Hej Smashing Friends,
Every digital product relies on words. Yet sometimes these words are generic and unclear. Promise too much, but deliver too little. At worst, they misguide us and lead us straight into traps.
And very often, they don’t get the attention they deserve — to remove doubts and assist people when they need help. In this newsletter, we look into UX writing, with practical guides and little helpers to improve usability with better words.
On another note, we’ve been relentlessly working hard on the next upcoming online friendly events:
Coming up: Meets Product Design! Mark your calendars and join us on Thu, Dec 5, 8–11 am (PT) — tickets are free!
And: we also have friendly bundles of Smashing books and workshops to help you build your skill set and dive deep into the subjects you care about most. Let’s bundle up and save!
Happy reading, everyone!
— Vitaly
1. Guide To Content Testing
Content testing doesn’t have to be an expensive or time-consuming ordeal. Even small tests can provide you with precious insights when you need to figure out which path to take with an interaction flow or want to improve the metrics of a new feature. The team at Intuit published a practical guide that helps you test your content.
The guide covers everything from setting up your research plan to finding the right test, narrowing down who to test with, and analyzing the findings. With lots of questions to ask yourself, it is a helpful companion through your content-testing adventures — and a great reminder not to be afraid of going broad in order to learn big. (cm)
2. The UX Writing Library
Whether you want to stay on top of the game or are taking your first steps into the world of UX writing and content design, the UX Writing Library gathers plenty of useful resources in the field.
Curated by UX writer and microcopy expert Kinneret Yifrah, the library collects books, style guides, events, communities, podcasts, newsletters, tools, and everything in between to give you a current and focused overview of what is happening in UX writing and content strategy. If you know of a resource that isn’t featured yet, you are welcome to submit it. (cm)
3. Guides For Better UX Writing
What makes good UX writing? Nick DiLallo wrote a series of short guides in which he shares precious tips to help you polish up your UX copy to ensure it is usable and accessible for everyone.
In “This is good UX writing,” Nick explores eight principles to guide you through every interface you’ll ever write. “How to write inclusive, accessible products” features tips and tricks to make sure your interface makes sense and works for everyone.
Nick also dedicated a guide to common writing pitfalls and what we can do to write with respect — for the reader and the craft. And for those occasions when you find yourself swirling through endless revision cycles, stuck without new ideas, Nick’s advanced UX writing techniques help you move forward. (cm)
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4. Content And Writing Roles Explained
UX writing vs. content design: what’s the difference? Even companies often stretch the concept, unknowingly combining responsibilities of multiple roles into one job description. Chloe Tsang wrote an overview of roles, techniques, responsibilities, and deliverables of each to prevent confusion.
While content strategists set content priorities to meet business goals, content managers organize, maintain, and repurpose content. In the design team, you’ll find content designers working on content structure and design and UX writers writing and refining UI copy.
Copywriters and content marketers typically belong to the marketing team, with copywriters working on prompting users to take action and content marketers growing brand awareness. Differences everyone who is planning to hire a content professional should be aware of to set the right expectations. (cm)
5. Upcoming Workshops and Conferences
That’s right! We run online workshops on frontend and design, be it accessibility, performance, or design patterns. In fact, we have a couple of workshops coming up soon, and we thought that, you know, you might want to join in as well.
With online workshops, we aim to give you the same experience and access to experts as in an in-person workshop from wherever you are.
As always, here’s a quick overview:
6. Content Design Below The Surface
Content design isn’t about polishing content or layout, and it’s not a technical role for publishing and archiving either. When done right, it can help you reach your audience more effectively — across all channels. If you’re looking for a quick overview of what makes content design such a valuable role, Vitaly has got your back.
In his short guide to content design, Vitaly uncovers wrong assumptions and takes a look at the different levels of content design and how they contribute to creating an outstanding UX. The guide also includes a list of useful resources in case you want to dive deeper into the topic. (cm)
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7. Better Error Messages
“Oops, something went wrong.” There’s hardly anything worse than telling a user that an error occurred without explaining why that is or how they can fix it. But how can we do better? What can we do to improve our error messages to make it easy for the user to recover from an error?
In her case study “When life gives you lemons, write better error messages,” Jenni Nadler shares insights into how her team at Wix mastered the mammoth task of changing thousands of error messages across the platform in just a month. Practical tips for spotting bad error messages and how to fix them.
Another great read on having your users back when something goes wrong comes from Rucha Abhyankar. She takes a look at designing errors for workflow automation platforms and what you need to consider to ensure easy-to-understand copy, good visual representation, and intuitive troubleshooting techniques. (cm)
8. Bundle Up And Save On Smashing Books And Workshops 📚
The end of the year is usually the time when we ask ourselves: What would we like to get better at next year? To help everyone in our community get ready for the year ahead, we are offering friendly discounts on books, eBooks, and online workshops throughout the month of November. It’s the perfect occasion to build your skill set and dive deep into the subjects you care about most.
To set yourself up for a year of learning in 2025, you can now bundle up your favorite books and eBooks. When you purchase 3 or more books and eBooks, you save 30%. (Please note that this discount can’t be combined with other discounts).
And we have a bundle option for online workshops for you, too: Book three or more workshops, and save 30%. Happy learning!
9. Recent Smashing Articles
That’s All, Folks!
Thank you so much for reading and for your support in helping us keep the web dev and design community strong with our newsletter. See you next time!
This newsletter issue was written and edited by Cosima Mielke (cm), Vitaly Friedman (vf) and Iris Lješnjanin (il).
Sent to truly smashing readers via Mailchimp.
We sincerely appreciate your kind support. You rock.
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