UX writing is one of the most complicated writing disciplines since it demands an untraditional approach that requires the writer to be accurate, concrete, concise, and deploy all their communication abilities.
Fortunately, there is abundant literature about the principles of the UX writing process and UX design that can help one become a professional in this field. Let’s explore the list of set books on UX writing!
What Is UX Writing?
When visiting a specific website, app, or other digital product, we encounter a lot of information in the form of images and text. We will probably be able to interact with many of them, providing a more complete user experience. Now, UX writing is the practice of creating – writing – the textual information we see while navigating through the digital product, which can range from simple messages to explanations, tutorials, etc.
UX designers and writers create this information and collaborate to deliver the best user journey to the customer. Both professionals consider the needs, context, requirements, and particular behaviors of people during the design process.
The Best UX Writing Books That Every Aspiring UX Writer Should Read
Below, you’ll find nine valuable pieces of writing art you should consider if you want to become the best UX writer on the Internet. Knowledge is a powerful weapon, and these books will give you the fundamental resources for this practice.
- Microcopy: The Complete Guide by Kinneret Yifrah
The first book on this list, *Microcopy: The Complete Guide* by Kinneret Yifrah, focuses entirely on the short messages that are crucial for communicating key information to users throughout their journey in digital products. This comprehensive guide offers practical tips for successfully achieving three main aspects when creating an app or web copy: establishing the voice and research process, engaging with users, and devising strategies to help users complete their tasks.
The Complete Guide explains how microcopy can become an important part of the user experience and content design. Each chapter in this book teaches you how to find the right words for the customers, thanks to simplified methods that everyone can adopt and implement.
This practical guidance is perfect for several types of UX professionals. So, if you are a UX writer/content designer, UI product designer, product manager, content strategist, digital marketer, developer, or SEO expert, The Complete Guide is a book that will help you create your content strategy and reach your business goals.
- Everybody Writes by Ann Handley
When you seek a book that truly combines the ability to write incredible content with the talent behind prodigious writing, you should grab Everybody Writes by Ann Handley. Very few books address the craft of becoming an incredible writer and a brilliant marketer simultaneously.
Everybody Writes provides readers with the tools and techniques necessary to generate professional and commercial writing, giving your text a good dose of both components. It means you can create copy that resonates with users and really helps them overcome their problems when navigating the digital product.
Ann Handley’s ability to explain how words can address user needs is exceptional. Her book helps companies worldwide avoid mediocrity and poor decision-making. Consequently, it is valuable for both individuals and brands aiming to enhance their product writing and user experience.
- UX for Business: How to Design Valuable Digital Companies by Joel Marsh
UX for Business takes a more collaborative approach than the previous books we’ve described. Still, it is a work of art that writers, designers, and companies can use to achieve their goals and communicate their ideas and messages accurately.
UX for Business involves all the elements of a great UX design process, from visual design to design development, UX writing, and ways to communicate crucial data to users. In this sense, UX for business views the process of ideating and creating user experience as a comprehensive and engaging design process through which developers and writers seek the best path forward for users.
This book presents knowledge through several chapters and subchapters, addressing all aspects of the UX design process and balancing user and business perspectives. UX for Business should be a go-to book for your product team. It is not for nothing one of our favorite digital marketing books!
- Strategic Writing for UX by Torrey Podmajersky
Strategic Writing for UX is similar to the previous book, as both are published by the same publisher, but it offers a more personal touch. It focuses on strategies that UX writers and designers can use to engage users and enhance accessibility.
The book looks at all the skills and practices needed to convert, engage, support, and keep users interested in digital products. It can generate more purchases and the acquisition of new products. Additionally, a strong point in favor of this book is that it uses facilitative language to describe frameworks and patterns that writers can use to create content and increase the effectiveness of the copy.
If you must select one book for your journey as a UX writer, it should be Strategic Writing for UX. It provides the crucial moves to go from zero to a thousand by writing copy that resonates with users.
- The Sense of Style: The Thinking Person’s Guide to Writing in the 21st Century by Steven Pinker
The Sense of Style is a more personal book that emphasizes the art of good writing and provides a glimpse into the thought process of an experienced writer. Steven Pinker has written a short, entertaining book that is a work of modern art and a manual for writers interested in creating content that engages users and motivates them to explore the user journey of the digital product.
