UX Writing

Worldwide Report
Research about the
maturity of the UX
Writing
 – UX Writing
Agenda

1. About the research

2. What is UX Writing?
3. The origins
4. UX Writers profile
5. The Maturity of UX Writing in the world
6. A look into the future
7. References
About the research

– UX Writing
Methodology

Desk research Quantitative research Qualitative research

View references 110 online surveys 6 in depth interviews with UX

Writing experts

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Methodology

– UX Writing
Survey

Only in 72 hours during May 2020, we reached out 110 writing professionals
around the world (as show in graph in the next slide).

Among all respondents, 86 are currently working in UX Writing field. The

remaining 24, have knowledge or interest about the field, but they are currently
working in product design and marketing.

The data shown in this report takes into account the people that today are
working as UX Writers.

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Methodology
Survey responses
29%
28% Europe
North America
USA &
France, Holland, Italy, Spain,
Sweden, Switzerland & UK 17%
Canada Asia
India, Israel, Singapore &
Thailand

22% 4%
Latin America Oceania
Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Mexico & Perú Australia
Methodology

– UX Writing
In depth interviews

Jane Ruffino
During May 2020 we ran 6
• Content Design Lead and co-founder at Character
in-depth interviews with • Doktorand at Södertörn University
• Course Director of UX Writing (Berghs School of Communication)
top UX Writing experts.
Based in Stockholm. SWEDEN

Our goal was to validate

the data in the survey, and
Kinneret Yifrah
better understand the role • Microcopy Expert & Voice and Tone Designer at Nemala
of the UX Writer in the • Author of “Microcopy: The complete Guide”
• Founder and manager of the Israeli microcopy community
companies around the
Based in Haifa, ISRAEL
world.

Torrey Podmajersky
• UX Writer at Google
Author of “Strategic Writing for UX”
Co-founder and Product Designer at Pilda Pill Sorter
• Instructor at the School of Visual Concepts

Based in Seattle, USA

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Methodology

– UX Writing
Deep interviews

Michael J. Metts
During May 2020 we ran 6
• Senior UX Architect and Manager (Conversation Design) at Allstate
in-depth interviews with • Co-Author of “Writing is Designing”
• Photographer
top UX Writing experts.
Based in Berwyn, USA
Our goal was to validate
the data in the survey and
Kathryn Strauss
better understand the role • Founding Partner at Progressive Disclosure
of the UX Writer in the • Senior UX Writer at Square
• San Francisco UX Writers Meetup Founder
companies around the • UX Writing Leadership Guild Founder and administrator
world.
Based in San Francisco, USA

Mario Ferrer
• Senior UX Writer at Skyscanner
• UX Writers Spain Community Founder
• UX Writing Lecturer at SHIFTA by ELSAVA and LCI (Barcelona)

Based in Barcelona, SPAIN

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What is UX Writing?
A growing interest

– UX Writing
Companies and designers start to see words as a critical part of
making any experience succesful.

Since 2015, organisations started paying more and more attention to the words in the design process of digital
products and services.

Before, there was a struggle to deliver the interface as clearer as possible with just a few words. The result, created
by visual designers, was a mix between copywriting and technical writing without tone.

In the last 5 years, the importance of writing has been an epiphany, because organizations and designers realized
that content helps to design clear and meaningful experiences.

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– Expert says

“ “
Language grounds humans in Words are half of the design
their common bonds. We are that people use.
social creatures, and we use Torrey Podmajersky

words, signs, and symbols to

“
communicate. It is a very My superpower is Hebrew: is to take
ancient practice. the language, play with it, choose
exactly the few right words and
Kathryn Strauss make a sentence that says
everything.

Kinneret Yifrah
The importance of the job title

– UX Writing
There are many different job titles for quite a same role.

62% of respondents call themselves UX Writer, followed by Content Strategist, Content Designer
and UX Copywriter.

This title is so versatile that depending on the country, Company or team it may have one name
or another(e.g. in Israel it is called Microcopy, and professionals not only write but also do strategy,
research and testing).

