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The role of copywriting in UX
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Knowing how to articulate is essential for companies looking to bring their brands to life through digital designs. While functional tools and stunning visuals are necessary for drawing people to your website, the text is an equally important aspect of user experience.
Tailor your text to the visitor
Your site may be full of resources, links and products perfect for your target market, but without the proper text guiding them, they may quickly lose interest in your offerings. Writing should be geared toward the ideal consumer your company is trying to attract. Martin Stellar, a copywriting and marketing consultant, wrote in an article for UX Matters that understanding your audience is one of the most important moves a business can make when displaying content on its sites.
"The most successful copywriters spend days on research, trying to figure out who the ideal customer is," Stellar wrote. "Then they create a profile of that ideal customer that is as detailed as possible - age, income, type of breakfast, number of unmatched socks, average time behind a PC, number of kids, flavor of toothpaste. They want to know everything."
When choosing the proper words for your pages, be sure to match the style, tone and voice your audience would respond to best.
Using words more creatively
While choosing the right words to match your target audience is vital to drawing them in, you must keep them interested by adopting more creative means. According to WQ Usability, every detail is important when crafting the perfect Web design as all elements of the Web page act as puzzle pieces, combining to form one cohesive image. Tailoring your text to match the proper portion of the site can greatly affect the way consumers interact with it.
For example, title pages, such as those that direct users to the generic "Home," "About" and "Contact" pages can feature generic phrases and block text, but those that feature more in-depth information about the company and its offerings should be more technical or promotional by nature.
The placement of the text on these pages is equally as crucial to the company's success, as it can make or break the consumer's decision. When presenting a product, businesses may display a clickable image that features written blurbs pertaining to the item. Writers should exercise restraint with their words, however, as they do not want to appear redundant. Instead of describing a blue t-shirt as "Blue," the description may instead focus on details the visitor may not know, such as its softness or resistance to stretching.
Understanding the importance of user experience is vital to the success of a website. American Graphics Institute offers UX training courses ideal for those looking for ways to boost their site's impact.
About the author
Jennifer Smith is a user experience designer, educator and author based in Boston. She has worked in the field of user experience design for more than 15 years.She has designed websites, ecommerce sites, apps, and embedded systems. Jennifer designs solutions for mobile, desktop, and iOT devices.
Jennifer delivers UX training and UX consulting for large Fortune 100 companies, small start-ups, and independent software vendors.She has served as a Designer in Residence at Microsoft, assisting third-party app developers to improve their design solutions and create successful user experiences. She has been hired by Adobe and Microsoft to deliver training workshops to their staff, and has traveled to Asia, Europe, India, the Middle East, and across the U.S. to deliver courses and assist on UX design projects. She has extensive knowledge of modern UX Design, and worked closely with major tech companies to create educational material and deliver UX workshops to key partners globally. Jennifer works with a wide range of prototyping tools including XD, Sketch, Balsamiq, Fireworks, Photoshop, Illustrator, and Blend for Visual Studio. She also works extensively in the fields of presentation design and visual design.
Jennifer is also an expert on Photoshop, digital image editing, and photo manipulation. Having written 10 books on Photoshop, and having consulted and provided training to major media companies and businesses around the globe.
Jennifer is the author of more than 20 books on design tools and processes, including Adobe Creative Cloud for Dummies, Adobe Creative Cloud Digital Classroom, and Photoshop Digital Classroom. She has been awarded a Microsoft MVP three times for her work with user experience design in creating apps for touch, desktop, and mobile devices. Jennifer holds the CPUX-F certification from the User Experience Qualification Board and assists others in attaining this designation in leading a UX certification course at American Graphics Institute. She is a candidate for a Master’s degree in Human Factors in Information Design.