I’m a UX Writer. Er, Content Designer. UI Copywriter? Content Specialist. Wordsmith!
For a group that values labels, we still haven’t settled on one to describe ourselves. If you ask ChatGPT to define the different terms, you get something like this:
UI Copywriter: Specializes in writing copy for user interfaces, focusing on buttons, labels, and other on-screen text that users interact with directly.
UX Writer: Focuses on crafting user-friendly copy that guides users through a product, ensuring clarity and ease of use.
Content Designer: Designs content with a broader perspective, considering user journeys and how content fits into the overall user experience.
Content Specialist: Manages and creates a wide range of content, often beyond UX, like blogs, articles, and marketing copy, ensuring consistency and quality.
In other words, it depends on how granular you want to get. To whichever resources the AI is pulling from, copywriters/writers focus on just the words themselves, while designers/specialists consider a wider context.
It’s dangerous thinking, because if you’re working under any of these titles, you have to be thinking about context. Even if you’re just determining whether a button should be “Buy” or “Buy Now,” that simple decision takes into account user journeys, research, testing, interviews, and more.
Some UX professionals are uncomfortable with being called a “writer” because of this reason: It makes it sound like we just pluck words out of thin air, make sure they “sound good,” and pass it on. If this were true, yeah, UX Writers would need to be worried about being replaced by ChatGPT.
We know that it’s not what we do. But anytime you switch companies, or find a new client, or go on an interview, the question nags in the back of the mind: What do you actually think my job would be?
In my experience, the job title has never mattered. I’ve interviewed for jobs called “UX Content Designer” that expected the writer to just be half-decent at English; I’ve likewise interviewed for “UX Copywriter” roles where the entire content design system was on that person’s shoulders.
Maybe you disagree. Maybe you think this is one of those hills we writers need to die on. If so, let me know. The only main negative I see is that applying to jobs becomes annoying when you’re searching for five different titles.
But should we have a preference? I don’t think so. What matters is having the same definition for the role as the rest of your team. If I had to choose my own title, I’d probably go with Content Designer, just to solidify that writers belong on the design team. But I don’t see it as a dealbreaker.
Ultimately, the title we choose matters less than the understanding we share with our team about the role. Whether we call ourselves UX Writers, Content Designers, or something else, what actually matters is the impact we have on the user experience.
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