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The importance of the job title

– UX Writing
The difference between Content Design and UX
Writing

From a semantic point of view, Content Design and UX Writing stay under the
umbrella of Content Strategy, a term that became particularly common in web
development since the late 1990s which could be described as “planning for the
creation, publication, and governance of useful, usable content”.

On the other hand, content strategy is not only about writing, text and voice, but all
kind of content, including images, animations, video, sound etc.

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– Expert says

“ We need to sort of “ux writer”

our own field. “ I don’t really care what somebody
calls me, but having lots of names
for the same role makes people
Jane Ruffino
understand it in different ways.

Marrio Ferrer
The importance of the job title

– UX Writing
The parallelism with UX, it is what gives value to
the naming

The experts consider that despite the job title, a common name could help to define what
professionals are doing, and their added value to the teams.

The use of the acronym “UX” is a sort of manifesto: like UX, UX Writing focuses on users,
creating experiences that are relevant to the people needs. Content helps them to walk
through products and services, and reach their goal in a simple, intuitive and usable way.

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– Expert says

“ I think UX Writing is a pretty

great description, is kind of a
parallel to UX designer, it’s like
“ I prefer the term UX Writer to
other (also valid) terms to
describe what I do, because I try
what do you do if you’re to keep the focus on the user and
focused on the words. their unique voyage across our
product and services.

Micheal J. Metts
Kathryn Strauss
An agreed definition

– UX Writing
Through the deep interviews we run, we tried to define this role based
on different points of view:

UX Writing is UX Writing is UX Writing is the

writing for the user design way the product
Through words, UX Writers make UX Writers design experiences talks to users
things more simple, so that users through words. UX Writing is a
don’t have to effort a lot when they UX Writers communicate
vision that brings more value to
use a digital product. solve problems in a design from the design itself, from
process. the entity of the product.

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Our Definition

– UX Writing
As a conclusion, incorporating the three different naming, a good definition of UX
Writing may looks this way:

Through words design, UX Writing engages a

dialogue between the product and the user, to
create a fluent and useful experience.
– Expert says

“ By giving things a name, we

declare their function, their
purpose, their meaning and we
“ A UX writer is a designer that uses
words to design an interaction.
We use UX design tools and
reinforce it every time we use processes and we apply them to
it. words, to generate a better
Jane Ruffino
experience.

Mario Ferrer
The Origins of UX
Writing
From technical writing to UX writing

– UX Writing
It has been a shift, from using the words to write instructions to
using them to thrill

UX Writing was born as companies need to use words to fix product problems.

Early UX writers are people who can explain abstract concepts with very simple words, so the framework of technical
writers (the practice of documenting processes, such as software manuals or instructional materials) could be
inspiring to define this new job profile.

The first companies that started hiring this kind of professionals were the big tech ones (like Microsoft, Apple, Google)
and banks that, at a given time, understood the product was failing due to the wrong use of words, and of course
companies that could financially afford the recruitment of a new job profile, finding the value in it.

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UX Writers
profile
The Experience as UX Writers

– UX Writing
UX Writing is still a new field
Despite their great previous career, the 46% of participants in the survey have
only worked for 1 to 3 years as UX writers, and 13% for less than a year.

This is a sign that it is still a new field and companies are starting to hire these
professionals. But it is also a sign that there is a very clear distinction between
years of junior and senior experience.

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The Experience as UX Writers

– UX Writing
UX Writing is still a new field

EXPERIENCE AS UX WRITERS LEVEL OF EXPERIENCE

Less than 1 year 1 to 3 years 3 to 5 years
Juniors and middles Seniors Managers and Directors
6 to 10 years more than 10 year

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Experience in the job market

– UX Writing
Most of professionals that start working as UX Writers, have already a
long previous career path behind them

Among the professionals that are currently working <1 year

as UX Writers, 37% have more than 10 years of
overall work experience, 24% between 3 to 5 +10 years
years, 22% 6 to 10.

3-5 years
On the other hand 7% have less than 1 year of job
experience, which could confirm that the interest for
this new job role is increasing.

