UX Writing: How Writing Transforms User Experiences to Elevate Your Brand’s Story

What is Copywriting? 

The first thought many people have when they hear of a profession in copywriting is, “it is just writing, right?” While it is writing in the general sense, it is more specifically writing that helps businesses drive their marketing strategies, create brand awareness and tell their story to both internal and external audiences.

Copywriting is a vast sector of the marketing industry. Copywriters create short phrases meant to be brief and memorable on a billboard, tell the story behind your entire company’s branding or piece together thousands of your words and stories into a large book. However, when it comes to writing a website or an app, a different form of copywriting needs to be utilized to benefit the online user journey.

What is UX Writing? 

UX writing is writing copy for the user interface (UI) to benefit the overall user experience with brevity and simplicity. UX Copywriters write microcopy within websites, apps, chatbots and other digital platforms — working directly with designers and developers to create a succinct user journey. Writing for a website’s user experience is a joint effort between copywriters and designers. UX is short for user experience where everything that is created is to benefit the overall user journey on a website.

The UX copy consists of words you see frequently on a website. Some common microcopy phrases are located within:

• Buttons
• Calls to Action
• Navigation and Wayfinding
• Pop-ups
• Notifications
• Instructions
• Form Fields and Form Progression
• Chatbot Messages
• Product and Service Descriptions

These areas on a website are designed to dictate the flow of a user’s journey to a specific CTA. For example, if your main goal is to get someone who visits your website to go to your store, your page header could have a button in it or below it to encourage people to visit your store at the beginning of the user journey.

A Difference Driven by Conversions 

While the names and roles of “copywriter” and “UX writer” may seem the same, the true outlier lies in each thought process. A copywriter creates words to resonate with the audience and persuade them to understand why a product, service or group may help them with their needs or wants. By drawing on emotions, perspectives and fears, copywriters build an authentic connection with their audience through language that builds into a consistent brand message.

The thought process of a UX writer takes more of a collaborative approach centered around a goal to convert. No copywriter writes without proper research, audience considerations and client communication, but a UX writer goes a step further by analyzing a digital interface’s user journey with their project designer and developer. They work in tandem to ensure your user’s journey is simple — guiding each person to one specific goal. For example, in a mobile app, UX copy is strategically placed to help guide the user  to one specific goal of finding a location or feature within the application.

Building a Balanced Copywriting Strategy 

Having a holistic content strategy will not only showcase your brand’s story across platforms, but also guide each person through their user journey. Interweaving elements of copywriting and UX writing will increase your brand’s communication across platforms.

Paradigm utilizes both forms of writing to elevate your brand awareness and help you achieve your business goals. Contact our team to begin developing your balanced copywriting strategy.