2 min read

The Impact Technical Writers Can Have on User experience | Blog

Featured Image

An organization understands that Technical Writers are skilled in delivering quality documents for the end-user. Well, if you think that this is what Technical Writers are limited to, get ready to be amazed!

Technical Writers impact the success of your product.

A user-friendly application encompasses sound user interface design and proper integrated documentation. When the UX designers and technical writers work together, they ensure that the user experience with the product is worthwhile. Let’s understand how!

They know the audience.

Technical writers understand the requirements and skill-set of their audience. Keeping this information in mind, they write content with no space for assumptions. They can help the UX Design team in avoiding unnecessary or repetitive information. In addition, they can suggest whether any complicated interface fields require documentation and if yes, to what extent.

They are usability experts.

Technical writers assess the usability of the content, whether it is in the document or on the interface. They can help the UX team by providing inputs about the interface. For example:

  • Clear and concise write-up in dialog boxes, warnings, and error messages
  • Consistent field names in all web pages of the application
  • Correct spelling
  • Language errors and usage of words

In addition, technical writers can suggest if the interface is usable enough to skip the description related to the fields, buttons, and windows altogether.

They are thought translators.

One of the skills of technical writers is to understand a complicated procedure or feature, and then translate it into a topic or describe the feature in a way that is easily understood by the audience. They can assist the UX design team by helping them understand if the complicated information or procedure they are implementing in the interface will really be understood by the audience.

They are empathetic.

Empathy is one of the requirements of a good interface design. And, technical writers are good at it! Because they can gauge the pulse of the audience, they understand what the audience needs from the intended application, and provide the required information. For example, technical writers try to look out for scenarios where the audience needs to know the prerequisites or troubleshooting tips to resolve the issues.

Final Thoughts:

Technical writers should not be ignored during product development. In fact, they should be involved in the initial stages of development. An organization must understand the potential of this expert to catch the UX design issues and fix them in the early stages of product development, rather than receiving their inputs during the final stages.

ABOUT INNOVATIA

Innovatia is an end-to-end content solutions provider servicing clients looking to manage and overcome challenges with their content.  For more than two decades, our experts have worked closely with client teams to help design, transform, and manage their content with a view to driving business goals through knowledge and content solutions. To discuss in more detail, contact us.