{"id":1705,"date":"2019-12-02T13:23:37","date_gmt":"2019-12-02T13:23:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/uxwritinghub.com\/?p=1705"},"modified":"2021-05-09T12:15:48","modified_gmt":"2021-05-09T12:15:48","slug":"the-technical-side-of-ux-writing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/uxwritinghub.com\/the-technical-side-of-ux-writing\/","title":{"rendered":"The technical side of UX Writing"},"content":{"rendered":"

A guest post by Gil Bouhnick (<\/b>The Mobile Spoon<\/b><\/a>).<\/b><\/p>\n

In the past few years, we\u2019ve seen products removing traditional visual elements (such as brand colors, logos, icons, and images) to free up space (and users\u2019 attention) for content.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

In such design reality, text is a major design player, and that means words should not only be clear, concise, and useful, but they also need to be <\/span>visually aesthetic<\/b> and blend nicely with the product look and feel.<\/span><\/p>\n

Text is no longer part of the design, it is the design.<\/b><\/em><\/p>\n

And if that\u2019s the case, UX Writers should be more than great writers and need to design their words like artists.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Here\u2019s a list of tips for writing well-designed microcopy that goes beyond the voice and tone, and focuses on the design side.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

1. Eliminate words for the sake of design<\/span><\/h2>\n

Every UX Writing guide starts with the importance of being concise, but keeping things short is not only important for users to actually read the text and understand it – it\u2019s also important to keep the design clean and reduce clutter.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Fewer words = less clutter<\/b><\/p>\n

This rule becomes even more relevant in mobile designs due to the limited screen real-estate: once a text block bypasses a certain number of words, users are more likely to ignore it:\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

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2. Focus on the user<\/span><\/h2>\n

As product creators, we often want to tell our users more about what\u2019s going on inside our beloved product, but with so much context switching and such a short attention span – users don\u2019t have a capacity for long stories.<\/span><\/p>\n

Focus on what\u2019s matter the most for the users: the bottom line, the action, or the outcome.<\/span><\/p>\n

Avoid using long technical descriptions, and instead – provide short and accurate status:<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

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3. Use friendly text formatting<\/span><\/h2>\n

When dealing with numbers, dates, duration fields, phone numbers, and unusual data types, it\u2019s important to use friendly formats.<\/span><\/p>\n