6-10 years

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The background

– UX Writing
Most of UX Writers have a background in Communication, Advertising
or Journalism

49% of participants that are currently working as UX Writers have a degree in

Communication, Advertising or Journalism.

This means that due to the rise of the digital transformation in many industries, the disciplines
related to communication have gradually found more space in this environment and have
increasingly getting closer to products and services.

Product companies have started to hire experts in communication in order to explain complex
technical concepts in an easy way, making the role have more weight in design processes of
digital products and services.

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– Expert says

“ When I first learned about UX, I

thought this is cool, because
you’re connected to people and
“ "UX writing is the process of
creating the language that gets
people through [the UX].
that’s what I liked about
journalism.
Torrey Podmajersky
Michael J.Metts
The background

– UX Writing
There is no ideal background to be an UX Writer. The value
stays in diversity.

• However, just as it happened in UK, people who start this professional career come from
many different academic backgrounds:

17% Languages, Linguistic, Translation, Literature / 10% Design / 9% Sociology,

Anthropology, Philosophy / 7% Science / 8% Other (History, Politics, Music, Theatre,
MBA, Economics, Law)

Embracing diversity and promoting inclusion in teams, gives more richness of ideas, variety
of point of view and value that helps the product to be usable by a higher amount of people.

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The background

– UX Writing
There is no ideal background to be a UX Writer. The value
stays in diversity.

communications, advertising, journalism

Languages, linguistics, translation, literature

Design

Sociology, Anthropology, Philosophy

Science

History, Politics

Music & Theatre

MBA

Economics

Law

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– Expert says

“
I’m always amazed at how many different
profiles and how many different places UX
Writers come from.
Torrey Podmajersky
Juniors & Seniors

– UX Writing
The strategic vision of the design process is what
differentiates seniors from juniors

Juniors are hired mostly due to their writing skills, but it is crucial for them to
gain knowledge in interaction and design processes.

To grow as professionals, they should have in mind how could they benefit
the company, the team and last but not least, the users they’re handling.

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Juniors & Seniors

– UX Writing
Senior UX Writers also act as a leaders in the
experience design lifecycle

Seniors have the ability to align teams around the best strategy to satisfy business
requirement and leverage the research to get to valuable solutions.

They have the capabilities to influence the product management and impact leaders at
all levels of the company, making them think differently about product problems. The
next step for them should be the design manager or director.

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– Expert says

“
I see the career path for UX writers is to get
into design leadership, in a big organization's
design team and not be thought of as just the
writer.
Michael J. Metts
The background

– UX Writing
There’s a lack of academic offering in UX
Writing

Among the minority that did some specific training, attend the most famous courses
organized by the “UX Writing Collective”, with students from all over the world.

Likewise there are few universities that offer some complementary, specialized
studies, also there are more online courses available, and international conferences
that guide new students towards this profession.

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The background

– UX Writing
The large majority of UX Writers are
self-taught

71% of professionals that answered our survey became UX Writers with

personal research and studies (mostly books, articles and communities).

However, homologated training that helps a student's complementary degree

(such as a postgraduate or master's degree) would add value to junior user
experience writers as companies would more easily identify, trust, and accept
this new role.

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What UX Writers need?
The basics of interaction design, what kind of process will
people go through, what is end journey of completing any
task or goal and what are the interactions that gets in
there. Those interaction principles are fundamental to
design conversations.

Torrey Podmajersky
Online communities and conferences

– UX Writing
Sharing is caring… and learning

Online communities and conferences about content play a crucial role for
learning: blogs, social media, discussions and events are some of the best
ways to stay ahead with UX Writing.

There is a lot of disclosure of UX Writing related to content: people are happy

to connect with each other, share and exchange ideas, discuss and get
resolutions to their problems.

Sharing knowledge is also useful for organizations. They have the opportunity
to see great work done and get aware of the words in products and services.

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The power of communities
Our Facebook group is a main tool for us to
get into every company, at least in their
conscious. At least they know about it,they
know what it means.

