How to Improve Your Microcopy Skills With This 4 Simple Steps (2021 Update)
On this article I am going to show you a simple way to create better microcopy and messaging for your product design, using context.
Here’s the deal:
A lot of UX writers don’t know how to work with simple design tools, now it’s time to end it.
This next article is for you in case you are
- UX writer
- Product designer
- UX/UI designer
- Product manager
- A writer that want to get into tech
- Anyone the is curious about UX writing methodologies
- User Experience Writer
Here’s the thing:
It’s the death of the Lorem Impsum. Just take a look at Dropbox homepage without context —
Till this very day a, there are a lot of product teams that don’t realize why they should hire a writer ASAP.
Now:
Today I am going to show you a simple collaboration process between UX writers and UX / UI / Product designers that work for me and my product team in Musico.io.
Why Do Writers Have To Collaborate With Designers?
Theses days:
All of the text in those product teams is made by designers, developers, product managers or at the very best by the marketing people.
This is crazy:
Problem with designers, developers and product managers that write the product is that, well, they aren’t writers.
Problem with marketing teams writing marketing messages in order to engage users is that they aren’t aware of basic UX principles, which limits the experience they could create for the users.
I found a way to solve this!
Check out the next product design hack.
1. Open The Design/Wireframe File
IN case you are not the designer, ask from the lead designer to send you the design file.
Now:
There are plenty of tools designers use these days in order to design screens.
On this case it’s a Sketch file. (My guess is that if your team aren’t using Sketch, they are probably working with Figma or Adobe XD. Both are free by the way).
In case you’re still confused:
Iv’e published an article about the top 21 Prototyping Tools For UI And UX Designers 2018, so go and check out the tools that your design team is using
2. Write These Three Question Under Any Screen
As the experience creator of the platform there are 3 main questions I am asking myself so I could create better experiences.
- How does the user feel?
- What does the user needs to know right now?
- What is the desired outcome?
It can possibly be different question as well, I am just sharing what ever worked for me.
Now that we know the questions that we would like to ask, press the letter “T”.
Congrats!
You’ve just opened the text tool on your design platform.
Make sure to write the questions under each screen.
In case you worry:
It doesn’t have to look pretty!
In this example, I’ve took an Invalid email error message (more about error message microcopy in this brilliant article).
3. Write Answers Dedicated For Each Page
Under each of the question, open the text tool again and fill the answers based on your user research, and the most important tool a UX designer or a UX writer have: Gut feeling.
4. Design the words of the screen based on previous steps
Yeay! now it’s the fun part.
Based on the brands tone and voice writing style guide or once again, a wild gut feeling, You can now write the microcopy (Text that leads users to engage) for that screen.
Look:
The users of Musico are music creators and that’s why I’ve taken a lame “Invalid email, try again” error message and changed to a pan including a reference to one of my favorite songs Bohemian Rhapsody by Queen.
Save the file on your team’s cloud (Google drive / Dropbox) so everybody could see (If you guys working on Figma you can collaborate on the same file at the same time).
That’s it!
Simple right?
I challenge you to share your wonderful creations and collaborations in my Facebook community Microcopy & UX Writing
Good luck.
Don’t forget to visit uxwritinghub.com for more ux writing content.
