And the rise of UX writing“Writing is easy. All you have to do is cross out the wrong words.” — Mark Twain

Today, the anatomy of a digital experience includes images, shapes and words. These three are the equivalent of the 7 musical notes which can be combined in infinte number of permutations & combinations to craft a musical or digital experience. In the nascent stages of the UX industry, a UX designer was largely responsible for the ‘Shapes’ only. Shapes essentially relate to the navigation, interaction & layout elements of a digital interface such as tabs, cards, links, buttons, etc. Images and words were other people’s responsibility which was an extremely siloed and fragmented way of approaching UX design.

Experience is a seamless amalgamation of all three elements working together as a harmonious whole to create a desired feeling. As the UX industry matured, the UX designers role evolved as a result of this need for a more holistic approach to experience design.
Move over navigation…content is the new king.

Navigation used to be the most important pillar of UX design but it has gradually become less and less important. Navigation in the traditional sense means moving between screens. However, users today are not really moving between screens. Are they? Think about your content consumption behaviour on mobile phones… facebook for example…what percentage of using facebook involves ‘navigation’. You open the app and then basically just scroll. Mobile interfaces and the need to keep users hooked have ensured that infinite scrolls have replaced traditional navigation elements such as tabs, links, buttons, etc.

With Navigation out of the way, Content has emerged as the differentiator. If finding content is just as easy everywhere, what creates real digital differentiation today how the content is written.

What all does ‘content’ include on a digital interface…?

Below are a few examples/areas where words can play an important role...