UX COPYWRITING: WHAT IS IT?

UX (User Experience), this term pertains to the content that a user interacts with in a service or application, specifically design and text. In this article, we will discuss copywriting for online products, how it affects usability, downloads, and paid subscriptions.

According to statistics, 88% of users do not return to a website with poor UX. A similar figure is true for mobile applications. UX texts serve as a guide, helping users navigate even the most complex labyrinth of functions and features.

What will we discuss?

• What is UX copywriting?
• How does UX copywriting differ from traditional copywriting?
• The tasks of a UX copywriter
• Components of UX text for a digital product
• Types of UX texts
• What are microtexts and how to work with them?
• Examples of UX copywriting
• Conclusions

What is UX copywriting?

Since the term UX copywriting literally translates to writing texts for user experience, it becomes clear that the purpose of UX texts is primarily to support the user at every stage of interaction with a website, program, or mobile application. Brief descriptions don’t advertise anything; they simply provide step-by-step information about the functionality of the online product, acting as textual navigation.

Microtexts are the voice of the interface; they dialogue with the user and anticipate their questions. Of course, we are talking only about effective texts written by a specialist. They cannot be written by a developer or designer, nor by a copywriter without understanding the user journey and behavior.

To attract and retain modern users, a simple description of features is not enough. The offered solution must stand out among competitors, be captivating, and be as simple and transparent as possible. All text that a person encounters while using various services, including buttons, notifications, error messages, and tips, is part of UX copywriting. This also applies to messages about the emergence of new features in online banking.

Advertising descriptions are appropriate on landing pages, and formal data in documentation and laws. In contrast, in a mobile application, even if it’s a financial or legal organization, only simple and “caring” explanations are appropriate.

If something is unclear to the user, it creates a fear of subscribing or performing another action. Too much text leads to stress in an already information-weary user. Instead of dry instructions or loud advertising, they need support and a sense of comfort.

“Usability copywriting is the process of writing and structuring text that intuitively pushes people towards achieving a goal”. “What Is UX Copywriting?”, — Chelsea Armstrong, copywriter at CH Agency

Integrating UX copywriting into the UX/UI design process is a prerequisite for developing a quality product. Such texts are fundamentally different from typical informational or advertising texts written by a marketer.

Differences Between UX Copywriting and Traditional Copywriting

UX copywriting is often confused with traditional text content — informational or advertising. Let’s examine the key differences between user experience texts and advertising texts in the table.

Marketing Texts	UX Texts
Appeal to consumer emotions, may contain direct advertising, and are bright and memorable. The goal of the copywriter is a high number of downloads and paid subscriptions.	Help the user achieve a goal without distractions, and are less memorable. They are neutral and concise. The goal of a UX writer is to simplify users’ lives so much that they continue to pay for the product and recommend it to friends.
Stand-alone texts, i.e., capable of being perceived without context.	Supportive texts. They explain what is happening and suggest what to do next.
Must be unique, different from texts of other similar companies.	Can be very similar to texts in similar apps or services. Such similarity helps make the user experience comfortable and easy because the texts are simple in structure and recognizable.
Larger in volume, detail the company’s values.	Small text blocks (microcopy), including headings. They only reflect the essence of the content on the page.
Do not describe the product usage process, instead, they provide an idea of how it improves life and the benefits the owner receives.	Take the form of instructions, helping people navigate complex or lengthy processes.

Ultimately, the goal of a UX writer is to increase the customer lifecycle and, in some cases, their average ticket size, whereas a marketing copywriter writes to attract the attention of a large number of potential customers and increase the conversion of buttons on any platform.

A marketing designer makes the product attractive so that people start using it. A UX designer focuses on behavioral factors and strives to make it easy for users to use the features of the service, application, program, or website. The same difference exists between a marketing copywriter and a UX writer.

Texts for a program or service interface can be written by a marketing copywriter, but only if they have the necessary knowledge. A specialist working on UX content needs to possess certain skills.