Kinneret Yifrah
Online communities and events

– UX Writing
MeetUp Communities
What Where Members

Content Strategy Seattle (MeetUp) Seattle, USA 2718

UX Content Design NYC (MeetUp) New York, USA 1496
UX Writers BCN (MeetUp) Barcelona, Spain 1372
Stockholm UX Writing and Content Design Stockholm (Sweden) 848
{ida workshop (MeetUp) Santiago, Chile 844
UX Writers Mexico (MeetUp) Ciudad de Mexico (Mexico) 706
UX Writing – Rio de Janeiro (MeetUp) Rio de Janeiro (Brasil) 577
Content Strategy Lausann e(MeetUp) Lausanne (Switzerland) 441
Microcopy and UX Writing Amsterdam (MeetUp) Amsterdam (Holland) 432
UX Writers Paris (MeetUp) Paris 319
UX Writing and Content Design (Bern & Zurich) Zurich (Switzerland) 282
UX Content Strategy MTL Montreal (Canada) 239

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Online communities and events

– UX Writing
Online Communities
What Members Link
UX Content Slack 8093
Microcopy Israel (Facebook Group ) 13000 www.facebook.com/groups/UXMicr
ocopy
Microcopy & UX Writing (Facebook Group) 11.289 https://www.facebook.com/groups/
microcopy/

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Online communities and events

– UX Writing
Events

What Where When Link

Se habla español online April 23, 2020 https://bit.ly/2BDJ92s

UX Writer Conference online June 9-10, 2020 https://bit.ly/3gYn0fs

Sofaconf (Content Strategy) online June 25, 2020 https://bit.ly/2BKdgp6

Design & Content online July15-16, 2020 https://bit.ly/2AKLlVw

UX Salon Tel-Aviv (Israel) November 3-4, 2020 https://bit.ly/38rcYz1

UX Writing + Content Design San Francisco August 28, 2020 https://bit.ly/3byiDoV

Summit (USA)
Confab Minneapolis (USA) May 2-6, 2021 https://bit.ly/3h4DJOa

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Languages

– UX Writing
English is the most common language UX Writers use in their
jobs. But not everybody is native

English writers:
45% NON natives
55% natives

English French Portuguese Spanish German Otras

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Languages

– UX Writing
English is the most common language UX
Writers use in their jobs

Ethnologue, a database covering a majority of the world’s population, says English

is the most spoken language in the world with more than 1 billion speakers, 700
million of which are not native.

According to our survey it is also the most common language UX Writers use in
their jobs (58%), but the remarkable data is that almost half of English writers
respondents are not natives.

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Languages

– UX Writing
Plain English helps UX Writers to write in a clear
and concise way

People use English in digital products and services all over the world. And most
of UX Writers also use it. It helps to simplify the vocabulary and let users interact
with products and use services in a very easy and intuitive way. That is exactly
the main goal of UX Writing.

Furthermore, this is also good for companies, when people from different countries and
cultures work on a product, these helps to remove biases and achieve more inclusion,
thus more people will use that product or service.

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– Expert says

“
If you write for a global audience, you might
want someone that is not English native speaker
to be involved, because you want the English to
be simple.
Kinneret Yifrah
Sectors

– UX Writing
14% freelance
86% for a company
UX writers are hired especially
where the messaging is
closely affecting the
company’s reliability.
The sectors that are embracing UX Writing are
mostly Fintech (25%), IT(24%) and E-commerce
(12%) according to our survey.

It has also relevance in health insurance, education

and travel sectors (including airlines).

Most of respondents work for a company, 14% are

Content Delivery E-commerce
freelancers.
Education Fintech Healthcare

IT Telecommunications Mobility

Music Government Travel

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– Expert says

“
No company staffs any role really without a business need for
it. It's not because it is fashionable. It is because we make
money for the company and we save money for the company.
We increase usage and users’ positive sentiment. These are all
outcomes that businesses are interested in.

