The best UX writing posts, the six thinking hats

The six thinking hats represent the six ways of planning thinking processes, making decisions, and talking about the best UX writing posts.

What is UX writing? What does a UX writer do?

A hiring manager from an international company based in Barcelona asked me these two questions a few months ago. And I admit that I didn’t know the correct answers at the time.

So I decided to sign up for a UX writing course, adopt some necessary pieces of knowledge, and make a step towards the UX writer profession.

Thanks to the course, I learned the pillars of UX writing. However, that’s not all I know nowadays about the content that enhances user experience.

Since I intended to keep learning along the way, I found some UX writing blogs which turned out to be very helpful.

The blogs were both Spanish and English.

Therefore, I dedicate this post to the best UX writing contents I’ve read during the recent period. And to make the post more appealing, I’ll use the six thinking hats method.

Okay, I’m about to put on the blue hat and start with the introduction. Will you join me?

The 30 best UX writing posts: the blue hat

The six thinking hats is a method used in group decision-making discussions.

The idea behind the method is to discover the different facets of REALITY, make visible the ASPECTS that may remain hidden, and facilitate the final decision-making PROCESS.

The six thinking hats, Wikipedia

However, in this post, I’ll use the same method, but for a different purpose.

My goal is to discover the different facets of UX WRITING, make visible the BENEFITS that may remain hidden, and facilitate the DECISION if hire or not a UX writer.

Now that you know what my goal is, let’s see what each of the six UX writing hats in this text represents:

• The blue hat organises the rest, puts the order, and provide us with a so-called big picture. I’m wearing it right now.
• The white hat represents the posts where it’s explained what UX writing is (facts and information).
• The red hat – the posts where UX writing is linked to specific values, feelings, and intuition (feelings and emotions)
• The black hat – the posts that warn us of the “dangers” related to UX writing (critical judgement)
• The yellow hat – the posts where we can discover the benefits of UX writing (positive approach)
• The green hat – the posts that focus on UX writing and creativity (new ideas)

What is UX writing: the white hat

The three posts in English that answer the question about what UX writing is:

• UX Writing: What is it and why is so important – You can read this post on the Pop Art Studio blog. I liked it because of the clear answers and some interesting quotes.
• The 5 C’s of UX Writing – Thanks to this one, I learned that, just as journalism has five W’s, UX writing has five C’s.
• UX writing explained in 5 F words – Another post that focuses on five principles of UX writing. In this case, the principles begin with the letter F.

The three posts in Spanish that answer the question about what UX writing is:

• Qué es UX Writing: Definición y ejemplos prácticos – In this post, Paula Pérez Martín defines UX writing and explains the difference between UX, UI, and IXD.
• Qué es UX writing y por qué tu empresa necesita UX writers – I liked this one because it points out a difference between the copywriter and the UX writer figure. The author of the post is Blanca Rego, content manager and UX writer.
• UX writing, o redacción ux, qué es y para qué sirve – In this (brief) post, published on www.lauxcritora.com, we can find the definition of both of UX writing and UX translation.

The UX writing characteristics: the red hat

The three posts in English that explain the characteristics of UX writing:

• What are the Key Ingredients of UX Writing – According to the author of the text on the main ingredients of UX writing, this type of writing should be natural, simple, brief, persuasive and useful.
• 7 Best Practices for Practical (And Actionable) UX Writing – This post insists on the following: UX writing must be practical, useful, and actionable.
• UX writing is the guidance to a delightful experience – Finally, the author of this post emphasises that UX writing is clear, consistent, precise and contextual.

The three posts in Spanish that explain the characteristics of UX writing:

• UX Writing: Emoción, Función y Simplicidad – Thanks to this post, I learned three characteristics and three objectives of UX writing: to move the user, to reduce their frustrations, and to connect with them.
• 7 reglas de UX writing que debes respetar – UX writing should comply with seven rules to gain positive characteristics. In Haizea de Pedro’s post, I discovered those rules.
• Guía de estilo para UX writing: qué es y cómo se hace – In the end, Blanca Rego taught me that UX writing must follow style guidelines to meet the highest standards.

The negative aspects: the black hat

The three texts in English that treat issues, failures, and harmful practices related to UX writing:

• No Good, Very Bad UX Writing Mistakes – The author of this text considers that a wrong interaction with a user represents a missed opportunity. Therefore, he warns us of ten ways to fail in communication with the users.
• Thank you, lorem ipsum – Despite being perceived as a glitch, the lorem ipsum text encourages UX writers creativity.
• Stop Rewriting My UX Copy – Many UX writers face the following problem: clients change their texts, instead of providing feedback that would help them understand the flaws. The author of this post gives us some guidelines to solve this problem.

The benefits: the yellow hat

The three texts in English that reveal the benefits of UX writing:

• Why UX writing is the key to better products – In the opinion of JustInMind editor, Steven Douglas, UX writing transforms confusion into clarity.
• Make Your Product Sing: The Importance of UX Writing – UX writing also makes a product sing. I found this explanation in the post published on the Single Grain blog and loved it.
• Words Matter – The True Value of UX Copy – UX copy closes the gap between design and content. That’s another explanation of the UX writing purpose, and it comes from the Top Tal blog.

The three texts in Spanish that reveal the benefits of UX writing:

• UX Writing, el texto que da vida a nuestro producto digital – In this post, I found out the three main benefits of UX writing: it facilitates navigation, reduces the degree of user frustration, and increases the level of usability of a digital product.
• UX writing: la sinergia entre la experiencia y el contenido – Impulse content manager, Mery Contreras, believes that the benefit of UX writing is to guarantee a better reading experience for the user.
• UX writing, el secreto del éxito de todo negocio digital – Thanks to the post I found on the Neetwork blog, I learned two other benefits of UX writing: the balance between text and web design, and efficient interaction.

Creativity and UX writing: the green hat

The three texts in English that speak of creativity, imagination, and UX writing:

• How to be creative in UX writing – In this post, I discovered a series of tips that help UX writers to craft creative microcopy.
• What I learned about UX Writing from Don Draper – Another fascinating post. Not because of the figure or lessons of Don Draper, but because it defines UX writing as “the copywriting of the 21st century”.
• UX Writing Skills Now Vital for Designers – The last post in English comes from the Prototypr.io blog and offers another definition of UX writing. In the opinion of its author, UX writing is a “unicorn skill”.

The three texts in Spanish that speak of creativity, imagination, and UX writing:

• UX Writing: cuando pronuncio la palabra futuro, la primera sílaba pertenece ya al pasado – The author of this post finds that a literary writer may be an outstanding UX writer.
• Imaginación en UX writing y UX design – I learned another lesson about UX writing from Blanca Rego. This time, how to apply creativity to user experience.
• UX Writing: 15 consejos de copywriting para mejorar la experiencia de usuario – In the very end, after reading this post on Rosa Morel’s blog, I was left with some useful copywriting tips on how to improve the UX content.

The best UX writing posts

Although mathematics isn’t my strong point, I’m aware that three texts are missing to complete the list of thirty best UX writing texts. Those are the texts in Spanish that explain issues, failures, and harmful practices related to UX writing.

However, I couldn’t find those three texts.

Maybe I wasn’t searching correctly. Or perhaps UX writing in Spanish doesn’t fail?

Either way, I’ll keep that in mind for one of my next blog posts.

Until then, I invite you to put one of the six thinking hats on and to make a comment. Feel free to be objective or creative, positive or negative.

The color of the hat doesn’t matter. Your opinion does.

A Writing-Friendly question: Do you know some example of UX writing failure or harmful practice?

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From NO to YES, there is only one CLICK. Please share this text.