Why UX-rating (writing for user experience) is important for a web designer. Basic tips on how to do it and how best not to do it.
Writing UX texts is an extremely important element of creating a seamless and user-friendly user experience. Competent UX-writing helps users navigate a product's interface. Language is a weapon. Including in marketing matters. The right word can play a decisive role. A/B tests also show this - conversions can simply skyrocket after a successful change of the inscription on the CTA button. But to do such miracles you need not luck, but huge experience and understanding of the essence of UX-rating.
A UX-rater is ideally a separate specialist who helps to make the interface clear, simple, intuitive and guide the user through it without too many hiccups. But more often than not, this role falls on the shoulders of the prototyping copywriter or the web designer himself. And you owe it to yourself to know the basics of UXwriting so you don't fall foul of it when creating a project. In general, UX-rating skills are worth developing for everyone involved in interface design.
Good web design should consider how users interact with the interface. UX-rating is the aspect that helps to make the texts on a website or app easy to understand and use. A well-rounded UX-rating skil is needed by a web designer to make the interface more intuitive, giving users clear and informative feedback.
The main elements to be made according to the principles of UX-rating are:
- Buttons;
- Forms and fields;
- Menu items, navigation;
- Error messages;
- Reminders, prompts;
- Terms of use;
- Operating Instructions.
We'll cover the basic rules and mistakes.
How to write UX-texts
This section is about how things should be done and what to look out for. Theses are how to proceed.
1. Be clear and concise
Use clear and concise language to convey information. Users should quickly understand the message without ambiguity. Try to convey information with a minimum number of words. Remove unnecessary details and redundant terms. Avoid complex and ambiguous phrases. Use clear, simple language that a wide range of users can understand. Do without long, confusing descriptions. Even if they are necessary, break them down into short phrases, paragraphs. No compound sentences. Imagine you are explaining something to a five-year-old child.
2. In the right context
Offer context to help users navigate the interface. Make sure each piece of text has a purpose. For example, on a fill-in form, add placeholder text or tooltips. This is almost a mandatory part of the phone number field - you need to give insight into what format you expect the number in.
Make headings and captions informative and easy to understand. They should quickly convey the essence of the content. If they don't match, misunderstandings can arise due to loss of context. And that's also misguided expectations and a bad experience when interacting with the product. So keep it consistent, logical, and contextually relevant.
3. Consistent
Maintain consistent language throughout the product. Default to standard terms unless there is a specific purpose. The user already understands actions like "Go to payment," "Go back to home," and other established phrases. They are simple and familiar, don't replace them unnecessarily.
The language and pitch within a single project should be uniform. It will be strange if you initially keep a formal tone, and then abruptly at the end switch to cheeky youth slang or aggressive CTAs. Keep one chosen style initially, let all the appeals be on topic and the pitch itself the same.
A consistent and coherent style of text in different parts of the interface improves perception and simplifies the user experience.
4. Make it clear to the target audience
Take into account user experience, context and product features. Sometimes you need more hints and explanations, more detailed descriptions of actions. Sometimes, on the contrary, you need to weed out those who are not in the know - here you can complicate the language by using specific terminology that is clearly understandable to the right segment of users. Always ask yourself a question - how would they say it? What would they want to see on this button? Would your text seem too weird/inappropriate/funny? Take your competitor research and consider their customer feedback.
5. Using active verbs
Use action language that encourages users to take certain steps. You need verbs for this - go, look, register, buy, checkout. This stimulates engagement.
Texts should have clear instructions for action. For example, "Click here to continue" or "Contact us for help".
What NOT to do
Here's a summary of exactly what to avoid. Always go through the project after it's finished and check for similar mistakes.
1. Avoid a negative tone
Avoid broadcasting negative messages that can drive users away. Formulate instructions in a positive way. For example, instead of "Error: you forgot to fill in the required field", write a softer "Please fill in the required field".
Or "You've gone to a non-existent page" on a 404 will sound better if you take the blame instead of shifting it to the user: "We tried, but we couldn't find this page. Maybe we moved it." For more on good 404 pages, see our separate article.
2. Don't overload the text
It will be a mistake to overload the screens with unnecessary text. In buttons, it should be as short as possible to be understandable. In blocks of 5-7 lines. Separate the rest with paragraphs, bullet points, icons. Highlight the main information and reduce unnecessary details. The text should be read in its entirety, instantly. And if it is a continuous unstructured writing, it will not work that way. In the end, the work will be meaningless - the user simply will not read it in most cases. And all those "important" aspects that you wanted to keep so much will turn out to be of no use at all.
Of course, sometimes you can't do without long descriptions. And in some cases they are really necessary - when there are instructions, detailed information, explanations. But even such things can be presented without overload, easily, schematically, logically dividing the data.
This also applies to the length of words. Try to use shorter synonyms if it fits. And if there are numbers in the text, write them in numbers, not words.
3. Don't use ambiguous steps
Some steps have the effect of confusing users about what action they are performing. And end up with buttons in front of him that he is afraid to click. Because it's not clear what will happen.
Such gross errors almost never happen in small, simple projects. But they happen in complex ones, when there are many branching variants of user's steps and these steps are worked out automatically. Or the content changes for the user depending on his actions. In this case it is important to check every combination, every step and all their possible variants. So that everything was organic, clear and clear, without ambiguous messages.
If the user does not understand what is expected of him, it can lead to a loss of conversion. Calls to action should be clear and motivating.
4. Don't move the important to the end of the sentence
Always start your sentence with the most important thing, the key point. "Click to continue" instead of "To continue, click here." The two messages are not different in their meaning, but by their nature, the former will work much more effectively and be easier to comprehend, which is what we need.
5. Take all devices into account
Texts should adapt to different devices (e.g. mobile, smartwatch, desktop) without losing clarity. It's already generally strange to write the call to "Right-click here" if most users enter from a smartphone, for example. And vice versa, scrolling with a swipe of your fingers on a PC screen is not going to work. Therefore, either the texts should be universal and take into account these nuances, or it makes sense to write them separately for different devices, if the functionality requires it.
And more
Feedback and testing is important. And if someone alone in the comments ridiculed the button option, dozens thought the same, but just kept silent. Collect data from real users and from focus groups, observe the behavior of visitors on the site, only in this way you can identify weaknesses.
A separate item in the topic of UX-rating should be buttons and fields. But it will not be here, because we have already written a detailed material on this topic recently. Here you should definitely read it, it will come in handy.
Well-written UX text on buttons, in headlines or calls to action can have a significant impact on conversion rates. It's important for you to consider the effectiveness of text elements and know how to apply them depending on the characteristics of your target audience and the product itself.
Clear and easy to understand instructions provided through UX writing improve the user's overall interaction with a website or app.
By combining design and text, a cohesive and coherent user experience can be created that reflects the values and goals of the brand. Thus, UX-rating is an integral part of web design, helping to create user-friendly, clear and attractive interfaces for users.
It is actually a whole science and a separate profession, but a web designer should know the basics and understand the principles of UX-rating to create quality interfaces. Where to get UX-rating skills? As part of the UX/UI Legend online course, of course. There will be a lot of useful stuff there, check out the program right now and apply!