What Tasks Do Copywriters Perform

Content Writer	Copywriter	UX Writer
— Blog posts — E-books — Guides — White papers — Reports — Books	— Headlines — Ads — Brochures — Web pages — Social media posts — Promotional emails	— Forms — Error states — Product flows — Notification messages — Loading states — Transactional emails

Comparative Skills for Different Types of Content Authors: Content Writers, Copywriters, and UX Writers:

Content Writer	Copywriter	UX Writer
— Search Engine Optimization (SEO) — Creative storytelling — Organizational thinking — Knowledge of audience and business goals — Market research synthesis	— Thinking outside the box — Capturing attention — Using metaphors, analogies, and anecdotes — Knowledge of audience and business goals — Market research synthesis	— Empathy — People-oriented — Ability to work under uncertainty — Connecting facts — Translating complex concepts — Synthesizing user experience research

The Role of a UX Copywriter

UX copywriters are sometimes referred to as content designers. In a team with UX/UI designers, they create IT products. It is advisable to involve UX text authors in the project from the stage of idea development and marketing research. This ensures that all specialists are “on the same wavelength”, and later, there won’t be a need to edit or change whole blocks or pages.

Ideally, a UX writer should participate in the development of interfaces from the creation of mockups, wireframes, and prototypes. For such a specialist, it is crucial from the early stages to understand how elements interact with each other, hence the UX text is written not for a single button but for the entire product.

What can a UX copywriter do?

• Research the target audience, define the style of the interface that is relevant to their needs.
• Conduct A/B testing and improve navigation, notification types, etc.
• Make developers’ texts readable and personalized.
• Work with the editorial policy, maintain the company’s tone of voice, ensure consistency across all brand microtexts.
• Generate ideas for headlines and CTAs for emails, landing pages, etc.
• Handle localization, making correct translations into other languages while maintaining the logic and style of the information presentation.

It is beneficial if a UX writer and a marketing copywriter can work together. This is often practiced in the content creation process for a landing page. The copywriter may write the texts for the page and leave the UX writer to check and edit terms, or vice versa, the UX author prepares the structure of the target page and fills it with texts, then turns to the copywriter for help with headlines, lead magnet descriptions, and CTAs.

A good example of collaboration between a UX writer and a copywriter is the Waterllama app website. It is evident that the language of the product and the advertising materials are coordinated. The texts are unified in style, using the same calls to action and conciseness.

What knowledge and skills should a UX writer possess?

• Understanding the basics of copywriting, ability to write error-free (or have the text edited by an editor and proofreader).
• Design thinking, basic knowledge of web design to consider the logic of the interface in their work.
• Empathy, the ability to put oneself in the user’s place, understand the preferences of the target audience, which can be aided by tools like Google Analytics and A/B testing, interacting with users, and working with focus groups.
• Basic understanding of wireframing and prototyping, user scenarios, and user journey.
• Theoretical knowledge about interface creation, understanding the reasons why users are accustomed to certain structures and designs and are not inclined to other methods of construction and visualization.

The UX writer defines the brand’s voice, i.e., the format of information presentation used in all texts for promoting or using the product, including on landing pages and in social media. Exceptions include longreads, reviews, and other large materials that contain native advertising.

If a user first encounters marketing texts and then product texts (within a digital product), the process is reversed for the developer company. First, the product, its interface, and explanations are created, followed by slogans and other advertising.

Components of UX Text for Digital Products

Texts designed to improve user experience can vary depending on their purpose, particularly the stage of the sales funnel the user is in. If feature presentation is necessary during registration and product introduction, textual support is needed for all situations a user might encounter during usage. Let’s highlight the most common components of UX text.

First-use Onboarding

The first use might involve configuring the product to meet individual needs. An automated introduction to the digital product keeps the user engaged, describing the benefits of the features and personalizing the interaction with the service.

“Bad product onboarding is one of the main reasons for user churn, and 23% of customers who stop using a product do so because they can’t understand how it works or how they can use it to solve their pain points”. — “How to Create Effective Product Onboarding (+Challenges)”, — Levi Olmstead

The goal of first-use onboarding is to “sell” belief in the digital product, proving that it can solve a range of problems for the target audience representative. Creating such texts should consider the fears, beliefs, and desires of different target audience segments using the app or service.

Onboarding may include requests for permissions to send notifications, access geolocation, microphone, and camera, explaining why these are needed, arguing their safety, and the convenience of these features in different user interaction scenarios.

As part of onboarding, it’s appropriate to explain how to navigate the interface and use the main features to meet their needs. This stage concludes the user registration and account setup through a short survey. In the case of a free model (demo version or trial period), the value of upgrading to a paid plan should be justified.

The service Notion offers the new user to answer a few questions to personalize the interface and, simultaneously, to collect data about the target audience.

