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    Rise of the "UX Writer"

    For the summer I rented a place in San Francisco.

    It's across the street from Uber HQ, Square HQ, and Twitter HQ. Literally I can see tech nerds lunching on the Twitter rooftop from where I wake up in the morning:

    scooters-overlooking-twitter-hq-building

    With the help of my spy surveillance equipment, I was actually able to zoom in and hear some real arguments between a UX Designer and a Copywriter:

    ux-designer-argument-on-twitter-building

    The point is in this epicenter of tech, I've started to hear murmurs of a new position that combines those jobs:

     

    👉🏼 UX Writer 👈🏼7>

     

    The "UX Writer" is a position that's catching on lately. You can see it in this trend chart:

    ux writer trends

    I've started to see postings hiring UX Writers from tons of big companies like AmazonUberGoogleZenDeskWixDropBox and PayPal (~$70,000/yr).

    So this new-ish position is starting to become a real thing. The rise of the UX Writer makes a lot of sense:

    UX Designers and Copywriters often work hand-in-hand, and sometimes it doesn't make sense to hire TWO PEOPLE for a job that could theoretically be done by a single person.

    Here's an example of how the process used to work:

     

    The UX Designer would create a blank mockup of a page:

    ux-designer-layout.png

     

    Then the copywriter goes and writes all the content:

    ux-writer-layout-lorem-ipsum.png

    Now just imagine for a moment you are a copywriter that also knows some basic UX design.....you could theoretically do this whole process yourself!

    Copywriter

    +

    Content Strategist

    +

    User Experience Designer

    = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =

    UX Writer!

     

    I was curious what kind of salaries we could dig up for this position, but the "UX Writer" is such a new position, that I can't find any final evidence. We know copywriter salaries pretty well, but as far as I can tell, UX Writer salaries are comparable to UX Designer Salaries:

    ux writer salaries

    It's kind of neat to see as the market gets more efficient some of these jobs start to get combined together.

    It's further evidence that if you are a copywriter, it's SUPER IMPORTANT you learn new technical skills that make you a Triple Threat!

    Sincerely,

    Neville Medhora - Keeping an eye on those Twitter nerds 😐

    neville twitter

     

    P.S. Have you seen this "UX Writer" role pop up anywhere? Lemme know in the comments:


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    Hey Neville, I once hired a copywriter for some projects, but they had no knowledge of graphic design or even uploading the text to a website. I had to then find contractors for each of these tasks also.

    It's nice to see people consolidating these overlapping fields into a single power-job!

    Link to comment
    Guest Chris W.

    Posted

    Smart to include content strategy in this. User progression both dictates content flow and is subject to content structure.

    I did actually see this pop up in an Indeed alert some weeks ago, for a software startup. It was taken down by the time I clicked though...they replaced it with a "Content Marketing Manager" position instead. Guess they thought the title change would yield better results!

    Link to comment
    Guest Neville Medhora

    Posted

    Hey Roger, I totally agree that it's frustrating to have to hire multiple skillsets to accomplish one task. I think this is why people who are "Full Stack" at their skill are in such high demand.

    I recently got a sales page designed and it was frustrating that even though it was designed, we then had to go through and built out the whole thing ourselves and make it work on desktop/tablet/mobile.

    It would've been great if we had a Full Stack designer that could also implement it right away (and not have it be two separate steps).

    Link to comment
    Guest Neville Medhora

    Posted

    Bahahaha, so funny they removed it! I bet a lot of people had no idea what a "UX Writer" was so they just changed it back to the original role.

    Probably a smart move at this point, as even I was a little stumped when I first saw UX Writer as real job title!

    Link to comment
    Hi! Yes, I am one. It's definitely a skill set that's on the rise.
    Link to comment
    Guest Habeeb

    Posted

    Hi Neville,

    You made my day with this post. I just register for courses on UX design.

    Link to comment
    Guest Joe large

    Posted

    Did indeed search for UX writer for the state of IL. Had 20 hits come back. Most wanted to see 5 years experience with UX etc. What might be a fun experiment it to send a marketing letter to those companies offering your services for copywriting and see if any bite. Anyway thanks for the post-Neville.
    Link to comment
    Guest Yair Katz

    Posted

    On the other side of the world (israel), where i live, the UX writer is also called "Micro Copy Writer" - that is also a position that is starting to take off on around here.
    Link to comment
    Guest michael

