10 Things Ux Writers Hate to Hear
Fake conversations, real situations.
Similar Challenges
Over the years, I’ve been lucky enough to chat with UX writers from a bunch of different companies. Even though we work on completely different products, we face shockingly similar challenges.
Below is my attempt at capturing a few of the challenges we face as UX writers. None of these conversations are real, but they’re all based on real-life situations.
If you’ve ever wondered what it’s like to be a UX writer, here’s a little preview.
1. “I Just Need One Word”
Designer: “Hey, I need to come up with a label for this button. Can you help me out?”
Writer: “Sure. What does the button do?”
Designer: “Well, it sends a private message to everyone in the thread who hasn’t replied yet. Then it creates a separate thread with just those people. And that new thread doesn’t show up on their profile.”
Writer: “Okay. And there’s only room for one word?”
Designer: “Right. I just need one word.”
2. “Technical Reasons”
Developer: “Because of technical reasons, we can’t change the system. You’ll just have to write some UI copy that explains how it works.”
Writer: “Can we at least show different messages for different scenarios?”
Developer: “Nope, can’t do that either.”
Writer: „Because of technical reasons?”
Developer: “Yep.”
3. “Punch it up”
CEO: “Yeah, I’m not really feelin’ it. Can you punch it up some more? Add an exclamation point or something.”
Writer: “But there’s already an exclamation point down here.”
CEO: “Yeah, just add a few more. It needs more pop. Don’t explain it. Exclaim it!”
4. “Legal disclaimer”
Product manager: “Legal says we need to add a disclaimer here. There’s a 0.0005% chance it won’t work as expected.”
Writer: “But nobody’s gonna read a disclaimer down there.”
Product manager: “Yeah, so in case you didn’t hear, Legal says we need to add a disclaimer here. Can you whip something up real quick?”