Strategic Writing for UX, 2nd Edition

Chapter 7 Researching UX Content Effectiveness

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Researching UX Content Effectiveness

Research is formalized curiosity. It is poking and prying with a purpose.

—Zora Neale Hurston1

When I find an existing screen with UX text that is too complex, too long, or too repetitive, I bring my proposed changes to the product owner.

“How do we know this is worth the effort?” they ask. The product owner is protecting the team’s engineering time, attention, and localization cost. To make demands of those resources, I need to make the right argument.

“How are you measuring success?” I ask.

I listen to the explanation of what success will mean to them. Their notion of success is usually a very specific version of “we need more people to do this thing.” Sometimes, that thing is to start using some feature, or complete an action they start to take, or to become aware of the experience in the first place. Frequently, they are focused on a single metric as a target, despite Goodhart’s law.2

I can use their metric to demonstrate the outcomes I can provide, whether by direct measurement or logical influence on the conditions surrounding that metric.

The product owner and I reach an agreement in principle, and I analyze the UX for where the current UX text slows the person down and deters them from continuing. I show them how the changes I propose would make improvements.

I say, “I’m confident these changes would increase success for you” and remind them of our agreement in principle. Together, ...