UX Writing Clarity: Project Approach – Start to Finish Summary

As UX is a relatively new professional field, it can be challenging for newcomers/interested parties to decide where they would like to position themselves and decide exactly which part of UX they want to make the focus of their career.

I have written various posts on the careers of UX researcher and UX designer, and in this post, I will be covering the role of UX writer/content designer by laying out how I would approach a UX writing project for a small to medium sized organisation. This will then hopefully make it clearer what the general nature of the role is. I will cover the processes that I consistently follow to ensure I am adhering to established best practice approaches to UX projects.

To complement this post, I have another post where I explain the difference between writing microcopy, writing copy, and content design/strategy. You may benefit from reading that post first. It can be found here.

Step One – Meet the Team

The first step is for me to meet my team – who I’m going to be working with on the project I’ve been hired for.

At this point I clarify each member’s job title and specific responsibilities, what they prefer to be called, how they prefer to receive communication, their learning style preferences, and their general working pattern/availability.

During this phase I also ensure I have access to all the software and hardware I need. It may be that I need basic training if I have no/little experience of the software etc. What design software do the team use? Do they use Teams/Zoom/Slack? What project management tools do they use?

It will always take a while for new team mates to get to know each other’s way of working and harmonise, but getting off to a good productive start in this way helps the process to progress effectively and efficiently.

Step Two – Getting to Know the Product/Service

The next step is for me to find out everything I can about the product/service I have been hired to work on, and as much as possible about the organisation.

Sometimes, there will be an existing product/service, sometimes I am involved at the start of the design and development of a new product/service.

If already existing, I can review the website/app, any instructional brochures, marketing and sales materials, any existing user research, any previous UX projects etc.

If new, I can inquire about the goals for the new product/service, how it fits in with the overall brand, what research has been carried out already etc.

Step Three – User Research Plan

Armed with the above, and possibly in collaboration with other team members (UX designer/researcher/project manager/lead), I then progress onto devising a tailored user research plan.

The goal is for the research to be as efficient as possible while also providing reliable data that informed decisions can be made from.

Exactly what type of research to carry out – and the deliverables at this point – vary from project to project. That being said, I always ensure that I analyse any existing data from previous research, study any branding/voice guides, conduct conversational mining, and conduct competitor analysis.

If an existing product/service, I would start with a heuristic/best practice review based on standardised approaches to effective UX design that have stood the test of time. This efficient analysis can reveal obvious flaws that don’t need research/testing to expose.

Step Four – User Research Execution

It is important that all team members understand the value of the step three research and that the UX writer is given the time to carry it out correctly. The insights are invaluable and inform the rest of the design process.

The UX writer can carry out the heuristic reviews, previous research analysis, voice development, conversational mining, and competitor analysis using only their laptop with an internet connection, and it can be an efficient step.

Step Five - User Research Analysis

At this point, I would communicate the findings from the research to the rest of the team in the most efficient, effective and engaging way possible. This is sometimes via a meeting, or by compiling reports/presentations. It depends on the nature of the findings and the team’s preferences.

I summarise my findings so they are as accessible and clear as possible so that understanding can come quickly, and informed decisions made as a result.

Step Six – Content Strategy and Design

It is essential that the UX Writer and UX designer work closely at this point.

The UX writer must understand all the processes and the approximate word count they will need and the approximate space and communicate this effectively to the UX designer.

They need to work together to ensure the right amount of content is on a page and that it is organised in a clear and rational way. Both need to understand information hierarchy, user journeys, and content design.

When the UX writer moves on to filling in the content spaces with their copy/microcopy, they may need more or less space than they originally thought – so at this stage the outline developed with the UX designer is just a draft – an outline as a starting point.

With this outline in place, the two (?) would agree a schedule and when to meet again. It may be that they agree to work a section at a time, a page at a time, a process at a time – it depends on the nature of the site/app and the guidance of the project manager as to what is best practice.

Step Seven - Copywriting and Microcopy Writing

At this point, the onus is on the UX writer to ‘fill in the spaces’ so that the text containers and the linked visuals etc. can be tailored around the writing. The words are the key and the design process must respect this. Everything revolves around the words – and especially instructional words.

Once the UX writer has produced the copy agreed, it can then go to the UX designer who can adapt their design as required on a testable prototype.

When the writer and designer are happy with their collaborative result, testing can be undertaken to ensure that it isn’t just their opinion.

Step Eight – Internal Testing

Testing within the organisation and even with friends and family should be encouraged as it is cheap and quick to carry out and can at the least expose clear and obvious issues.

It is simply a case of asking participants to complete specified processes/tasks while recording them in some way and then asking for their feedback.

If obvious issues are exposed, then they can be worked on now before the greater time and cost inherent with external testing.

Step Nine – External Testing

With rigorous internal testing complete, and obvious issues rectified, I would then hope to carry out external testing with target users.

The testing used will vary depending on the product/service, but recorded user tests perhaps in tandem with user interviews are a great way of efficiently gathering quality qualitative data.

Step Ten – Test Result Analysis

The data from the test results is the word of the boss. Therefore, the results need to be analysed thoroughly and the data presented/summarised clearly and concisely so decisions and progress can be made.

Step Eleven – Design/Writing Iterations

Of course, it completely depends on the test results as to what if any design/writing improvements need to be made to please the user, but, if they need to be made, now is when that would take place.

Again, the writer and designer need to collaborate closely as they work on implementing the user feedback into their work and ironing out any issues.

Step Twelve – Test Again

Basically, design and testing are an iterative process and may require several cycles of steps ten through twelve. The important thing is to keep iterating until the user is happy. It is essential that the team achieve this, or it is unwise to go live.

When they are increasingly happy, I then like to bring in A/B testing where our design is tested against our main competitors. Again, it is wise to be winning vs rivals before going live. This is rigour – and the time and effort spent at this page has great benefits later.

Keep going until your test group users are very happy and you score higher than your rivals.

Step Thirteen – Final Review

When our users are happy, and we are scoring consistently higher than our competition – then a final review takes place where all findings and the final design are presented to the stakeholders for ‘sign off’ – the go ahead to go live.

It should be that at this point that the case for completion and sign off are compelling – given the research and test results etc.

Everyone should be happy to give the green light.

Step Fourteen – Go Live!

With steps one through thirteen complete the big day arrives, and the final design goes live!

Of course, regular early performance testing should take place – and it is possible to also conduct site/app analysis to review user behaviour on site etc. This can be useful to see bounce rates and where users are clicking. The click maps show whether the site navigation is effective and/or if the content instruction is clear. Are users bouncing before completing? Where? Why would that be?

Step Fifteen – Periodic Reviews

It is important that someone on the team analyses any user feedback that may be starting to appear online across social media and ecommerce etc. so that any negative patterns can be identified early. Likewise, it is also good practice to record instances of positive feedback.

Regular competitor analysis is also recommended given that they may respond to our own improvements. Keep testing ours vs theirs. Don’t let them gain competitive advantage over you for long! Keep looking for inspiration and how to proactively improve. Don’t wait to have to be reactive.

And… Repeat

That brings us to an end of this fifteen-step summary, I hope you have found it useful and that you now have greater clarity regarding the general role of a UX writer and what a UX project involves.

Let me know your thoughts or if you have any questions.

Steven Cook

www.contentdesignsolutions.co.uk