Any company with a strong brand needs its own UX copy style guide. Luckily I didn’t need to start these from first principles, but freely borrowed from well-established frameworks, such as Material Design, Apple’s Human Interface Guidelines, or more focused guidelines such as Shopify.

But the trouble with guidelines is that nobody reads them.

I quickly realised that the best, most granular guidelines mean nothing unless everybody in the organisation understands their value.

And the best way to create understanding is by demonstrating. That’s why I make a point of focusing on examples, and running workshops to help my colleagues internalise not only what the guidelines are, but why they matter.

I previously trained and managed a small team of UX writers and continue to mentor pretty much anybody who asks for help.

During our sessions we just about cover everything: micro copy, tone, passive vs active, capitalisation, hierarchy, working in teams, explaining our thinking, even mental health. UX writing has some big ideas, but the little things count just as much.

One common theme that comes up is where the UX writer belongs in a team, and where UX copy should sit in a workflow. While we partly depend on the organisation we work in, I constantly try to help writers understand that they must consider themselves as a core team member, and that UX copy is a core deliverable.