who and how comes up with texts for interfaces
We accept tasks
Text assignments usually come from UX designers. The backlog is monitored by the lead, who also distributes tasks among the performers.
The process of writing texts has long been established and familiar to our colleagues, so the tasks are usually spelled out in great detail. We get information about what works and how, layouts with interfaces and a special table with texts. First, the customer fills it in – adds screenshots and descriptions of interface elements, adds draft versions of the text. Writers enter texts in Russian and English into this table. The table becomes a guideline for developers who contribute keys to the localization system. This approach has its advantages: all information about a feature or project is in one place, and changes and additions can be easily tracked.
In the course of work, we collect questions that we can address to designers, product owners, and sometimes developers. We also try on texts in layouts in Figma. Do not forget that the texts will be translated – if you try to fit too long text in a small window, in another language, for example, in French, it may not fit at all. It’s also important to look to see if there are detailed features and texts in other products or platforms – again, to maintain consistency.
Then everything is standard – we give the customer the task and work with the comments.
Case Studies
Let me tell you about some of the difficulties we face.
I have already said that it is important for us to follow the uniformity in the texts of different products for different platforms. Once we noticed that in three related web products – in mail, calendar and task scheduler – the button that attaches a file to a letter, event or task is called differently.
Usually, users work with all these applications, and different button text can be at least annoying. As a result we unified the textand now similar buttons will be called “Attach File”.
Also, all of our products have login pages. Previously, there was a confusion with terms on these screens: for example, they wrote Email somewhere, in another place – “Email”. Now the term “E-mail address” is fixed in redstandards. Sometimes a designer or product owner might say something like, “Let’s write an Email here, shall we?” Then we can refer to redstandards and our policy use as few anglicisms as possible in the interface in Russian.
Sometimes highly specialized terms appear in the draft texts of customers. We are looking into the details and choose a more understandable replacementavailable to all users. Thus, “alias” becomes “additional email” and “tenant” becomes “organization”. Yes, and we will always replace the “Login” button with “Login”.
The next difficulty is related to breaking the rules. It happens that UX writers deliberately use word repetition. Despite the fact that in all guides editors are taught to avoid repetition, sometimes in texts for interfaces they cannot be dispensed with. For example, there is a task: to ask the user whether it is necessary to save changes in the document. We broke the rules and repeated the word “Save” three times because the text in the interface must be completely transparententities and commands should be called by their proper names, not by synonyms.
Our products are complex and there are many specific scenarios in document editors. It should be borne in mind that in addition to advanced users, there are also those who can perform any action for the first time. Therefore, in such interfaces need to give more detailshelp the user with text.
In the table editor, you can set names for cells and ranges – then a recognizable word will be displayed in the formulas, and not just an address like “A4: C5”. In order for a user unfamiliar with this feature to quickly understand its value and figure out how to set names, we have added text hints to the interface.
There are limitations to working with given names. For example, the user may enter a name in an incorrect format. In this case, it is necessary to explain what exactly is wrong and how to fix it. In the examples below, we directly say how to enter the address, what characters can be used in the name, why the name “sums” does not fit.
The user can perform an operation that will entail consequences. Then the texts should tell what exactly will happen, and give the opportunity to cancel the action. For example, if a user wants to navigate to a name on a hidden sheet while working on a document with colleagues, they will see a warning that the sheet will become available to other people.
The last case I will talk about is related to naming difficulties. For example, we recently added to the file manager the ability to track who and how changed the file: created, renamed, opened and closed access. Other file storage services have this feature, and it is familiar to users. What should we think about – about saving user patterns or about uniqueness? The “History” option, also familiar to users of a major competitor, has been omitted to avoid confusion. In our editors, documents already have the “Version History” function, it allows you to track changes in the contents of a file. As a result, we called the new feature the familiar term “Events”.
General conclusions
A good UX writer is not one who writes beautiful texts according to customer requests. The writer must be able to look through the eyes of the user – and not only at the text, but also at the context: you need to take into account where the person is, in what environment the application is using, what goals and tasks it solves. At the same time, it is critically important for a writer to be attentive and meticulous. Sometimes, to write one proposal, you need to check many other screens, talk to the customer, learn about various restrictions.
When working on the particular, the UX writer always keeps the general in mind – the voice of the product, the consistency of terms, user goals. In this case, even a complex product with rich functionality will be comfortable to use and will become a convenient tool for solving user problems.
