The importance of copywriting in UX Design — a UX writer story
in Collaboration with evira tiffany— a UX Writer at Tokopedia
These days, UX Design has grown rapidly. Now, every digital company has a UX Designer to handle experience things for their products. UX Designer also has played a big role in many big companies in the world, especially in Indonesia. In recent years, most of product and tech enthusiasts are talking about UX Design. It seems that everyone wants to be a UI/UX Designer.
I have been a UI/UX Designer since 2014 from agency to product-based company, but after all this time, I always feel confused in writing for my own design and finally, writing become a thing that I don’t pay attention to. But, one day I saw that some of my friends made a post of empty-states screenshot from a well-known digital company in Indonesia to their Instagram Story. They said that the empty states was funny because of a wording and an icon. And I felt like, “WOWWW!! How can a word give users a happy experience?”. Considering all of my friends posting a screenshot to their Instagram story isn’t from tech or digital startup company.
So, after that, I was searching and learning more about how UX Writing matters in UX Design. By collaborating with Evira , a UX writer of Tokopedia, we want to share about the importance of Copywriting in UX Design.
Ohh… I forgot to introduce my friend; Here is Evira, a UX Writer at Tokopedia. We know each other because we are from Product Design team of Tokopedia. She helps a lot in creating consistent and effective copywriting for my design. Before working at Tokopedia, Evira was working at Zalora Indonesia as a content writer. She learned how to write a content related to fashion for a year. One year struggling for writing techniques, she realized she could do bigger than writing for a fashion. She thought maybe she should start to think more of users. Then, she found a job opportunity at Tokopedia as a UX writer (at Tokopedia, we use term “copywriter”). She said that this job is very different from the previous one because she is challenged to write based on users’ needs. Let’s go deeper to this role!
So, what is UX Writing? And why UX Writing is important?
As there are many definitions of this field, Evira says in her own words that UX writing is simply writing for users. It is basically a writing that focus on products. If you are confused of what she means, imagine you searching for shoes on an app. Finally, you found the fancy one and intended to buy it. But, you can’t have it if you don’t follow the next step. So, you must login to your account or sign up for an account before you purchase it. The way you follow these steps, like insert username and password, tap everywhere, scroll down-up. swipe left-right is called user experience. Also, the reason why you can purchase your favorable shoes is that you read some words in every section. That should be called UX writing.
Evira also explains that the reason why today UX writing is very happening is because lately, people are lazy to read lengthy paragraph or sentence. She learned at campus that people like to scan or skim when reading. Scanning and skimming are reading some specific parts that highlight the topics without reading the rest. You can see release notes on App Store or Google Store, important message on ticker, or confirmation word on CTA button.
Day by day learning good UX writing, she realized that why this field is important is that users need direction when they are using an app; and, product-based companies need to bridge their product voice to its users. In other words, why UX writing is important is because it plays a role as a communication layer between product and its users.
How Can Copywriting Play An Important Role in UX Design?
To answer this question, maybe first, you should open your favorite app. Picture this: what will happen if there are no words on the design even though you feel fine with the flow? I bet you will lost. You don’t know what to do then. I bet you will feel anxiety because you try hard to find the right direction. That’s the use of copywriting in UX design.
Or..You can also see the use of chatbot or interactive writing nowadays. At Tokopedia, we use chatbot to help users on finding the right solution for transaction, payment, even set-an-an-account problems. The copywriting used has been defined and identified based on a specific persona. The good thing is that this chatbot can really help customer service team (CS) to finish complain tickets made by users.
If there is no copywriting in UX design, users may completely feel confused and have no idea how what the app direct to. I will feel likewise.
UX Writing in Indonesia
According to Evira’s view, the role of UX writing in Indonesia is still “fresh from the oven”, means that many product-based companies begin to pay more attention to their product communication, for example Tokopedia, Gojek, Grab, Traveloka, Blibli, Blanja.com, or Tiket.com. For short, every company has different tone and voice; and, they need writers who can adjust those. Imagine if these companies do not have any UX writers, I think, they cannot gain more users to use their apps because users do not understand how to use it.
