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Words that make your product sing

May 27, 2022 · 2 mins read

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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:

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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:

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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. 

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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.

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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.

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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.

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