Awesome (and free! )UX writing resources
I could hoard it all, but just like my children scream at each other when they want what the other has, “sharing is caring”. So here are 18 (or so) free UX writing goodies to check out.
Newsletters
In this newsletter, you’ll get all the dirt on the UX world by Yuval Keshtcher including links to great articles, killer portfolios and even jobs. Go to the bottom of the main page to find the subscribe box.
Don’t have time to read all of the UX writing articles published on Medium? Then this newsletter is for you. Once a month or so (every 6 weeks sometimes), Mattias Åkerberg gives you a short and sweet summary of the most popular articles on the topic. He tells you what it’s about, the main things to remember and a quote.
Did you know there are now enough UX writing events, meetups and conferences for a monthly newsletter to be worth it? There totally are! Scott Kubie, author of Writing for Designers, is the person who brings us this well-curated list of events.
A once a month, Jane Ruffino and Elaine Short publish a newsletter that tackles one topic related to writing for interfaces per month. It’s simple, but a bit more in-depth. And they do sneak in some funny links here and there too. (They haven’t published yet in 2020, but since I’ve had my ups and downs with my own newsletter this year, I’m leaving it here because I am hopeful it might returns.)
Courses
Yes, it’s Yuval again. He’s everywhere, isn’t he? Well this is a short course to introduce you to the basics of UX writing. It’s more of a “book” disguised as a course but it’s still pretty cool. There are a lot of visuals with great examples that show you what works and what doesn’t. And if you like the style but find yourself craving more, they offer a paid option that goes way more in depth, asks you to create some of your own UX copy and has a community and support of UX writers.
Sarah Doody is a UX designer who’s really good at helping people make their own UX design portfolios. And while this mini email course is more focused on the designers in the crowd, I think she’s got something good for writers too since we struggle with so many similar issues when it comes to building our portfolio. Again, if you want more, she offers an in-depth course with extra support.
This is a free 15-day email challenge that won’t take more than 10 minutes of your day but that can give you a little microcopy crash course. Each day you get a new prompt to create a message for a variety of very real scenarios. And for each prompt, there’s a link to an article where you can get a bit more info on the reason a certain prompt was given and some clues as to what will make your good better for the specific challenge.
Laura Luck’s 5-day UX Writing Course
If you don’t know Laura Luck by now, you should check her out. Start with her checklist of UX writing terms for time-poor humans and get lost in her blog from there. She’s also one of the co-host for the podcast, A Table at the Back (see below for links).
Templates
Jane Ruffino has created this simple to use microcopy canvas. It’s useful for making sure you’ve done your research well before writing any bit of microcopy and also for showing clients, designer and developers how much thought you put into writing. Because sometimes you need ammunition when you’re to write “Just a couple of words. It shouldn’t take time, right?”
Another Jane, another great resource. This time, it’s Jane Portman, also the host of the UI Breakfast Podcast who brings us the goodies. You can get the first chapter and the worksheets for free by signing on to her sign. If that’s enough to whet your appetite, there’s a whole book that dives deeper in the topic of UI Audits.
Podcasts
So many podcasts, so many episodes! Only a year ago that list was much smaller. To keep this section simple, I’m only listing the podcasts I like. It will be up to you to dig around and find the episodes you’ll enjoy.
- The Content Strategy Podcast by Kristina Halvorson
- User Defenders Podcast by Jason Ogle
- UI Breakfast Podcast by Jane Portman
- UX Podcast by James Royal-Lawson and Per Axbom
- Content Design Podcast by Vanessa Barlow
- A Table at the Back by Laura Luck and Branka Injac
Need more?
And if all of these goodies are not enough for you, check out the UX Writing Library (create by Kinneret Yifrah, author of Microcopy: The Complete Guide) and Katherine Bardshaw-Jone’s mega-list of UX writing resources.
You can easily lose an entire day checking out these sites. But you’ll also come out of it learning what you need to know to become a better UX writer.
I also have my own newsletter that I just started again. If you want to join me on this wild ride of learning all about UX and copywriting, this is the place to be.
Do YOU have other free UX writing resources to share?
I’d love to keep this list up to date, so if you’ve tried other courses, please let me know about them. Tell me where I can find them and what you liked about them.
Thanks!
Originally published at http://uxwritingbasics.com on September 9, 2020.