Through this book, Pinker emphasizes the importance of consistency, clarity, and elegant prose when writing, including UX copy, marketing content, and articles. The author provides strategies for creating good prose that meets the needs of users of computers, applications, and other digital products.
Without a doubt, The Sense of Style is a book that reflects the importance of empathy, imagination, and grammatical knowledge when communicating ideas. This book also invites users to follow a particular path and take action within the product.
- Writing is Designing by Michael J. Metts and Adams Welfle
From the moment you see the cover, you can grasp what Writing Is Designing is about, as it features a clear suprematism style. This book focuses on explaining and exemplifying how the precise design of each word, phrase, and sentence profoundly impacts the user experience when browsing digital media and products.
Writing is Designing is a good example of how writing artwork can provide techniques and tips for developing a good UX design process by crafting interfaces, shapes, and icons that work in collaboration with content and copy.
This book provides the basics and advanced tips for writing content with human language at the center and creating human-centered software design that keeps users and stakeholders happy.
Writing is Designing is a must-read book for editors, UX writers, content specialists, UX designers, or even blog-focused writers who use technology to express ideas behind digital product use. This book will provide you with clarity, insights into UX writing practice, and technical resources.
- Just Enough Research by Erika Hall
As the name suggests, Just Enough Research examines the research process to explain how UX writers, content strategists, editors, developers, and other professionals conduct research in the world of UX and UI to provide the best solution for audiences and individuals.
The book focuses on how good research can save time, money, and effort for companies and entrepreneurs who need to create texts and material for users and clients. The author Erika Hall offers insight into the right mindset when delving into the best foundations for future copy.
Erika Hall provides a series of useful research methods that you can implement and cultivate immediately, regardless of the type of product, the size of your business, budget, and any other factor. With Hall’s methods, no task is overwhelming. Furthermore, these methods will give you a clear understanding of your blind spots, weaknesses, and deficiencies, giving you the opportunity to improve through the essential aspects of this practice.
- UX for Beginners: A Crash Course in 100 Short Lessons by Joel Marsh
If you recently started in the UX world, UX for Beginners is the first book you should read. Joel Marsh has written a perfect book that covers everything from the beginning of UX practice to advanced tips that every professional should know.
UX for Beginners presents 100 new ways to approach the practice of UX design. Even if you don’t know anything about it, this book will help you build your writer’s brain and create a good portfolio of mechanics, methods, and strategies to create the best copy.
The 100 short lessons in this book cover the entire spectrum of practice fundamentals. But don’t think of this book as a heavy, technical guide. It’s a new book with a lot of humor, which is crucial for teaching UX simply and from the right perspective.
- The User Experience Team of One. A Research and Design Survival Guide by Leah Buley
The User Experience Team of One approaches the UX writing process through two different stages: the philosophical and the practical. Throughout these two phases, The User Experience describes a wide range of approaches to the phenomenon of UX writing, providing strategies that require less time, money, and resources when creating copy.
The User Experience Team of One is the exact definition of clarity and focus when explaining the fundamentals of the UX design process. In the first part, the philosophy part, Leah Buley explains the basics of the right user experience mindset and provides clear examples of how to get started in this practice. In the second part, the author gives you plans and methods to research, test, validate, and create copies with high value and commitment.
This book should be a gem for writers, designers, developers, and others interested in UX products who want to learn tons of information about the practice. It can certainly be your first step in UX design.
The Bottom Line
We hope this reading list has been helpful, writer. All of the UX writing books mentioned in this article cover the fundamental tools you need to take on the role of an excellent writer, content specialist, or UX designer. There is no “bible” of the genre, but all of these works of art provide different perspectives on the same problem and multiple solutions to the problem of UX copying.
Visual artist, professional writer, and senior content creator specializing in digital marketing and copies that resonate with readers and users. For more than eight years, he has provided significant contributions to companies interested in positioning their brands and products by creating marketing strategies and high-quality content based on SEO. His writing ranges from construction and architecture to gaming and cryptocurrencies, including sales, investments, travel, and more. Currently, he participates in several Spanish and English companies, proposing, planning, and delivering unique copies. Football player twice a week, a published author, and a fan of the Final Fantasy series.