The article below was written by Sophye Fiori and edited by Gabriela Sartorato. Liked this type of content? Check out Her Campus Cásper Líbero for more!
Communication has become an important part for companies to get a better relationship with their consumers. Just having modern tools to streamline service isn’t enough, it’s also necessary to make the content clear and objective. This scenario favors the expansion of the UX Writing concept.
First of all, we need to understand what it means: UX is user experience, so UX Writing refers to the production of textual content aimed at optimizing the experience of the user.
It is the practice of strategically selecting all the elements that make up a text, in order to facilitate the reader’s journey.
In this way, the UX Writer must pay attention, not only to the correctness of the writing, but also to the meaning of the terms most relevant to the reader.
For those looking to get started in this new area of the job market, there are some valuable tips and advices, which we are going to talk about in this article.
Listen to users from some interface
To understand the operating logic of a UX Writer, it is interesting to see the area from the user’s perspective.
It’s simple: choose an app and talk with people close to you and understand their opinions about the tool.
Observe how they navigate through the application, which attributes they find the coolest, and most importantly, which are the biggest difficulties they face.
Write everything down to proceed to step two:
Create your own cases
Choose an app, website or tool and make a case yourself. Make an analysis of the information architecture and language present there. Show the strengths and weaknesses of the example and demonstrate how you would do it differently.
Show your cases to people who are already in the area
Thus, you can get feedback about your work, in addition to already starting a network with professionals who work in UX Writing.
Meet Larissa Bicalhão, an analyst in the fiscal area of a fintech
The professional is responsible for the entire UX area in a company. Her Campus Cásper Líbero talked to her to discover more about this job, which is still becoming popular in the sector of communication.
“Since 2016 I have a degree in Journalism and work with content production. When I decided to change my career, I thought about UX Writing”, she starts.
Bicalhão did a course to be more prepared for the job. Between the studies, she realised how important the knowlegde of UX makes the difference for a company.
“I started with a focus on content, improving texts, applying some processes that would improve user communication with software. After that, I wanted to delve into other areas of UX. Since then, I’ve taken several courses”
Why work in the UX area?
Given the ease and passion for writing commonly present in communicators in general, UX writing is an attractive area.
About the motivation to enter this field, Bicalhão says: “I had been working with content production for a long time, I went through some communication and advertising agencies and I was a little tired of the routine. When I started working at this startup, it was for a content job too, but this time focused on users”.
With a new perspective of tasks and work place, the Journalist dove in the new way of content production. “I created a Knowledge Base, as well assupport materials for users and the company”.
“I identified a lot of things that I wanted to do, like the creation of empathy to help, you know?! No longer with that ‘sale’ look, let’s say. Of course, UX Writing ends up influencing the user at times, but the appeal is different, the creation of texts is different. The entire UX process is exactly what I wanted to do and exercise as a professional: help.”
We need more women working with UX
Once again, citing UX Writing as new to the market, the opportunities are hardly ever wide. “The new frightens. So it is very common for you to find professionals complaining about resistance from the product/development team, difficulty in proving their actions. The convincing process is very big and very laborious. This takes all professionals into account”.
About the presence of women in the area, Bicalhão points out that despite the huge female presence in the communication sector, UX involves the technology market, and consequently, a work environment with the major presence of men in Brazil.
“It is still very difficult, as a woman in the IT market, to deal with teams mostly made up of men. I particularly see that I have already achieved some small victories in terms of respect for my work, like people listening to my opinions and ideas. But, I also see that there is a long way to go and we just have to be patient,one step at a time”.
So, what is needed for becoming a UX Writer?
“In short, it is an area that requires a lot of patience and dedication to insert solutions in teams that are already used to working without this front, more focused on the user. It takes some time for them to get used to and really understand the importance of putting usability as a priority also in the development of solutions, improvements”, emphasizes Bicalhão.
As a woman, it’s a little battle every day. For me, what makes it easier and more rewarding is seeing the result of the actions I implement, seeing the growth of the area I created in the company I work for and seeing how it has positively impacted not only the company’s results, but also my goals. personal. I feel fulfilled working with something I really like!
Larissa Bicalhão
Finally, talking about the prospects for the future, Larissa seems to believe that the growth of the area will only come over the years. That’s because companies are starting to realize the importance of providing a good experience for users to captivate customers, and not seek new ones.
“UX is a very welcoming area. People of any profession can migrate without fear. Everyone has some background or experience that they can apply to their routine in the UX area. But it takes a lot of study and a lot of dedication to stand out in this market. There is an opportunity, you only need to study to enter the market”, Bicalhão concludes.
Given the exciting perspectives and experiences, we encourage new (and old) communicators to explore their options!