Just like Tokopedia, the copywriting adapts product and its persona, for example as right now Tokopedia focuses on millennials, the copywriting is created more fun yet general. To make you understand, just check our new error pages, Feed pages, add-to-cart pages, release notes, or notifications. Yep, we are trying to make it more useful and better!
Again, Evira hopes that people (UI/UX enthusiasts) can familiarize themselves more with this role as copywriting can complete their design and flow. Do you know that the good or bad UX copywriting may bring influence to users? I think you should check the next section.
Do’s and Dont’s in UX Writing
Day by day gaining experience in product design, Evira always studies the do’s and don’ts of UX writing. By gathering related data, she realized that it is not easy to create some words as writer should pay attention to terms used. Honestly, she always has a problem when deciding terms for fin-tech or digital products, even transaction or payment pages because these sections are very serious to users. So, to overcome this situation, she asks the editor and UX designer or read related modules to decide which terms present the experience. If you want to learn writing for UX design, here is what you should do!
- Research, Research, Research
Because there are many characteristics of people in this world, we should understand some personas that may fit the product. Usually, researchers have their personal notes of user personas. This can be a benchmark for UX writers who want to write for UX design. First of all, writer should team up with designers and researchers to gather related information of users. Usually, designers create a wireframe as the kick-start. Last but not least, writers also have A/B option to test. By doing so, writer can study or see if the writing is successful or not. All in all, be empathy to users!
2. Use Guidelines
After doing research, now it is time for us to look forward to the guidelines. As I mentioned previously, every product-based company has different voice and tone. Tokopedia’s writing style is fun but general, means their users are youths and adults. Fun, because the products are user-friendly; general, because the tone does not look too playful. When using guidelines, you should also understand the references used, for example “Anda”, “kamu”, and special callings (at Tokopedia, we address our user as “Toppers”).
3. Be Clear, Concise, and Consistent
Alright! Because you have done user-research and have guidelines, it is time for you to double-check your writing. Remember, users may feel confused or anxiety (even they will skip it!) if they read lengthy sentences. So, that is why we should pay attention to word counts and lines.
DO: Hapus barang dari keranjang belanja?
Don’t: Apakah Anda yakin untuk menghapus barang ini dari keranjang belanja Anda?
4. Consider The Tone and Voice
If you want to create user-friendly writing, you better pay attention to the tone. Evira says using jargon will make product communication looks out of the line. So, to tackle that, use familiar (not “brotherhood” terms) and simple words to present the meaning of the experience.
Do: Saran Anda penting bagi kami. Klik link berikut ini
Don’t: Saran Agan penting bagi kami. Klik link berikut ini
5. Use Punctuations
Evira says that if we better start to learn to use punctuations everytime we send an sms or chat. This is good because it can change our habits when writing. If so, what’s the points for UX writing? Punctuation can direct users when to start or stop to read. It can also notify user which part is a warning statement. Not just those, the use of punctuations also is used to adjust the lines. To make it clearer, get used with full stop, comma, ampersand, exclamation mark, and semicolon!
Do: Silakan berikan Rating dan Review sesuai kepuasan Anda atas pelayanan toko.
Don’t: Silakan berikan Rating & Review sesuai kepuasan Anda atas pelayanan toko.
Conclusion
Sometimes we as a Product Designer often forgot to create a communicative and consistent Copywriting. We give a lot attention to user journey, flow, research, visual, etc. But Copywriting is also an important things too to make communication between our product and our users more clear.
Thank you for reading! If you found this helpful please give 👏🏻 or you got anything to add? Please share your thoughts below.
Lastly, if you’d like to see more of my work you can visit my portfolio here or you can visit my Linkedin profile to connect with me!
Also connect to Evira’s Linkedin here!
