Strategic Writing for UX, 2nd Edition

[ Preface ]

Every day, we make thousands of decisions: buying tickets for events, playing a game, or riding public transit. Ideally, we are guided so seamlessly through the process that we barely register that we’re making decisions at all. Those decisions are influenced by the language written to help you with that: the content design.

Content design is the process of creating the words in user experiences (UX): the titles, buttons, labels, instructions, descriptions, notifications, warnings, and controls that people see. It’s also the setup information, first-run experience, and how-to content that gives people confidence to take the next step.

When an organization depends on individual humans performing specific behaviors like buying tickets for events, playing a game, or riding public transit, words are ubiquitous and need to be effective. Words can be seen on screens, signs, posters, and articles, as well as heard from devices and videos. The text can be minimal, but is very valuable.

But what do those words do, how do we choose them, and how do we know when they work? This book provides strategies for using content design to help meet people’s goals while advancing our organizations toward converting, engaging, supporting, and reattracting those people. To meet these goals, we structure our voice throughout the content so that the brand is recognizable to its audience. We apply common UX text patterns to ease and democratize the task of writing, assess how effective the ...