In this interview, the author of the popular book “Microcopy, The Complete Guide” talks about her beginnings in UX writing, her projects, and the future of content design. Translated in English and Spanish.
Looking back, it’s almost like it was meant to be. I love writing, and people, and tech, so this profession had my name all over it. But I stumbled on it kind of by accident.
I began my career as an editor of a printed travel magazine back in 2004, and a few years later I became a freelance writer. One day, while working with the largest bank in Israel on making their emails a bit friendlier, they asked my help in rewriting their budgeting app. Of course, at the time, UX writing wasn’t a thing. I didn’t know anything about writing for apps. But they insisted, so I worked hard on getting it right, and the rest is history – I fell in love with this content-tech-users triangle. I specialized in it ever since.
Today I lead the Israeli UX writing community, and my true passion is public services and government institutions, where microcopy can genuinely improve lives on a national scale. In 2020, I designed the Israeli government’s voice, and I have been writing microcopy for the government’s digital products since.
Well, the answer is a bit less poetic than one would expect: it was all a matter of timing. I wrote and published my book a bit before the term UX writing was even invented. Microcopy was coined in 2009, while UX writing became a popular term around 2016 when the first edition of the book was hot off the press.
Currently, there’s a real distinction (and a lively debate) in the UX Writing community about the differences between microcopy and UX writing (and content design) – the latter being the profession and the former being the actual words in digital products (also sometimes called UI copy). The book is a mix of both – it has an abundance of microcopy examples side by side with many UX writing concepts and techniques (like research and testing). The publishers who translated the book into German, French, and Japanese actually added the term UX Writing in the title, right next to Microcopy.
I have to admit that I’m a bit impartial about the ongoing debate around the title of our profession or what’s “the right way” to call the words in digital products. As long as we continue conducting research and paying attention to what users need and want and how to help them, all definitions are fine by me. I am excited, however, that our industry and community keep evolving and shaping a unique identity. Seeking clearer definitions is a part of that.
Anyway, I’m happy with microcopy or UX writing or content design, but the book became a bestseller with its ‘microcopy’ headline so it’s a bit challenging to switch at this point. I’m also very proud of those little words, the microcopy, and the book first and foremost focuses on them—they are the final outcome of our work as content designers.
There are 5 elements that make up great microcopy: involvement, user research, brand/product research, understanding the flow, and usability testing. The overall approach comes down to really understanding the why behind each and every step and decision.
So my first tip is to get involved early on in the process. If we’ll understand the rationale behind the choices that the product and design teams made, and if possible—add our own input and insights, we can be in a much better position to make sure our microcopy fits users and the product/brand/ company.
Then, of course, conduct user research. There’s plenty of places where you can really hear and read what users want and need and how they talk about it. I’ve covered it in the book as well (part 1 is dedicated to research). Learn what users want, what keeps them up at night, what they fear, what they dream of, and what words they use to describe all of the above. That’s the basis.
Another important element is brand and product research. Learn about the company’s vision, values, differentiation, business goals, and KPIs. When possible, collaborate with the marketing team, because in many cases they’ve already conducted research themselves. Collaborating with the marketing team also helps to make sure every department speaks and writes similarly, so users will experience the same messaging and user journey across platforms.
Once the product’s mockup/wireframe is done, sit down with the product design team and really understand how the flow looks like, and why. Discuss use cases, check out every version of a screen, understand the product’s behavior, and what is expected of users.
Finally, after writing, conduct usability testing with real users. This is incredibly impactful and has always improved my microcopy. There’s nothing like seeing and understanding how users actually use the product, what they understand, what works, and what doesn’t.
Thank you, it has indeed been an overwhelming and wonderful experience to see the book take off like that. By now it’s been published in Hebrew, English, French, German, Korean, Japanese, and soon Italian. So exciting. As for a new book, well, confidentially, between you and me, I am planning to write a new book! It covers a topic that’s really up and coming in our industry and community, but hasn’t been properly addressed yet. I can’t reveal more at this point, but it’s an exciting project. I hope my schedule will allow me to make some progress in 2022.
Yes! It’s a vibrant, warm, and professional community with 17,000 members. We started off back in June 2015 as one of the first UX writing communities in the world (if not the first), so it makes sense that our community has taken such a prominent position globally. Israel is bursting with technology, so there was a real thirst in the Israeli market for the professionalization of UX writing.
I would like to say that we always welcomed the entire array of digital experts in our community, not just writers, for example, UX/UI designers, product managers, UX researchers, marketing teams, and of course writers of all kinds. This combination of people with diverse viewpoints who all work on digital products made our community a success.
We all learn from each other, and slowly but surely UX writers have become a real asset in the eyes of everyone who works on digital interfaces in Israel. It’s one of the reasons this profession took off in Israel. Our community professionalized the field and showed the value of microcopy to
