UX writer trends and resources

After writing The evolution of UX writing processes, I got some good questions.

• Does UX writing apply to IT products? Yes!
• Is UX writing centralized or embedded on design teams? Yes! ;)
• What's behind the rise in UX writing? Customer empathy!

Improving UX writing everywhere

You don't need a dedicated UX writer on every product to improve the user experience through better focus on words. If you're a designer, researcher, or software engineer you can learn to improve UX writing. One way is to find a mentor. I mentor others in UX writing. I think that’s partly because of my nature and partly because of my tenure in the industry. I graduated with a CS degree in 1997! ??

At Microsoft, writers and editors publish resources that can help everyone creating product to make more consistent UI text, more efficiently and effectively. Where-ever possible, we like to publish them publicly. Here are three examples that all the writers I work with use regularly. The first is a writing style guide used across the industry. The second is a section focused specifically on voice. The last two are design style guides that include writing guidelines.

1. Microsoft Writing Style Guide Released | Microsoft Docs
2. Microsoft's brand voice : above all, simple and human - Microsoft Style Guide | Microsoft Docs
3. Microsoft Design - Fluent UI Style Guide
4. Microsoft Inclusive Design Guidelines and Toolkits

Centralize and embed

My role involves creating writing guidelines, defining processes, and defining terms that benefit everyone creating product. However, I am part of the full lifecycle of specific products, as well.

At Microsoft, as many places, UX writers can either be embedded within a design team or more centralized on a writing team. I’m on a centralized writing team and I'm dedicated currently to one product team. That’s pretty typical here. I see others in the industry discussing the pros and cons of both models:

• The 3 types of design teams: centralized, embedded, and the elevator team | by JC.Díez ? | UX Collective (uxdesign.cc)
• Centralised UX team vs. embedded within product teams | by Trenton Moss | Webcredible, part of Inviqa | Medium

Empathy, research, and scope

I believe the recent increase in demand for UX writing mirrors a trend in increase in design focus and customer empathy. As design resources grow, there’s opportunity to specialize. However, it's more than just that. Writers are trending for other reasons.

I find that writers can be especially good representatives of customer needs. Maybe it’s the focus on understanding who we’re writing for. Part of it might also be the challenge of understanding the technology in order to be able to describe it. A third benefit is that many writers work across broader feature areas than other designers and can bring a cross team perspective. Of course, there are pros and cons to scaling one writer across multiple feature crews.

Here’s another take on the rise of the UX writer demand:

The Rise of the UX Writer. If you’ve been paying attention to the… | by uxplanet.org | UX Planet