Journey
A few things I have learned after 10 years writing about UX
Like any other skill, writing is a matter of discipline, perseverance, and a lot of failure.
I have been blogging for more than 10 years now.
(Funny how “blogging” used as a verb sounds a bit off these days)
It all started back in the day when I was working as an Information Architect (yep, “UX” is a relatively new term) at the biggest digital agency in Brazil. At the time, there weren’t any sites or blogs in my native language about User Experience, and the challenge of finding content available in my native language turned out to be a motivation to learn a new one.
Writing was the way I found of memorizing everything I was learning in that new journey.
Every Saturday morning I would spend about three hours looking back at everything I had read the week before (I still do, by the way), and turning my personal notes into articles I would publish on a UX blog I had created to help me in that process. Having a place to document what I was learning was an important piece of the puzzle.
Since then, sharing content has become both a side project and a hobby for me. It was the way I found to give back to the community a little bit of what I have learned from it — through all the blogs, forums, sites and articles I found online.
And believe me: you learn a lot when you are doing the same thing over and over, every week, for over a decade.
You fail a lot too.
You publish a lot of bad articles.
You get into a lot of weird, unfruitful discussions.
You consider giving up.
The next week, there you are, sitting down at your desk and trying again.
Here are a few things I have learned in that process:
- The best stories are the ones not everyone agrees with. Otherwise, you’re just stating the obvious. Promoting debate and conversation means you are offering a fresh angle people have not thought of. On the other hand, being controversial just for the sake of getting page views is silly and does our industry a disservice.
- Topics will come up several times a day if you know how to observe. I don’t believe in writer’s block. If you work in UX (and you are paying attention), a new article idea will come up at least once a day — whether you are in a meeting, in a casual conversation with a colleague, or even when you are at your desk letting your mind wander while you operate your favorite design software. Just make sure you surround yourself with the right people, and with the right briefs.
- Tools are just tools. And they will change a handful of times every year. At some point in my career, spending energy writing about every new design tool that came out started to feel too tactical. There will always be other sites that do a better job at covering those.
Write your articles with the same tone of voice and intent you write emails to your close friends. Your best writing reflects who you truly are — not a persona you create for yourself.
- Finding your voice takes time. When you start writing, it’s natural you will want to copy the style of your favorite writers. Don’t let that go for too long. Write your articles with the same tone of voice and intent you write emails to your close friends. Your best writing reflects who you truly are, not a persona you create for yourself.
- Establish your boundaries. Writing and sharing content online can bring writers a lot of visibility — and letting that become a primary driver of your editorial is quite tempting. But when you do so, content becomes shallow and driven solely by numbers. Everyday you have to force yourself to remember about your broader mission. Why do you write? What do you enjoy writing about? And most importantly: what will you not write about?
- Let it go. Every now and then, someone will republish your content without your permission. Just learn to let it go.
- Don’t force yourself into the habit of writing. Instead, write about the things that you enjoy; the topics you would naturally bring up in a conversation with a friend. When you write about something you like, you won’t notice how much time you spend doing it.
- Respect other people’s work. When you are writing about design, it’s common to sprinkle good and bad examples throughout your article to build your argument. Make sure you respect the work of other designers when you do so, even when using certain design as a bad example. Don’t ever attack people. That’s childish.
- Re-read your articles ten times before publishing it and zero times after. Edit and proofread your article the best you can before it is published, but don’t go back re-reading things you have written in the past. Chances are you will be embarrassed, self conscious, insecure. Instead of looking at the past and regretting how you’ve written things, look ahead at all the things you can still write, and at all the ways you can improve.
- Be ready for a conversation. Once your writing gets visibility, you will start receiving messages from your readers asking for advice, posing questions, or simply wanting to continue the conversation through another channel. It will take you a considerable amount of time to respond to everyone. Try your best to do it. It’s your job. It’s part of what being a writer means in 2018.
- Like everything in life, writing requires discipline and perseverance. You only get good at design when you do a lot of it. Same with writing. Do it over, and over, and over. Be patient. Don’t look at the number of views, likes or comments. Just continue to write. Focus on getting better at writing, instead of focusing on getting better at being noticed. Overnight success disappears overnight.
- It’s your name, and it’s your legacy. Unless you write under a different alias, remember that everything you write will always have your name stamped on it. Be proud, but also be smart. Create something you will be proud of when you decide to look back, ten years from now. And then ten years later.
