10 Things Ux Writers Hate to Hear

Fake conversations, real situations.

Similar Challenges

Over the years, I’ve been lucky enough to chat with UX writers from a bunch of different companies. Even though we work on completely different products, we face shockingly similar challenges.

Below is my attempt at capturing a few of the challenges we face as UX writers. None of these conversations are real, but they’re all based on real-life situations.

If you’ve ever wondered what it’s like to be a UX writer, here’s a little preview.

1. “I Just Need One Word”

Designer: “Hey, I need to come up with a label for this button. Can you help me out?”

Writer: “Sure. What does the button do?”

Designer: “Well, it sends a private message to everyone in the thread who hasn’t replied yet. Then it creates a separate thread with just those people. And that new thread doesn’t show up on their profile.”

Writer: “Okay. And there’s only room for one word?”

Designer: “Right. I just need one word.”

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2. “Technical Reasons”

Developer: “Because of technical reasons, we can’t change the system. You’ll just have to write some UI copy that explains how it works.”

Writer: “Can we at least show different messages for different scenarios?”

Developer: “Nope, can’t do that either.”

Writer: “Because of technical reasons?”

Developer: “Yep.”

3. “Punch it up”

CEO: “Yeah, I’m not really feelin’ it. Can you punch it up some more? Add an exclamation point or something.”

Writer: “But there’s already an exclamation point down here.”

CEO: “Yeah, just add a few more. It needs more pop. Don’t explain it. Exclaim it!”

4. “Legal disclaimer”

Product manager: “Legal says we need to add a disclaimer here. There’s a 0.0005% chance it won’t work as expected.”

Writer: “But nobody’s gonna read a disclaimer​ down there.”

Product manager: “Yeah, so in case you didn’t hear, Legal says we need to add a disclaimer here. Can you whip something up real quick?”

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