Torrey Podmajersky
Salary

– UX Writing
There is a huge discrepancy between countries
when it comes to salaries
According to Invision App blog, the top 5 countries with the
Average Salaries
highest average salaries are: $120.000

United States: $110,652.80 $100.000

Switzerland:$85,527.00
$80.000
Canada:$69,569.70
Australia: $62,859.33 $60.000
Norway: $62,516.67
$40.000
The survey shows (not surprisingly) USA, Switzerland and
Canada as the countries with higher salaries for non experts
(average more than $100.000), while Latin America’s $20.000
professionals gain on average less than $25.000.

$0
North Australia Europe Asia Latin America
America

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Salary

– UX Writing
The country wealth and experience is critical to fix the UX
Writing salaries

Seniors respondents (25% of them are freelancers), who are currently

working in Northern Europe (UK, Swiss, Sweden), Canada, and
especially USA, can gain more than 110.000$.

Design manager and directors mostly work for companies in UK and

Israel, earning as an average more than $80.000, while the same role in
USA or Canada can reach more than $120.000.

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Salary

– UX Writing
The money a UX Writing can be notably earn depending on the country
wealth, but also on experience

SENIORS MANAGERS & DIRECTORS

UK USA Swiss Sweden europe canada australia Israel Thailand UK spain USA Canada israel

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Salary

– UX Writing
The money a UX Writing can be notably earn depending on the country
wealth, but also on experience
Average Salaries for Juniors and “middles”
Juniors and “middles” salaries also reflect the
$80.000
differences between countries. Again, North
America is where UX Writers’ salary is higher $70.000

(69.000$ on average), followed by Australia $60.000

(60.000$), Northern Europe (50.000$), Asia $50.000
(40.000$), and Latin America (less than
$40.000
25.000$).
$30.000

$20.000

$10.000

$0
North America Australia Europe Asia Latin America

50
The maturity of UX
Writing in the world
The maturity of UX Writing

– UX Writing
The current framework is a reference for other
countries
Referent
Companies are boosting UX Writing rules and
adopting UX Writers in their design processes
Recognise

There is a huge offer of professionals, but few

demand from companies. There is still a looking
Spread and learning from other countries.

Both companies and professionals have few

Explore knowledge about the field.

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The maturity of UX Writing

– UX Writing
We asked respondents about their perception of the state of UX
Writing in their country and we got discordant visions.

North America & Canada Nobody has defined UX Writing as an established discipline in
his own country but the perception of foreigners is that mostly
US and Northern Europe is where content professionals could
Asia find their place easier. For example, UK has a very mature
content Design culture.

At a global level, it is still evolving but not widely accepted by

Europe & Australia companies yet, especially when it comes to small and medium-
sized ones.

Center & South America

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– Expert says

“ American companies are bigger

and hire UX writers earlier.
Outside of the USA we sort of
feel like we're trying to orbit
around that and position
“ The maturity of the profession is
quite settled, but the
implementation of organizations
isn’t settled yet.

ourselves in relation to it.

It's really dominated by
American needs, processes and Kinneret Yfrah
workplace structures.

Jane Ruffino
A look into
the future
A look into the future

– UX Writing
These are the 3 challenges for the
companies:

Recognize the importance Conversation is the next Engage your users through
of UX Writing interface an inclusive approach
What are you building is a conversation Voice assistants are an emerging technology Expand the scope of your product, generate
between humans and technology: humanize that is here to stay, but its evolution is faster innovation and help to assume a position of
it! than users’ adoption. social responsibility

Integrate UX Writers in teams from the very In conversational design there are no visuals Reflect local and cultural diversity and get
first beginning of the process and respect at all, words are the interface and UX writers bigger impact to conversion, loyalty and
them as a critical part of any digital product are there to help you to do it well: as they satisfaction.
and service. can connect with users, their role is
absolutely crucial.

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A look at the future

– UX Writing
These are the 3 challenges for the
UX Writers:

Don’t be afraid to show Take advantage of the Try to be unbiased

your value You’re not designing for yourself, you’re
communities and stay up-
doing it for users! Your mindset matters:
Stand up for your knowledge and your
to-date know your users and help to create non bias
contributions, you are worth! Portray yourself
Join online groups, inspire users by posting products that are accessible for anyone. It’s
more clearly as part of all the design
your best works and be also inspired by their your ethical duty to reflect human values in
process: it’s really important for everyone in
works. products you’re helping to create.
the team to understand how critical you are.
Writing is basic, but you also need to know
the principles of User Experience and
interaction design, this will help you to
understand design needs and integrate
better in the design team.

