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Dr. Katharina Grimm

As the discipline of UX Writing becomes increasingly popular, more and more people plan to transition into the field – supported by the various resources that teach them how to write UX copy properly.

However, people who successfully transitioned into the field of UX Writing, are confronted with challenges that go way beyond how to write a great error message.

Many of these challenges have to do with questions like the following questions:

How do UX Writers work within a team?

How do they document and communicate UX copy?

Read more

As the discipline of UX Writing becomes increasingly popular, more and more people plan to transition into the field – supported by the various resources that teach them how to write UX copy properly.

However, people who successfully transitioned into the field of UX Writing, are confronted with challenges that go way beyond how to write a great error message.

Many of these challenges have to do with questions like the following questions:

How do UX Writers work within a team?

How do they document and communicate UX copy?

Which tools do UX Writers use to document, manage, update, and hand over their UX copy?

Looking at the product development process, when comes UX Writing into play?

How do UX Writers coordinate with their team?

If you ask yourself these and other questions and have not yet found an answer to them, this course is the right choice for you.

Who should join

This course is the perfect choice for all UX Writers and for everybody who works with UX Writing, including designers, developers, product owners, and project managers.

It is also a great choice for translators, copywriters, marketing writers, and other stakeholders who contribute text to a digital product.

And: It is especially well-suited for people who have transitioned into UX Writing but have little or no experience with working on a product team. The same goes for product owners or project managers who plan to integrate UX Writing into their projects, but are unsure about how to do it.

What you will learn

In the first part of this class, you will learn

  • what UX Writing documentation means

  • what to include in your UX Writing documentation

  • how to choose the right method and tool for your UX Writing documentation

  • about three tools and a custom-made method you can use for UX Writing documentation

In the second part of this class, you will learn

  • what agile processes are

  • what the agile design process is

  • about the tasks of UX Writing within the agile design process

  • how task management within teams works for UX Writing

Sounds good? Then join this class and take your UX Writing documentation to the next level.

If you want to take all of my UX Writing courses, here is the order recommend:

1 Introduction To UX Writing

2 Transitioning To UX Writing

3 Accessible UX Writing

4 UX Writing: Finding Your Voice and Tone

5 UX Writing in Practice: Documentation & Processes

6 User Research And Testing For UX Writing

7 Inclusive UX Writing: Physical Abilities & Neurodivergence

8 Inclusive UX Writing: Gender, Race & Age

9 Culture-Based UX Writing

10 Localization in UX Writing

11 Fighting „Dark“ UX Writing: How To Write Kind UX Copy

12 Building Your UX Writing Portfolio

13 Freelancing in UX Writing

Please note that all courses stand for themselves and that you don't need to take any course as a prerequisite for taking another one. You don’t have to follow this order. This is only my very own suggestion, which is especially helpful when you need guidance on which course to pick next.

Enroll now

What's inside

Learning objectives

  • Learn what documentation in ux writing is and why we need it
  • Know the requirements of good ux writing documentation
  • Know how to prepare ux writing documentation
  • Know 3 different methods of ux writing documentation
  • Get to know 3 different tools for ux writing documentation
  • Learn what agile projects are
  • Learn what the agile design process looks like
  • Know about the tasks of the ux writer within the agile design process
  • Know how to manage daily tasks as a ux writer within a team

Syllabus

Course I: The Documentation Of UX Writing

Let's say hi to each other and find out what this course is all about so you know exactly what to expect. Are you ready? Then let's start.

Read more

Here's this course's dose of motivation to actually put in the work and figure out how to integrate UX Writing into your processes.

Integrating UX Writing into your workflows is not trivial. Here's what we need to keep in mind

What should we include in our UX Writing documentation? This lesson has all the answers.

Before we actually start documenting our UX copy, there are some preparations that we need to take in order for our documentation to really work in practice.

Let's take a look at how to document UX copy. The first method is In-Design Documentation, which describes the documentation of text within screen designs, e.g. in Figma.

The second documentation method we will check out in this course is Tool-Based Documentation, which is describes the documentation of text with the help of tools and plugins. The first tool we will take a look at is Ditto.

