After writing content for an entire website, I was hooked on the process of writing for the web.
With six years of experience as a Content Specialist and (until recently) the sole writer for my employer, I’m frequently asked to write content for our website. This includes writing text for workflows and applications that our development team builds in-house. Since my writing skills continue to be in high demand, I decided to dive deeper into the emerging world of UX writing.
I signed up for the 15-day writing challenge through Daily UX Writing to put my skills through the test. Each day for 15 days, a writing prompt was delivered to my inbox with restrictions on character counts for the headline, body, and button text. Luckily, I had plenty of practice writing Twitter posts and paid Facebook ads for marketing promotions, so I wasn’t too intimidated by the character limit restrictions.
The biggest lesson that I learned during this challenge is that UX writing is both an art and a science. While I enjoy writing feel-good copy in social posts and blog posts, there was no room for extra fluff in my UX writing prompts. I constantly had to remind myself that the intention of the copy I was writing was to guide a user to take an action or to move through an experience. Eventually, I was able to achieve a nice balance of clarity and conciseness without abandoning tone.
I hope you enjoy my take on a few of the writing prompts.
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Day 2 Challenge
Scenario: A user is a working parent, and a big sports fan, in the midst of their favorite sports season who can no longer attend games.
Challenge: Write a promotional screen for an app that lets a user choose teams, sends game reminders, real-time score updates and highlight videos.
Headline: 40 characters max
Body: 175 characters max
Button(s): 25 characters max
My Idea: In the headline, I wanted to let the user know that the app is reliable and provides real-time updates. For the body copy, I explained a few more features of the app. The play on words in the first sentence gives the brand some personality while still informing the user about the usefulness of the app.
While I liked the suggestion to have 'Get in the game' as the copy for the button, I felt that 'Download Now' gave more direction to the user on the next step to take.
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Day 8 Challenge
Scenario: The user is a casual music fan and (on occasion) goes to live concerts. They have a music player app on their phone.
Challenge: Tell the user that one of their favorite bands is playing live in their town. How would you compel them to want to go?
Headline: 30 characters max
Body: 45 characters max
Button: 25 characters max
My Idea: I wanted to use some personalization in the headline and have a little fun by asking the user to envision themselves at the concert. For this task, I would propose changing the venue name based on user location. In the notification, I wanted to make sure the user had as many high-level details as possible: Who is playing, where the event is taking place, the date of the concert, and where to purchase tickets. The call-to-action button is clear and encourages the user to purchase tickets now so they don't miss out.
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Day 6 Challenge
Scenario: It’s Monday. A user has just gotten into their car to drive to work. They plug their phone into the car and start driving.
Challenge: How would you let the user know there’s a fire happening in a nearby town that is causing road closures? The effect on their commute is unknown, but there is a definite danger if the fire gets closer. How do you communicate this to them? When?
Headline: 30 characters max
Body: 45 characters max
My Idea: Since so many cars now have a GPS built into them, I'd suggest having a pop-up appear right on the screen when the user started their vehicle. The first thing a user needs to know is that they need to take an alternate route, so I put this information in the headline. Next, I told the user why they need to take a different route and assured them that opening their GPS will help them avoid road closures.
However, the prompt didn't ask for a call-to-action button. So what is a person supposed to do if they get this alert? While it's assumed that the user would open their GPS or map app on their phone, I'd suggest adding a button to the bottom of the alert. The button could then open the GPS in the car and show the person different routes without the user having to take this extra step on their own.
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Day 7 Challenge
Scenario: A sports fan is at a wedding while their favorite team is playing against their arch-rivals. Their team scores.
Challenge: How would you, quickly, let the sports fan know about the latest play, the current score, and the key players? Write it.
Headline: 30 characters max
Body: 45 characters max
My Idea: Right away, I want the user to know that his/her favorite team scored. I anticipate that the score would be the next piece of information a user would want to know, so this is also included in the headline. For the body copy, I gave more details about who scored and what they did to score.