Writing is Designing: The Fundamentals of UX Writing

Without words, apps would be an unusable jumble of shapes and icons, while voice interfaces and chatbots wouldn’t even exist. Words make software human-centered, and require just as much thought as the branding and code.

What you’ll learn

There can often be a basic misunderstanding of the skills and techniques that are needed to write for digital products and experiences. The truth is that the same design skills you would employ to design something visually are what you need to write effectively for a digital product. We help participants move from treating writing as a personal endeavor, to applying a design mindset to their words based on user needs.

Key takeaways:

– How to write by balancing clarity and brevity
– How to handle situations when things go wrong (error states and stress cases)
– What inclusive writing is, how it relates to accessibility, and how to make sure what you write embodies both ideas
– Creating a strategic approach to writing and getting buy-in from team members
– Identify the right voice for the experience you’re designing, and establishing how the tone of that voice should change in different situations
– How to prototype and test words on their own in order to measure perception, comprehension, and usability
– How to incorporate writing into design systems

Who should attend

Anyone who cares (or should care) about the words in a product experience: UX writers, content strategists UX designers, product managers

Testimonials

The workshop felt well planned and the content was delivered clearly. Was easy to focus on the key takeaways and they provided really good practical examples that could be applied to real life scenarios.

I was expecting the workshop to be solely about writing better for UX… but the framework behind thinking about the words made me relate to UX writing better as a designer.

About the instructors

Andy and Michael are both seasoned UX professionals whose careers are built on a solid writing foundation. They’ve worked at world-class software companies, digital agencies, and in-house digital teams and have taught several versions of this workshop, both together and separately, from Singapore and Lisbon, to Minneapolis and San Francisco.

Michael J. Metts helps teams build great products and services by putting people first. With a background in journalism, he frequently finds himself talking about the role words play in designing useful, usable experiences. He has given talks and taught workshops on the topic at industry conferences around the world. He lives with his wife, two children, and a very small dog just outside Chicago.

When Andy was eight, he wanted to be a poet and a paleontologist. Twenty-seven years later, he is neither, but he uses those skills in his day job as a content strategist on Adobe’s product design team — writing under huge constraints, and uncovering artifacts from big, old software interfaces. When he’s not working, he’s creating podcasts and zines about one of his favorite topics: wooden pencils. Find him in San Francisco with his wife and two large cats, or online at andy.wtf.