UX Writing Best Practices: 12 Proven Ways to Nail Your Copy

Following UX writing best practices is the secret ingredient that turns good products into great user experiences.

But how can you write UX copy that’s subtly helpful, improves the user experience, and retains customers?

Let’s explore why UX writing is essential for SaaS and look at twelve UX writing examples that can significantly improve product adoption.

TL;DR

• Effective UX writing is essential for SaaS business as it enhances user experience, reduces churn, and supports business growth by guiding users through the onboarding process and incentivizing product adoption.
• Let’s go over twelve UX writing best practices (along with UX writing examples) that can help you improve user experience to another level:

1. Have a goal in mind: Start with understanding both your business objectives and users’ needs to write purposeful copy.
2. Write for your reader: Tailor messages to align with users’ language, formality, and complexity based on detailed user personas.
3. Get to the main point: Be concise and use the F-shaped pattern for content organization to ensure users grasp the main idea quickly.
4. Be concise: Eliminate unnecessary words to improve usability and business outcomes.
5. Simplify: Use plain language for universal understanding, avoiding jargon unless it saves words and is understood by all users.
6. Split it up: Enhance readability by breaking content into manageable chunks and using visual elements for separation.
7. Make it conversational: Use a conversational tone to make interactions feel personal and less mechanical.
8. Be direct: Avoid distractions by using clear, active language that encourages action.
9. Watch your tone: Adjust the tone of voice to fit the context of the message, format, and channel while maintaining brand consistency.
10. Highlight the positive: Use positive language to guide users towards successful outcomes and reduce frustration.
11. Deliver it right: Map out the user journey to present information effectively at key touchpoints using the most effective format.
12. Keep it consistent: Develop brand voice guidelines to maintain consistency across all user interactions.

• If you need to create targeted in-app messages, generate AI-powered copy, and run A/B tests, book a Userpilot demo to see how you can produce an effective UX copy.

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Why is UX writing important in SaaS?

Good UX writing not only influences how users perceive your product but also affects your bottom line by improving engagement, reducing churn, and driving growth.

For instance, a well-crafted message during the onboarding process can significantly improve user activation rates. It can support product adoption strategies by making every user interaction meaningful and goal-oriented. And lastly, it can save you resources as users won’t need to reach out to your support reps as much.

Simply put, effective UX writing creates a positive, effortless user experience as it guides users through onboarding, feature activation, and product adoption. As a result, it helps users realize the value of your product, achieve their goals, and build a deeper connection with your brand.

12 UX writing best practices

Now, let’s go over twelve best practices (along with UX writing examples) that can help you improve user experience to another level.

1. Have a goal in mind

First, you need to identify the purpose of your copy.

For this, start by understanding both your business objectives and your users’ needs. This way, you can write UX copy that addresses those needs and drives users closer to their desired outcome.

For example, Notion conducts surveys to grasp user goals, customizing the UI and experience to meet those specific needs.

Then ask yourself: why are you writing each specific piece of copy? To educate? To drive action? To sell? Or to collect data?

With this step clear, you’ll have a good idea of how your copy should look and sound.

2. Write for your reader

Now, dig deeper into your user’s goals and determine the most effective way to communicate with them.

This means crafting messages that align with their niche language, level of formality, used jargon, as well as the complexity of their job. To do this, you can create user personas based on research and tailor your writing style to match their communication style, including jargon, tone, and complexity.

For instance, if your product targets Fintech companies, consider creating user personas that indicate their type of language, their preferred channels, and a jargon guideline.

3. Get to the main point

Different from any other type of content, UX writing focuses on being as concise as possible. Users won’t pay enough attention to introductions or stories—there isn’t enough space for that.

On a landing page, for instance, you must ensure that the main header leads visitors to read the first paragraph, the first paragraph to the next paragraph, and so on—you can’t do this without communicating your main idea in the headline.

For this, try to write your main idea in one sentence and organize the content in an F-shaped pattern so it’s easier for users to read. This way, you can use headings and opening sentences to clearly state the main point, as well as take advantage of the formatting so it’s impossible to miss.

Canva’s logo maker, for example, immediately mentions the purpose of the content and is formatted for the F-shaped reading pattern:

4. Be concise

In UX writing, both the space and the attention of the user are limited—thus writing UI text that’s short is one of the most common UX writing best practices.

When editing your copy, remove every unnecessary word, organize words to make it easier to read, and question every single word to see if it has earned its place.

Deliver value with as few words as possible. This not only improves usability but also leads to better business outcomes.

5. Simplify

Effective UX design doesn’t take risks and is simplified in a way that’s universally understood—avoiding any jargon that might confuse the user.

Using plain language makes your product more inclusive, catering to users with varying levels of expertise and background. So if you’re going to use any type of jargon, make sure to only use it when it saves you more words (and only if your user base is 100% composed of industry experts).

6. Split it up

Breaking content into manageable chunks aids enhance readability and makes your content more approachable.

