UX has been around for a while, but more recently everyone’s into it. Look on the web and you’ll see no end of people advertising themselves as “your UX writer”, or “I will do UX writing to create delightful and winning microcopy”. And attempts to define these new forms of writing – UX copywriting and microcopy writing – abound.

UX is all about companies making sure that we as users, feel comfortable and confident navigating around a website or an app. And sorry, just in case you, like me, hate acronyms and get confused by them, UX stands for User Experience. It is closely connected to what is now called the user journey, meaning the entire digital experience when finding information online, searching for products or services, and ordering something or subscribing to something, or engaging with a brand.

Companies that want to win over new customers and retain existing ones spend much time thinking about UX. It’s an effort that involves many people, designers, layouters, writers, even psychologists and behaviorists – and also translators of course, all trying to bring about a UX that stands out – one that makes users feel that they are in good hands and have found a trustworthy enterprise that takes them and their needs seriously. And doesn’t waste their time, or cheat them.

UX writing is all about guiding the user along an easy route, setting out information in a self-explanatory way, and getting them to where they want to be quickly and without any hiccups. What companies want to avoid at all cost are disgruntled (potential) customers, complaints and the need for online or telephone enquiries and support. Because all that costs money and has a detrimental effect on the bottom line.

Achieving a positive UX means having good UX copywriters and good microcopy writers. These two are very closely linked, but they are not quite the same. Microcopy is more specific and it somehow involves neuromarketing and branding, rather than concentrating entirely on the user. Microcopy is about the tiny details that count and that might make the difference between a customer opting for your company rather than for the competition (even though they may not even be able to give a reason). At its best, microcopy will have the user go “wow”, because they detect something in the “personality” of your brand that really bowls them over.

I guess microcopy writing is a subset of UX copywriting, and they are so close that the borders are not terribly clear. What they both have in common is that they aim to make the user feel at ease, and relaxed, and open to entering into a relationship with the brand. I have noticed, for example, that the earlier “Please be patient, this may take some time” is now replaced by little exclamations like “we’re getting there”, or “beep. boop”, etc. Instead of “OK” the button might say “Okay, cool” (makes you feel better?).

Microcopy writers must be able to write using straightforward, simple language, free of marketing and technical jargon and long narrative. Their art consists in producing small, even tiny, “titbits” or “snippets” that guide the user along his or her journey and set markers or signposts along the journey. CTAs (Call to action), pop-ups, buttons and sometimes forms all belong to this category. But also error messages, status indicators, or the little labels that appear when you’re filling in a field on a form, or alerts about cookies, for example, in fact anything that the user will encounter along their journey. These snippets help users understand the context they are in at any given moment, and what they need to do next. It also reassures them that something is happening behind the scenes, for example by indicating a change of status from Connecting… to Verifying…, or from Send to Complete or Done.

At the same time, these titbits make an important contribution to the wider story of your brand, your philosophy and your products, instil confidence and enhance the UX overall. The idea is to communicate in a very succinct manner, but in a friendly, welcoming and inclusive (and gender-neutral) voice.

Reading the above, alarm bells will ring if you are a translator. For one thing is blatantly obvious: the spatial constraints are unforgiving. Indeed, microcopy – as the name suggests – must content itself with a tiny footprint and use as few words and characters as possible. And we all know what a challenge that is for say German or Spanish. And despite these constraints, the CTA and the other bits must make sense, and be reassuring. After all, the last thing you want is for foreign-language users to abandon their journey because they are alienated, irritated or left clueless.

So here we go, adding yet another category to translation, transcretion and multilingual copywriting: microtranslation – the art of distilling meaning into the smallest space possible, without being rude, and managing to convey brand voice and personality.

If this has whetted your appetite to find out a bit more, here is an article with a concrete example, that will provide some insight into what’s involved: https://alphacrc.com/insight/translation-is-not-enough-adapting-the-ux-for-japan-and-france/