After we have checked out Ditto as a tool for Tool-Based Documentation, we will now discover Frontitude, which is another tool for UX Writing documentation.

The third tool we will take a look at to further explore Tool-Based Documentation in UX Writing is Strings.

Next to In-Design Documentation and Tool-Based Documentation there's a third option you can consider for your UX Writing documentation: Custom-Made Documentation with a spreadsheet. This lesson will show you what this method is all about.

Let's discuss some further tips and tricks that will help you manage your UX Writing documentation successfully.

Let's revisit the lessons of this first part of the class and summarize our learnings. You can always come back to this summary to refresh your knowledge within just a few minutes.

You did it! Congratulations on completing the first part of this two-course series. Let's see what lies behind and what lies ahead.

Welcome to the next round of working with UX Writing in practice. In this part of the course, we will talk about how to integrate UX Writing into your project processes and your team workflow. The intro will tell you what exactly to expect.

Time to do some groundwork: Let's take a look at what UX Writing is, what agile projects are, and how we can combine the two.

This lesson will give you some good reasons for why it is worth our time and energy (and sometimes even money) to think about how to involve UX Writing into our processes. Think you know all those reasons? Better check.

This lesson is a full-blown disclaimer that gives us necessary prior knowledge about process integration before we even start thinking about getting UX Writing into our processes. Learn about the gap between theory and practice to get a more accurate picture of what textbook-perfect process integration can really do for us.

In this lesson, we will quickly go through the single phases of the agile design process - first without UX Writing in it.

After having analyzed the single phases of the agile design process, it's now time for us to learn more about the different tasks UX Writers have in these single phases. This will give us a first idea about our responsibilities throughout the design process.

Let's talk issue management – the processing of our UX Writing tasks in the everyday workflow of our team. Here, we will take a closer look at how we can handle requests, fulfill tasks, and keep our team members up to date.

As usual, I will share with you some more general tips and tricks about the integration of UX Writing into agile processes, which are based on my personal experience as a UX Writer.

Time to take a look at what we've learned in the lessons of this course. As always, this is the place to return to in case you ever want to refresh your knowledge about this topic.

Yes, you made it! Congratulations on completing the second part of this two-course series – this means you're done here! Let's say goodbye to each other real quick.

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Activities

Coming soon We're preparing activities for UX Writing In Practice: Documentation & Processes. These are activities you can do either before, during, or after a course.

