Words that make your product sing

Choosing the right words is crucial to making a good product that people will love and return to. At the Google I/O developer conference in 2017, UX content experts Maggie Stanphill, Allison Rung and Juliana Appenrodt explained why the right words matter.

Wrong words can create a bad impression of your product. Imagine a social app that says, “No friends, How sad.” Or a dating app that says, “Go on a date or you will be single forever”. A bad start to the product experience.

Content strategy is the holistic development & crafting of content in the product experience. UX writing is a speciality within this discipline that focuses on helping users achieve their goals with language. UX writing includes the words within an app or website UI.

UX writing checklist

1. User first: Focus on your users

Partner with the cross-disciplinary team of writers, researchers, & designers to create product solutions. Think about the information hierarchy on the page that guides the user actions. Test hypotheses about the language.

2. Clear: The words used in a message are often technical and not user-friendly

Write in language free of jargon, and with sufficient context. Write in a way that provokes action. Focus on the verb - it is the most powerful part of your sentence. Example:

3. Concise: Write in a style that’s economical and quickly scannable

Make sure every word on the screen has a distinct job. Practise content first design which makes sure that the visuals are in line with what you’re trying to say. Example:

4. Useful: Write in a way that directs the next action

Guide the users with a call to action (CTA). Uncover all the scenarios and use cases and write for them. When a user enters the wrong password they will want to try again or will want to recover their password.

5. Brand Voice: Define your brand voice and apply an appropriate tone

 Your brand voice is the combination of your brand principles and writing guidelines. Brand principles can be 3 or 4 adjectives that describe your brand, and how you want people to perceive it.

6. Data-driven: Choose the language that performs, proven by research and A/B testing 

Choosing the right words is not always clear. A/B testing is a great way to decide between two versions of text to find out which one connects more with users and is effective.

Final Note: "Easy reading is damn hard writing." -- Nathaniel Hawthorne (novelist). Use the above checklist to help you choose the right words. Good language makes better products. Good UX writing will make your product valuable and unique.