In the UX writing hub, this means limiting paragraphs and sentences to a single idea and using visual elements to separate content. So if you find a paragraph communicating more than one idea, separate it.

For instance, see how Figma introduces tips on different screens to make each bit of information easier to consume.

7. Make it conversational

Even though UX writing must be concise and simple, it shouldn’t sound robotic—it’s meant to be read by humans, after all.

That said, adding a conversational tone to your copy is an essential practice. It will resonate easier with users by making interactions feel more personal and less mechanical.

To achieve this, try mimicking the language of Q&As, chatbots, and sales conversations. Adopt a friendly tone that seeks to assist the user rather than just inform, consider their context, and maintain professionalism where necessary.

8. Be direct

Copy that’s distracting and beats around the bush will waste the reader’s time and mental energy—thus making it more ignorable.

So besides being concise, UX writers must aim to be direct, avoid any distractions, embrace clear language, and encourage action.

For this, use active voice and actionable language to communicate your message without ambiguity. Do this as an effort to respect the user’s time and aid their decision-making—they’ll thank you for that.

For instance, see how this screenshot of a HubSpot page uses actionable copy everywhere, using active language and direct sentences (such as “create multiple users”):

9. Watch your tone

The right tone of voice can significantly affect how your message is received.

However, this is not the same as using your brand voice or adopting a “conversational tone.” Your tone of voice is more flexible and should fit the context of the message, the format where it is presented, and the channel.

To implement this effectively, it’s important to define how your brand should sound in different scenarios (while staying consistent with its voice), ensuring it aligns with the user’s context and the purpose of the copy.

Then, once you implement it, you can adapt your tone of voice while maintaining brand consistency across channels.

10. Highlight the positive

Focusing on positive language fosters a more encouraging and supportive user experience. This is especially important when it comes to error messages.

So, instead of highlighting errors (such as “there’s an authentication error because you entered an incorrect password”), frame error messages in a way that guides users towards successful outcomes (e.g. “enter a valid email to log in”).

This positive approach reduces frustration and motivates users to continue engaging with your product. Duolingo’s positive reinforcement in progress messages is a prime example of this practice, as it’s always positive and motivating and is always trying to cheer you up.

11. Deliver it right

The delivery of your message is as important as its content.

Knowing when, where, and how to present information can make a significant difference in user engagement—and you can turn otherwise “bland” writing into fresh, actionable copy.

You can map out the user journey to identify key touchpoints and select the most effective format for each step (e.g. modals, tooltips, checklists, and so on). For instance, instead of ordering users to achieve a goal, you can show a checklist of small tasks that lead users to achieve a specific goal.

This way, users are more compelled to follow the information and realize the value of your product.

12. Keep it consistent

Lastly, consistency in UX writing makes for a better reading experience, reinforces brand identity, and builds trust with users.

So, to maintain a consistent brand voice, style, and formatting across all user interactions, develop a brand voice guideline to help your UX writer bring uniformity to your messaging. This guideline should include elements like:

• Preferred terms and jargon to use
• Spelling style (e.g. US or British)
• Capitalization rules for titles, subheaders, etc.
• List of banned words and phrases
• Punctuation rules
• Level of formality (casual, executive, neutral, etc.)

Hand this guideline to your UX writers so they can keep your brand voice consistent across multiple channels.

Refine your UX writing with Userpilot

Userpilot is a customer success platform with the ability to create, design, and trigger UI patterns for user engagement—either from scratch or by using any of the multiple templates available.

This tool brings more than the ability to trigger in-app experiences. You can also create onboarding flows, collect user behavior data, and give access to advanced product analytics—so you can follow most UX writing best practices.

Here’s how Userpilot can aid you write effective UI copy:

• Get a deep user experience understanding with analytics charts such as funnels (to spot friction), trends (to understand what brings value across different plans), and paths (to draw the product journey of your users).
• Use feature-tagging and event-tracking to analyze user behavior and identify friction points.
• Segment your users based on their data and personalize the customer experience.
• Analyze feature usage with feature heatmaps to understand product adoption and which areas of your product bring value to your users.
• A/B tests different in-app flows to see what kind of content generates more engagement.
• Leverage Userpilot’s AI copy editor to generate compelling copy tailored to your specific user segments, speed up the design process, and ensure that your messages are optimized for engagement.
• Collect feedback for user research using a great variety of in-app surveys such as CSAT, CES, and NPS surveys.

Conclusion

Great UX writing skills are not just about filling space with words; it’s about crafting messages that guide, engage, and resonate with users, making their journey within your digital product as intuitive and rewarding as possible.

By implementing these UX writing best practices—from setting clear goals to ensuring consistency—you can transform your product’s user interface from merely functional to genuinely engaging.

So if you need to create targeted in-app messages, generate AI-powered copy, and run A/B tests, why not book a Userpilot demo to see how you can produce an effective UX copy?

Try Userpilot and Take Your UX Writing to the Next Level

Get a Demo

• 14 Day Trial
• No Credit Card Required