How Teaching and Designing Learning Can Improve UX Writers

When I tell people that I’m a UX Writer I’m sure they imagine me sat at my laptop simply typing all day. The role is a lot more varied than that and requires UX writers to have a well-rounded skill set and professional qualities beyond the ability to write.

If you have read my post covering my start to finish UX writing project process, you will see why this is the case – and why I espouse that all UX professionals would benefit from becoming qualified educators of adults and understanding learning design theory.

Instructional Writing

Training to become a teacher and learning about designing for adult education is a great way to become a much better instructional writer, and this is key when working as a UX writer. No matter the component I may be writing for, the microcopy needs to be instructional. The words need to result in clear instruction that is easy for users to follow, thus improving their experience as a user, thus increasing the likelihood that they will return and spread the good word.

Learning About Learners

As part of becoming a teacher or a learning designer, studying adult learning theories is an essential aspect. This is beneficial in terms of really understanding user/learner differences and the different theories and models that guide as to how to best educate a varying cohort. This transfers over very well to when writing for a target audience as a UX writer.

The more accurately we can get into a user’s head and then write specifically to appeal to their preferences the better their experience will be.

As part of this training the student learns about learning style preferences, and whether learners respond best to visual/audio/kinaesthetic delivery etc. They also learn about equality and diversity, inclusion, accessibility, and all forms of anti-discrimination.

Practical Experience

As well as the development of this theoretical understanding, when training to be a teacher, there is a practical requirement to actually evidence teaching to achieve the qualification. This is a great experience as the practice really embeds the learning. There is a significant jump from theoretical understanding into the reality of live delivery.

Learning how to structure lessons to cover key points in a rational cohesive way – and then deliver the lessons within a set time (both as a teacher or learning designer) – is great for UX writers who are often asked to present or to instruct as part of their duties. They will also be required to contribute to meetings and explain what they mean to an audience. They may need to facilitate and lead a group of users doing product tests etc.

All the skills developed when training to be a teacher are transferable and the UX writer will feel professionally confident as a result.

All Users Are Learners

Really, all users are learners. They all come to a website or app and ask: ‘How do I?’ Therefore, the more a UX writer knows about adult education and instructional design, and the better they are at delivering training, the better they will be at writing excellent microcopy/general content.

UK Teaching Adults Qualifications

I believe that training to be a teacher of adults is a very good way to develop a skill set which enables a UX writer to have well-rounded skills and progress smoothly into seniority. There are various skill cross overs from teaching into management and vice versa.

In the UK, the current teaching adults qualification is the Award in Education and Training (AET) at Level 3. The assessing qualification is the Certificate in Assessing Vocational Achievement (CAVA), also at Level 3. They are often taken together by educational practitioners – but if I had to recommend just one to the UX Writer it would be the AET.

You can learn about learning design from many online sources. I completed the LinkedIn career pathway for learning design.

Thank you for reading, and if you have any comments or questions, let me know!

Steven Cook

www.contentdesignsolutions.co.uk