Proper onboarding helps reduce the time needed to profit, decreases user churn, and increases customer lifetime value (LTV). Product presentation can be compared to meeting a person. If the first impression of the interaction is negative, you are likely to leave; if it’s too neutral, insincere, and formal, you probably won’t remember the name of the person you talked to and feel no desire to return to the conversation.

Purchase

Before moving to the paid version of the product, a user may hesitate. The desire to save money can be due to not fully understanding the terms, lack of proper descriptions of the product’s value, or the process. Only clear and persuasive text will help the user make a decision and perform the target action.

At this stage, it should be explained what exactly the user will get. If the amount is large, break it down into parts or explain what exactly is included in the cost. Also, a good idea would be to offer a choice of payment format — buy each paid feature separately or purchase them all as a package with a discount. Example — onboarding text for the Toucan extension. Its essence lies in the automatic translation of words in the browser into the language the user wants to learn. Just hover the mouse over the word of interest.

Users land on such a demonstration page of Chrome extension capabilities after installing it and automatically going to the Toucan home page. In effect, this is a demo version of the service’s capabilities, which presents to new registered users how easy it is now to learn a new language while spending time online.

Learning

This stage is the most straightforward. At the same time, writing texts for it is perhaps the most challenging task of UX copywriting. In mobile apps, instructions on usage often combine with first-use onboarding. You can discuss the benefits, accompanying the first use with pop-up hints and comments, as implemented in the Notion service menu.

Errors

An additional component that should not be ignored. Often, due to software glitches or incorrect user actions, something “freezes,” and the app or service is deleted from the device and not reinstalled.

It’s necessary to anticipate all possible error scenarios and prepare texts explaining what to do in case of a failure. The purpose of such a description is to reassure the user, retain them, and return them to the main menu.

Unfortunately, errors often do not receive adequate attention. The user sees on the screen: “Something went wrong”, and their interaction with the service is interrupted. Formulating a logical explanation, you can consistently return the user to the main scenario, even if a session is disrupted. For example: “Unfortunately, an error occurred. Please return to the main menu and try again”.

The user scenario may also include stages such as a trial (trial subscription model), creating a new project, and saving or editing it. For each, it’s necessary to describe where the user comes from and what their goal is. Client expectations depend on the theme of the digital product and the state they are in. Developers determine the first factor, and the second can be anticipated and used in their work.

Types of UX Texts

UX texts can be conventionally divided into two categories — informative and interactive. The first type tells about something, while the second simplifies navigation.

Informative elements include:

• Headlines. Convey and emphasize the key message.
• Subheadings. Explain the headlines and clarify the offers.
• Product Descriptions. Usually placed in a small block under the headline.

While for a web page these elements can be more extensive, the interface of a mobile app should be minimalist.

Interactive UX texts have more varieties:

• Menus. A basic component of navigation for any interface.
• Registration Forms. Questions with fields for filling in the most necessary information from the user.
• Instructions. Briefly and clearly describe the benefits of the product.
• CTA Buttons. Calls to action with a minimal number of words, a natural continuation of instructions.
• Notifications. Short messages that remind the user about the service or announce news.
• Error Notifications. Brief hints on what to do when something goes wrong.
• Tooltips. Labels with textual messages that usually appear during the first use of an app or program.

Interactive texts can also include captions for images on a website or in an app.

What are microtexts and how to work with them?

The process of preparing microtexts for the interface of a digital product involves several stages. To perform them sequentially and correctly, a writer must deeply understand the target audience for whom they are writing. Therefore, the first step is writing usage scenarios for the app or service. At this point, it’s important to describe what the user might feel, their goal and context, and their mood while experiencing different features. A table describing the needs of the main audience segments during their engagement with various parts of UX texts can help understand the clients’ needs and questions.

Let’s look at the structure of such a table using the VSCO photo editing app as an example. Representatives of the audience segments will be blogger Alina and photographer Dmitry.

Alina wants to edit photos for social media. She dislikes reading lengthy instructions and dreams of creating her own presets and earning from them. Previous apps did not satisfy her due to limited features in the free version and complicated explanations.

User Alina (blogger)

Stage	Registration	Onboarding	Trial	Learning	Error
User’s goal	Choose a photo editing method for Instagram, create unique presets for her blog and to sell to followers.	Get familiar with different photo editing methods, learn what’s paid and what’s free.		Keep it simple initially, make one preset and apply it to many photos.	Return to the main usage scenario.
Mood, state	Neutral	Neutral	Anxious, afraid of linking a bank card.	Hurried.	Negative, afraid of losing unsaved changes.
Need (what does she want to hear?)	Clear registration instructions.	Which effects are free in the app.	Detailed and transparent trial terms.	Wants to see short tips and scroll through them.	How to save all changes and return to the main menu.

