In some cases, it’s more important than being a good writer. If you’re unable to express your ideas well, ask the right questions, and build strong work relationships with the various teams at your company, your copy will be an afterthought in the development of your product. No matter how well you write, if you’re unable to discover the thinking behind the design or express your opinion on what changes should be made, you’re going to have a hard time.
There are lots of books on communication skills out there. My favourites include How to Win Friends and Influence People, HBR’s 10 Must-Reads on Communication and HBR’s 10 Must-Reads on Change Management. However, Articulating Design Decisions by Tom Greever is more relevant to the UX writer’s needs. Words are part of the design after all, and getting stakeholders to understand that is your first hurdle. Explaining these design decisions to those who struggle to see the direct value of your work, is another.
While it doesn’t focus on UX writing specifically, the principles remain the same. Plus, you’ll see that designers come up against the same problems we do.
Product Management
UX writers sometimes need to think more like product managers and less like copywriters. You’re just as responsible for the end product as the product manager and design team.
Communication skills are your best asset here. Each company does things slightly differently, and talking to the product managers, UX designers, and engineers will teach you more than any book. So go talk to them. Ask to attend every meeting you can. Learn who’s who, who does what, what the product development life cycle is. Keep track of the release dates and sprint cycles for your product. Become more embedded in the overall product development.
For book recommendations, these are often paired together and I don’t want to be the one to break them apart: Sprint by Jake Knapp et al, and Hacking Growth by Sean Ellis and Morgan Brown. Thinking about how your work ties into the grander scheme of things, as well as how to test ideas, can prove invaluable. Get out of your writing chair and go learn about your product’s development process. Learn what everyone’s KPIs and OCRs are. You’ll stop being an afterthought, and start being a more productive member of the company whose work is tied closely to the company goals. Hacking Growth might help you think more about how to communicate your value to the team. And if running A/B tests on your copy is possible, Sprint will help you create and run tests on your hypotheses.
Design
Depending on how your company is structured, you might have one team that does both UX and UI (perhaps called product design), or they might be split into two teams. Here I want to focus on the UI aspect since words are also one of the visual design elements. In my experience, building good rapport with the UI team can help you resolve a whole host of copy issues; sometimes more so than talking to the UX designers or product managers. Having even just a basic understanding of design will help immensely when talking to the UI team. UI designers care about aesthetics. They get annoyed by text being truncated just as much as you do. In many respects, they’re your best ally in enacting change. Work closely with them and they’ll back you up when you explain that establishing a clear brand voice is just as essential as any other part of brand building.
Books like 100 Things Every Designer Needs to Know About People (good UX principles in here as well) and classic text The Design of Everyday Things will serve you well here. However, I highly recommend the lesser known The Non-Designers Design Book by Robin Williams. It’s short; you can probably read it in an afternoon. And, if you think about what it’s saying, you’ll understand how to immediately apply the principles to the text on your website.
Yes, the designs in the book are a little outdated, and no, it doesn’t focus on web design. That said, the 4 principles of CRAP still apply. These principles will help to articulate your ideas. There’s also a section on typography which will make you look at the fonts on your website in a whole new way. In terms of bang for your buck, you’ll get a lot out of this quick read. If nothing else, you’ll be able to talk about CRAP in your next presentation to stakeholders.
UX Design
If you want to get a real seat at the UX table, you need to have a basic understanding of the work the UX team does and a grasp of the principles they’re basing their designs on. This will allow you to better evaluate decisions you don’t agree with.
UX design is definitely something we should put more effort into understanding. Our copy and the user flow are wound tightly together. For this recommendation I almost went with UX for Beginners: A Crash Course in 100 Short Lessons (despite the terrible advice to designers on how to deal with writers), but instead I opted for The Elements of User Experience: User-Centered Design for the Web. By the same author it’s often recommended to beginners, even now despite its age. Though if you want a quicker read, UX for Beginners is easier to dip in and out of.
UX writing is still finding its feet. But by only sharing ideas about how to write for UI elements, we’re pigeonholing ourselves, and especially those that are new to the field. I’d love to see more articles about disciplines surrounding UX writing, written by UX writers. Or about how to tackle the different problems we face.
If nothing else, adding strings to your bow will help you stand out from other candidates. I’ve worked with developers to come up with a solution to handle plurals and genders, and I’ve worked on designing two proprietary CMS systems. There’s a lot more we can do as UX writers than focus on writing. I’ve learnt more about what a UX writer can be by talking to other departments and finding out how I can help them. I suggest you do the same, and the above recommendations will help you do that.
Don’t forget to check me out on YouTube (UX, He Wrote): youtube.com/channel/UCdVJa1u7G8fMX945yElOfEw