    Posted

    I have been looking into UX Design. There are quite a few online schools with programs because I was reviewing Facebook Ads and examining different computer programming degrees. Springboard (reasonable), Career Foundry (many options to pay) (they have UI Design too), OpenClassrooms (reasonable) General Assembly (expensive) have programs. Udacity, which has many nanodegrees actually offers a free course in UX Design for Android Developers which is part of the UX Developer Course. So, still deciding, not sure which one to take because there are some free sources too. But, I like that some programs like OpenClassrooms are project based and have a mentor for learning.
    Link to comment
    Just accepted this position at a major SaaS company in the Bay Area. Gave myself the title “Lead Product Writer,” since they didn’t know what to call me.
    Link to comment
    I still need to learn more about UX Design myself, but doesn't that effectively require being something close to a full stack dev? In which case you'd be a full stack copywriter and at that point I'd just start my own business.
    Link to comment
    Guest Kayode

    Posted

    As a UX designer myself, I'm fascinated with the relationship between Copywriting and UXD. Glad to know I'm on the right track. I bookmarked an article on Invision studio blog about the "Importance of Micro Copy in UXD. I guess now will be the right time to absorb it. Thanks for bringing this on!
    Link to comment
    Guest Bardia Shahali

    Posted

    Love your emails. Each one adds value and makes me smile - so glad I signed up. I work at Intercom and have been hearing about UX Writer roles as well.
    Link to comment
    Guest Kayode

    Posted

    I started learning UX design on YT before I actually dived into it.

    Why don't you try out some free videos on YT?

    Check out Mike Locke's channel

    Link to comment
    Guest John Cunningham

    Posted

    Your email is awesome man!

    Right up there with Andre Chaperon's stuff.

    I'm just a real estate agent in Phoenix.

    Paying attention tho.

    User experience matters in my biz too.

    People want their experience on our websites to be better than what Zillow has to offer.

    That's why they still opt in.

    Anyhow, thanks for the awesome emai.

    I'll be watching for more.

    John-

    Link to comment

    Thanks, Kayode!

    I think more and more companies are identifying gaps that need to be filled with good writers.

    Link to comment
    Guest Theresa Mills

    Posted

    Great article. I'm working for a web design agency, and I do all of the above (layout, strategy, and copywriting), but I'm called a Web and Brand Strategist. However, UX Writer seems more fitting. Thanks for the article. Love your work!
    Link to comment
    Guest Neville Medhora

    Posted

    Thank you Theresa, glad you learned about a new title. I think it's a pretty good one too.

    Even though I hadn't heard the term before, when I first heard it I INSTANTLY knew what the job entailed! Whereas something like "Brand Strategist" is kind of vague, "UX Writer" is more descriptive.

    Also very nice portfolio you've got going there!

    Link to comment
    Guest Neville Medhora

    Posted

    Oh yeah, real estate is definitely an industry where good layout and UX matters a lot, since people are browsing lots of information and pictures together.

    Also companies like Zillow and RedFin have upped the standard so much, so everyone has to do a better job.

    Thanks for following along the emails John!

    Link to comment
    Guest Neville Medhora

    Posted

    Awww thank you Bardia!

    I love Intercom, cool to see they are on the UX Writer bandwagon also. I really think this title is becoming an official "thing" now.

    Hopefully more cool emails are headed your way soon :)

    Link to comment
    Guest Neville Medhora

    Posted

    You're very welcome Kayode!

    I have an article here I think is very applicable to you:

    https://copywritingcourse.com/how-to-be-more-valuable-at-work/

    It talks about becoming a "Triple Threat" by adding new skills to your repertoire. Honestly it's so easy to learn new technical skills thanks to YouTube and small course sites like Udemy, and you can do them in your spare time.

    Glad you're on the right path :)

    Link to comment
    Guest Neville Medhora

    Posted

    Hey Mike, it's shockingly easy to learn about these things! For example on Udemy or Skillshare you can type in "UX Design" and you'll find a bunch of cheap courses to get started. If you're an ultra-cheapo you can even go to YouTube and search "UX Design for Beginners" and start there.

    The point is, it's your DUTY to make sure you become more for a "Full Stack" person than have a single skill.

    If you're a copywriter who can also do UX Design, you are instantly far more valuable, much like stated here:

    https://copywritingcourse.com/how-to-be-more-valuable-at-work/

    Link to comment
    Guest Neville Medhora

    Posted

    That's awesome Evie! Lead Product Writer sounds great!

    I would now suggest you start soaking up as much info about UX Design and Layouts as you can, as that will make you far more valuable as your career goes on, and writing jobs will start requiring more of a "Full Stack" skillset.

    Congrats!

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