Career center

Learners who complete UX Writing In Practice: Documentation & Processes will develop knowledge and skills that may be useful to these careers:
UX Writer
As a UX Writer, you craft clear, concise, and helpful text for digital products, guiding users through interfaces. This course is specifically designed for you, addressing the critical challenges encountered beyond simply writing, such as documentation and team integration. It details what UX Writing documentation entails, how to prepare it, and introduces various methods like In-Design, Tool-Based (using tools like Ditto, Frontitude, Strings), and Custom-Made documentation with spreadsheets. Furthermore, the course unpacks the role of UX Writing within agile projects, clarifying your tasks in the agile design process and providing strategies for daily task management within a product team. Taking this course will equip you with essential practical knowledge to elevate your professional practice and seamlessly contribute to product development workflows.
Content Designer
A Content Designer shapes the overall content experience within a product, encompassing everything from microcopy to larger information flows. This course offers invaluable insights into the practical realities of managing content within product teams. It guides you through defining, preparing, and implementing UX Writing documentation using methods such as In-Design documentation within screen designs, tool-based approaches with platforms like Ditto and Frontitude, and custom spreadsheet solutions. Understanding the integration of Content Design into agile projects, including the specific tasks involved in the agile design process and effective task management strategies, will be profoundly helpful. This knowledge allows you to streamline content workflows and ensure your contributions are effectively coordinated across the development lifecycle.
Product Manager
A Product Manager oversees the entire lifecycle of a product, defining its vision, strategy, and roadmap, and coordinating cross-functional teams. This course is particularly relevant as it demystifies the practical aspects of UX writing, a crucial component of any digital product. You will learn about UX Writing documentation—what to include, how to prepare it, and methods like In-Design or tool-based systems. A deep understanding of how UX Writing integrates into agile projects, its role in the agile design process, and effective task management for UX writers within a team, will empower you to better lead and collaborate. This knowledge helps you optimize team workflows, anticipate challenges, and ensure high-quality user experiences by effectively integrating content development into your product strategy.
Content Strategist
A Content Strategist plans the creation, delivery, and governance of useful and usable content. This course offers a significant advantage by focusing on the operational aspects of UX writing, a key part of content strategy for digital products. It delves into the specifics of UX Writing documentation, exploring what to include, preparation techniques, and practical methods like In-Design documentation, tool-based solutions (e.g., Ditto, Frontitude), and custom spreadsheets. Understanding how UX writing integrates into agile projects and the agile design process, alongside task management within teams, helps you design more robust content workflows. This enables you to craft strategies that are not only visionary but also highly implementable and sustainable within a dynamic product development environment.
Product Designer
A Product Designer shapes the user experience and visual interface of digital products, collaborating closely with development and content teams. This course provides essential insights into integrating UX writing effectively within the design process. You will learn about UX Writing documentation, encompassing its definition, preparation, and practical methods such as In-Design documentation—crucial for designers working within tools like Figma. Additionally, understanding how UX Writers operate within agile projects and the agile design process, along with their specific tasks and team coordination, will significantly enhance your collaborative capabilities. This knowledge helps you design more holistically, ensuring seamless integration of text and visual elements from conception to delivery.
Project Manager
A Project Manager organizes resources and guides teams to accomplish specific project goals within defined parameters. This course offers valuable practical knowledge for managing projects involving digital product development and content. It explores UX Writing documentation, including what it means, what to include, and how to prepare it using methods like In-Design documentation, tool-based solutions, or custom spreadsheets. Crucially, the course provides a detailed understanding of how UX Writing fits into agile projects and the agile design process, outlining the UX Writer’s tasks and effective task management within teams. This perspective helps you better plan, execute, and monitor projects, ensuring streamlined communication and efficient integration of all content-related deliverables.
Scrum Master
A Scrum Master facilitates agile development teams, ensuring adherence to Scrum principles and removing impediments to progress. This course directly addresses key aspects of team collaboration and process integration highly relevant to a Scrum Master. It explores how UX Writing documentation is created and managed, introducing various methods like In-Design documentation and tool-based approaches. More significantly, the course details what agile projects are, the agile design process, and the specific tasks of UX Writing within this framework. Understanding how UX Writers manage their daily tasks and coordinate with team members helps you better coach teams, optimize workflows, and remove content-related roadblocks, fostering a more cohesive and efficient product development environment.
User Interface Designer