Dmitry wants to learn and develop; he has no goal to earn money using the app but is willing to pay for its capabilities.

User Dmitry (photographer)

Stage	Registration	Onboarding	Тріал	Learning	Error
User’s goal	Join the community of photographers, showcase his works and get “likes”, find great references.	Find his colleagues registered in the app, publish the first photo.		Explore all possibilities, undergo thorough training.	Return to the main usage scenario.
Mood, state	Neutral	Neutral	Interested, ready to purchase the premium version.	Engaged, ready to learn.	Confuse
Need (what does he want to hear?)	Clear registration instructions.	How to find friends and follow them, how to publish a photo and promote it.	Detailed and transparent trial terms.	How to search for references for his ideas, how to find cool photographers in the app.	What the error is and instructions for its resolution.

There can be many segments. The writer’s task is to prepare texts that satisfy each audience category and respond to their goals, moods, and needs.

Microtexts are an integral component of the interface of any digital product or landing page. All of them must have a unified style of information delivery. As mentioned earlier, the tone of voice is set by the UX writer. You can use a list of tips on preparing UX copywriting for effective user engagement and support.

• Formulate all descriptions and calls to action in the present tense.
• Avoid intrusive phrases and advertising.
• Uniformity, use of specific perception templates. For this, it’s useful to perform a competitor analysis.
• Care about client comfort. Like a polite salesperson in a store who consults and helps the customer quickly solve a problem, an app or program should offer ways to fix errors and achieve goals.
• Simplicity. Leave beautiful words for email campaigns and presentations, and long stories for longreads.
• Avoid synonyms. To avoid confusing the user, call things by familiar and consistent words.
• Use the language of your target audience. Abbreviations, terms, and jargon are permissible if they match the theme of the service or app.
• However, complex concepts should be translated into understandable language, especially when explaining the reason for an error. For example, “You entered the wrong password, try again or enter your phone number in the field below.”
• Consider how the content will look on a desktop or mobile screen. Microtexts should be approximately the same size if we’re talking about a page with a list or image captions.
• Think about visualization. Perhaps, with explanatory graphics, detailed descriptions will be unnecessary.
• Avoid using the particle “not” and remember that “the glass is always half full”. Instead of “Functions not available to you”, say “These functions are available to you for $2 a month!”
• Notifications and pop-ups should be brief—up to 25 characters.

Final recommendation: Use humor if it fits the style of the company’s communication with the customer. Without a witty cat, it’s hard to imagine any update of functionality or a tip in the interface of a mobile app. A brand character accompanies user scenarios and lightens the atmosphere, which meets the demands of the target audience of the company.

Examples of UX Copywriting

In the UpLife mobile app for mental health improvement, a user can choose a goal and indicate their problem. During the onboarding phase, the capabilities of the service are demonstrated, including meditation, interactive exercises, and the introduction of useful habits. Each page features a visualization of the result and a brief description of how life will improve with UpLife.

The Flo app for women’s health uses first-use onboarding to get closer to its users. A survey before starting allows the product to be refined based on the target audience profile. At the same time, women registered in Flo receive personalized greetings, more accurate advice, and even interface customization according to their own tastes.

Well-thought-out is also the paid subscription stage: “We understand that commiting to a monthly payment could be difficult. Especially when it’s something you haven’t tried before. Your health is important, and money shouldn’t stop you from reaching your goals. So we’d like to offer you to try Flo Premium for just $1/30 days*. Flo Premium costs $14.61 a month, but please select an option that works best for you. You won’t be charged, at this step”.

In the VSCO app, users of the free version are offered more features and early access to new functions in VSCO Pro while scrolling through the feed of other authors’ works.

Frequently Asked Questions

Conclusions

UX copywriting is the thread that connects the technical part of a project, design, and texts. A UX writer improves the usability of digital products, increases user loyalty, thereby attracting new regular clients and prolonging the life cycle of existing ones.

Usability content implies the absence of unclear terms and direct advertising. Despite its conciseness and restraint, it appeals to human emotions and ensures the relevance of every phrase and every button of an app, program, or website to the requests of the target audience.

Undoubtedly, a UX writer needs to thoroughly understand how the service works, be familiar with various interface elements, be able to write in an accessible language, and ideally, work in a team from the very beginning of the product development.