Design iterations for the direct messaging feature, with studies on micro-copy in the text box
I love to write, so diving into the world of content and UX writing in particular was really exciting. What I found most surprising about this week’s focus was learning about the difference between UX writing and copywriting, as I had always thought they were the same (Stevens 2022).
Understanding now that UX writing is deeply embedded in user research changed my approach to writing content for my project. I used my secondary persona, Sarah, to inform my content and UX writing strategies. As Sarah has a background of easy, contextual friendships, finding herself in a new situation is hard. She moved to a nearby city for work and is slowly losing contact with her old friends as she has never had to work at maintaining a relationship. Sarah expected to make new friends easily at her new job, but it’s a small office and her colleagues already have families and other commitments.
Design iterations of the photo upload window
Considering that Sarah might be feeling sad, lonely and possibly embarrassed at using a meet-up service, I took a tactful approach (miraclewhip1234 2024). All content within Wavelength is aimed at being gentle and friendly. It encourages users to reach out to each other without being pushy or making users feel guilty. By adding the ‘Chat Practice’ feature, I hope to facilitate users like Sarah to practice their active communication skills rather than continuing to fall back on contextual relationships. After sharing my prototype with fellow students, several said they loved the concept of private conversation practice integrated into a social media platform.
Reframing the context and purpose of UX writing helped me create a cohesive strategy, as otherwise I would have written copy quite randomly. However, I think my UX writing strategy would have been improved if I had taken the time to formalise it. For the duration of the project, my strategy was nothing more than a feeling that I held onto. If I had sketched out the atmosphere I wanted to invoke on paper, it would have kept the strategy easier to follow.
As I read and write a lot personally, it has been interesting writing from the position of ease of use and user satisfaction rather than telling a story. However, I would like to make sure that I exercise the UX writing muscle specifically and learn how to write better from a usability standpoint. I will do this by signing up for the Daily UX Writing’s “Become a Better UX Writer in 15 Days” course during the module break (DUXW 2024).
I would also like to develop a deeper understanding of the difference between UX and Service Design (Joshi 2019). A clearer understanding of the differences, I believe, will give me a better understanding of the shape of the professional market. Initially, I will do this by reading articles from industry professionals to build up my initial knowledge. As I have had some success on LinkedIn reaching out to UX professionals, I might also try that in this circumstance to gain some real-world contacts.
References
DUXW. 2024. ‘Practice UX Writing with Actual Content Challenges’. [online]. Available at: https://dailyuxwriting.com [accessed 18 Apr 2024].
JOSHI, Anish. 2019. ‘When Does UX Design Become Service Design?’ Medium [online]. Available at: https://medium.com/@AnishJoshiDesign/when-does-ux-design-become-service-design-4478a2e807fe [accessed 18 Apr 2024].
MIRACLEWHIP1234. 2024. ‘I Get so Embarrassed’ [Reddit Post]. Posted 29 March 2024. r/Bumble. Available at: www.reddit.com/r/Bumble/comments/1br0z8y/i_get_so_embarrassed/ [accessed 18 Apr 2024].
STEVENS, Emily. 2022. ‘What’s the Difference between UX Writing and Copywriting? – UX Design Institute’. UX Design Institute [online]. Available at: https://www.uxdesigninstitute.com/blog/ux-writing-copywriting/ [accessed 18 Apr 2024].
German vocabulary of the week
Content – Inhalt