A User Interface Designer focuses on the visual and interactive elements of a digital product, ensuring an intuitive and aesthetically pleasing experience. This course may be particularly helpful by illuminating the practical aspects of UX writing, which is integral to the overall user interface. You will learn about UX Writing documentation, especially In-Design documentation methods, which describe the process of documenting text directly within screen designs in tools like Figma. Understanding the specific tasks of UX Writers within the agile design process and how they manage copy handoffs and updates can greatly improve your collaboration. This helps ensure that the textual components of the interface are not only well-crafted but also seamlessly integrated and maintained throughout the product development lifecycle.
Technical Writer
A Technical Writer creates clear and precise documentation for complex products or services, often including user manuals, guides, and internal process documents. While the primary focus is UX copy, this course may be very useful for a Technical Writer by providing a robust framework for documentation and process management that is highly transferable. It covers what documentation means, what to include, preparation, and methods like tool-based documentation (e.g., Ditto, Frontitude) and custom spreadsheets. Understanding agile projects, the agile design process, and how writers coordinate tasks within teams helps you streamline your own documentation workflows and integrate more effectively into product development cycles. This offers a valuable perspective on modern content practices in digital environments.
Localization Specialist
A Localization Specialist adapts digital product content, including text and user interfaces, for specific cultural and linguistic markets. This course is helpful as it focuses heavily on documentation and process, which are critical for efficient and accurate localization workflows. You will learn about UX Writing documentation, including what to include, preparation techniques, and methods like tool-based documentation (e.g., Strings, Ditto) and custom spreadsheets. These practices directly impact how content is prepared for translation and adaptation. Understanding how UX Writing integrates into agile projects and the agile design process, including task management for content within teams, can help you advocate for earlier localization involvement and streamline the translation handoff process, ensuring culturally appropriate user experiences.
Content Editor
A Content Editor reviews, refines, and optimizes written content for clarity, accuracy, and tone, often ensuring brand consistency. For those working with digital products, this course is helpful by providing a practical understanding of UX Writing documentation and processes. It details what UX Writing documentation means, what to include, how to prepare it, and introduces methods such as In-Design documentation within screen designs, tool-based approaches, and custom spreadsheets. Understanding how UX Writing integrates into agile projects, the agile design process, and the specifics of task management within teams helps you better manage content iterations and ensure consistency. This knowledge can enhance your ability to collaborate with UX writers and designers, streamlining the content review and approval process effectively.
Information Architect
An Information Architect organizes and structures content to help users find and understand information effectively within digital environments. This course may be useful by shedding light on the practical management of UX writing, a crucial content type you would logically organize. It covers what UX Writing documentation means, what to include, methods like custom-made documentation with spreadsheets, and tool-based solutions. While not directly about information structure, understanding these documentation practices can inform how you might categorize, tag, and organize content elements for scalability and findability. Knowing how UX writing fits into agile design processes also helps in planning content delivery mechanisms. This perspective can help you design more robust and maintainable content systems.
Quality Assurance Engineer
A Quality Assurance Engineer tests software applications to identify and address defects, ensuring product quality and functionality. This course may be helpful by offering valuable insights into the source and management of user-facing text, which is a key component to be tested. You will learn about UX Writing documentation, including what to include and how it is prepared using methods like In-Design documentation, tool-based solutions (e.g., Ditto, Frontitude), and custom spreadsheets. Understanding the tasks of UX Writers within the agile design process and how they manage daily tasks helps you anticipate where text changes originate. This knowledge can enhance your ability to verify copy implementation, check for consistency, and ensure error messages and other critical text elements are correctly displayed and integrated during testing phases.
Digital Accessibility Specialist
A Digital Accessibility Specialist ensures that digital products are usable by people with diverse abilities, adhering to accessibility standards and guidelines. This course may be helpful by providing a foundational understanding of the processes and documentation involved in creating user-facing content. While this specific course does not cover accessibility principles directly, it addresses how UX Writing documentation is managed and how UX writers integrate their work into agile design processes. Understanding these content workflows, including methods like In-Design and tool-based documentation, can inform how accessibility considerations for text and content descriptions are integrated from the outset. This knowledge helps you collaborate more effectively with content teams to embed accessibility early in the product lifecycle, rather than as an afterthought.
User Researcher
A User Researcher plans and conducts studies to gather insights into user behaviors, needs, and motivations to inform product design and development. This course may be useful by providing a clear understanding of the operational realities of UX writing within product teams. While not a research course itself, learning about UX Writing documentation—including its purpose, preparation, and methods—and how UX writers integrate into agile projects, including their tasks and task management, offers crucial context. This understanding helps you better design research studies that evaluate the effectiveness of UX copy, test documentation practices, or assess the impact of content within user flows. It provides a foundational knowledge of the content creation process that can inform your approach to user studies.