57
Our approach to UX Writing at NTT

– UX Writing
Data Experience Design
Discover
• Conduct user research
• Use data to improve content and user experience
• Use Design Thinking methodologies

Explore
Analyse
• Understand writing and editing for digital
Understand experiences
• Create and align voice and tone

Write
• Write clear, concise and useful copy
To face UX Writing challenges and • Write microcopy
boost the practice at all levels of • Product or in-product copy
the design process, at NTT Data Define
Experience Design we create an
Validate
iterative robust methodology with • Run testing activities
the intersection of UX Writers with Test • Know product inside and out
researchers, interaction designers • Recommend changes to fit product goals
and visual designers.

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References
References

– UX Writing
Books
• Don Norman, ”The Design of everyday things". MIT Press, December 2013

• Erika Hall. ”Conversational Design". Goodreads, March 2018

• Kinneret Yfrah,“Microcopy. The complete guide (2nd edition)”. Nemala, January 2019

• Michael J. Metts & Andy Welfle . ”Writing is Designing". Rosenfeld, January 2020

• Nicole Fenton & Kate Kiefer Lee, ”Nicely said”, New Riders, June 2014

• Sarah Richards. ”Content Design". Content Design London, August 2017

• Torrey Podmajersky, ”Strategic Writing for UX: drive engagement, conversion and retention with every word”
O’Reilly Media, July 2019

60
References

– UX Writing
Articles
• Alysa Yamada. "Did you know? UX writing is a six-figure job” https://www.invisionapp.com/inside-design/ux-
writing-salary/. December 17th 2019

• Andrea Drugay. " Conversation starters: 50 FAQ for a UX writer”. Andreadrugay.com. April 9th, 2019

• Anna Kamieniak. “The Future of UX Writing — Interview With Yuval Keshtcher, Founder of The UX Writing
Hub” https://bit.ly/2MH94Zu December 28th, 2018

• Domingo Karsten. "A Look at Internet History: The Most Popular Websites from the Past". tech.co. September
6th, 2015

• Elaine Short. " Why startups need UX writing and how they can make it happen”. https://uxdesign.cc/why-
startups-need-ux-writing-and-how-they-can-make-it-happen-54580e561b7d April 9th, 2019

• Imash Gosh “Ranked: The 100 Most Spoken Languages Around the World” www.visualcapitalist.com February
15th 2020

• Iván Leal “Narrative UX Crew” https://medium.com/narrative-ux

• Kasey Fleisher Hickey. " Giving UX writing a seat at the design table”. https://www.abstract.com/blog/ux-writing-
qordoba.

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References

– UX Writing
Articles
• Kate Moran “The Four Dimensions of Tone of Voice” www.nngroup.com July 17th ,2016

• Kristina Halvorson. ”The Discipline fo Content Strategy". Alistapart.com December 16th, 2008

• Louron Pratt “The importance of culture when solving diversity and inclusion” , www.hrdconnect.com January
8th, 2019

• Matt W. Newman “The brave new world of UX Writing” uxdesign.cc April 2018

• Sergio Carranza Mino. “4 steps to support your UX Writing strategy” https://uxwritinghub.com/4-steps-to-

support-your-ux-writing-strategy/ december 2nd, 2018

• Tom DuPuis “What is Technical Writing? [A New Definition]". instructionalsolutions.com March 19th, 2018

• Yael Ben-David. “Why your organization needs a UX writer” https://uxdesign.cc/why-your-organization-needs-a-

ux-writer-421955dfd131. May 3rd, 2019

• UK Government Digital Service. “Content design: planning, writing and managing content”
https://www.gov.uk/guidance/content-design February 25th, 2016

• “The UX Writing Library” https://www.uxwritinglibrary.com/

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