The path of designing and creating a digital product is full of ups and downs. No two projects are the same, and for this reason, every project should be examined from different angles. A project may be so simple that it can be done easily and without challenges, or it may be so difficult that the designer has to expand the range of his skills.
However, there are skills that no matter how complex the project is, these skills are always needed, and in other words, a designer, especially a UX writer, must have them in addition to technical knowledge and design and writing techniques. These skills are soft skills. In this article, we mention 5 of the most important soft skills that a UX writing specialist should master.
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UX Writing Soft Skills
Soft skills are a set of non-technical skills such as social skills, communication, time management, etc., to improve the quality of work and increase a person’s efficiency.
Soft skills are very important in all areas, including design and especially user experience design and UX writing. As a UX writing specialist, you may have high technical and writing skills. You may be good at playing with words. Or in a word, have enough proficiency in hard skills. But when you don’t have soft skills, you will miss many job opportunities and you won’t be heard and seen as you should.
1. Active participation in meetings
If you are invited to team meetings as a UX writer, show that you are well acquainted with the topic of the meeting and the problem being discussed and that you have prepared constructive suggestions. Although this issue is important in all disciplines, perhaps its importance is more important in UX writing than in other disciplines. Why?
Because it’s so established that content is the last thing a team thinks about when designing a digital product. For this reason, unfortunately, UX Writers are not invited to team meetings. Therefore, the UX Writing specialist must prove that his presence in the meetings is valuable and helps the team and the product design process.
Being active in meetings does not mean being talkative and talking throughout the meeting. You must pay attention to the speech of all members in the meeting. If a part of the other person’s speech was unclear, ask questions or make a note where you can ask him after the person has finished his presentation. Also, write your comments in Figma so that the rest of the members know that you are fully aware of the progress of the project and that you are checking it carefully.
2. The art of asking questions
Asking questions is one of the main steps of a UX writer’s work. UX Writing specialist does not easily pass by words, sentences, and phrases. He needs to make sure that the terms and phrases written on the product placement convey exactly the message they should, and nothing else. How can you be sure that the sentence conveys the message correctly or not? With Asking.
These questions should not necessarily be asked of others. Rather, the UX writer must ask all these questions and find a convincing and logical answer for each one.
Some of these questions are:
- What did the user click on before arriving here?
- Why should a message for the user be placed in this section?
- What is our goal in guiding the audience at this point? What do we want users to do here? Why?
- What are the advantages or disadvantages of clicking on a particular option? And what happens after that?
- Do we need to add other options?
- Is the click that occurs reversibly?
A UX writing professional should ask all these questions before writing the words. If there is a question for which he can find a reasonable answer, it is better to hold back and not act until he finds a solution for it.
3. Strengthen listening skills
The US Institute of Peace defines listening as:
A method of listening and responding to another person (in order / with the aim) to mutually improve through improvement.
The goal of proper listening is to understand exactly what the other person means. For this purpose, you can rewrite and repeat what you understood from the other party’s words to understand the correctness of the words in front of you. Next, ask questions to understand as much as possible. Let’s look at some examples.
First example:
Product manager: I feel it is better to give more information to the user in this section.
UX Writer: I disagree, I think that’s all the user needs to know.
End of conversation!
In such a conversation, no reciprocity has been received for both parties.
Second example:
Product manager: I feel it is better to give more information to the user in this section.
UX Writer: Very good. Tell me what information needs to be given to the user in this section. Why do you think the user needs to know more?
Product Manager: This section makes no mention of the product X feature, which is a great feature. If users become familiar with this feature at this stage, they will be more determined to continue using the product.
UX Writer: So you think users should be familiar with the X feature at this stage? I think mentioning this feature at this stage will confuse most of them. But I agree to do this in the next section. What do you think?
In this conversation, the UX writer heard the opinion of the product manager, stated the reason for his objection, and looked for a solution to solve it.
4. Time and energy management
Minor disagreements like the one in the above example will always happen. Sometimes the other person may still disagree with you, even when you have tried your best. Always remember that your colleagues are part of the team, not your enemies. The ultimate goal of all team members is one thing: to create a great product for the audience.
Disagreement or discussion in the workplace is inevitable. But every difference is not worth the energy. If you try to waste time and energy on the smallest differences, you will only delay the achievement of the team’s ultimate goal.
Also, sometimes you don’t have time to deal with all the issues due to the heavy workload. You have to decide which topics require more time and energy and which don’t. Ask yourself the following questions and then decide which topics require more energy:
- How likely is the user to read this?
- Does this content affect the trust of users?
- Can this content affect key performance indicators (KPIs)?
- Does the content of this section affect the following sections?
5. Treat others the way you want to be treated
As mentioned, product design is the result of team collaboration including UI and UX designers, UX content writers (UX writers), and product managers. Each of these members has special expertise and skills. UX writers contribute to the final goal of the project with their expertise. It is important to respect the expertise of other group members.
It’s good to ask other group members for their opinions. But if this matter goes beyond the idea of wanting and becomes a command and prohibition and interference in the work, it is not right. So it’s better to respect each other’s boundaries at work. For example, a UX writer has the right to know the opinions of designers and product managers regarding his text. In the same way, a UX writer can comment on product design.