Reading list

We've selected 23 books that we think will supplement your learning. Use these to develop background knowledge, enrich your coursework, and gain a deeper understanding of the topics covered in UX Writing In Practice: Documentation & Processes.
Provides a framework for creating and documenting UX copy that aligns with business goals and user needs. It is highly valuable for learning how to measure the impact of UX writing, which supplements the course's focus on professional documentation. Industry professionals frequently use this as a primary textbook for establishing voice and tone standards.
Is essential for understanding the collaborative role of a writer within a product design team. It provides depth on how to integrate writing into the design process, mirroring the course's lessons on agile workflows. It useful reference tool for writers who need to advocate for their place in the early stages of a project.
Widely considered the definitive guide to microcopy, this book offers practical examples for almost every UI element mentioned in the course. It vital reference tool for anyone creating a custom-made documentation spreadsheet or design system. It helps bridge the gap between theory and the actual execution of error messages and buttons.
Focusing on the operational side of content, this book perfect supplement for the course's section on team coordination and task management. It explains how to set up processes and scale content teams within an organization. It is particularly useful for those transitioning into senior or lead UX writing roles.
Provides the necessary background knowledge for the 'UX Writing in Agile Projects' portion of the course. It explains the principles of Lean and Agile that dictate how modern product teams operate. It is more valuable as foundational reading to understand the 'why' behind the processes discussed in the syllabus.
Crucial resource for the course's objective of knowing how to manage daily tasks and communicate with stakeholders. It teaches writers how to explain the 'why' behind their copy choices to non-writers like PMs and developers. It serves as a practical guide for the 'issue management' and 'stakeholder' lessons in the syllabus.
Introduces the discipline of content design and the user-centered process of creating copy. It is helpful in providing prerequisite knowledge about the discovery and research phases that precede documentation. It is commonly used as a foundational text by industry professionals globally.
This highly practical book filled with templates and workflow suggestions that mirror the course's focus on spreadsheets and custom documentation. It provides a step-by-step guide to managing content projects from start to finish. It is an excellent companion for the 'Custom-Made Documentation' lesson.
While aimed at developers, this book offers a rigorous approach to documentation lifecycles that is highly relevant to tool-based UX writing documentation. It provides a more technical perspective on managing strings and documentation as code. adds significant breadth to the course's discussion on tools like Strings and Frontitude.
As the course discusses In-Design Documentation and Figma, this book provides the broader context of how copy fits into a shared design language. It explains how to document patterns and components for consistency across a product. It useful reference tool for writers working on large-scale digital products.
Is particularly valuable for UX writers who are the only ones in their role at a company, a scenario the course creator hints at. It provides lightweight methods for documentation and process integration that require few resources. It adds breadth by offering 'scrappy' alternatives to the high-end tools like Ditto or Frontitude.
A concise guide that focuses on the 'work' of writing, including how to manage projects and overcome blocks. It directly supplements the course's focus on the practical, day-to-day tasks of a UX writer. It is an excellent introductory text for those transitioning from other writing fields.
Provides a philosophical and practical foundation for why documentation must reflect a human conversation. It useful reference for creating voice and tone guidelines that the course suggests including in documentation. It helps writers think about the 'logic' of their copy within the agile design process.
Focuses on how to bring brand personality into design systems, which core part of UX writing documentation. It supplements the course by showing how to document 'voice' alongside visual components in tools like Figma. It recent and relevant addition to the field of design operations.
Focuses on the workshops and meetings that make agile projects work, providing a framework for the 'team coordination' mentioned in the syllabus. It is helpful for UX writers who need to lead collaborative sessions to define copy. It adds more depth to the course's 'how to manage daily tasks' objective.
Catalogs common UI patterns and explains how to document them, which direct application of the course's documentation lessons. It useful reference tool for writers building their first pattern library. It helps bridge the gap between design components and the copy that lives within them.
Provides a high-level view of service design and how different touchpoints are documented. It is valuable as additional reading for UX writers who want to understand how their documentation fits into the larger user journey. It emphasizes the 'processes' part of the course title.
Helps writers understand how to organize the information they are documenting. It great prerequisite for the 'preparations for documentation' lesson in the course. It teaches the structural thinking required to manage complex copy spreadsheets or tool-based libraries.
Given that the course creator has several courses on inclusive and accessible UX writing, this book provides the essential theoretical framework. It explains why documentation must account for diverse user needs from the start. It adds significant depth to the 'tasks of the UX writer' within the design process.
A classic in the field, this book focuses on the tone and style aspects of writing. It is helpful in providing background knowledge for creating the style guides that need to be documented. It is more valuable as a craft reference than a process manual, but it supports the course's overall series.
While broader than UX writing, this book covers the experimentation phase of agile projects in great detail. It is useful for understanding how to document 'copy tests' and 'research findings,' which are part of the UX writing lifecycle. It provides an authoritative look at modern product management processes.
Addresses the ethics of design, which core theme in the course creator's later modules on 'Dark UX Writing.' It provides a moral compass for the 'tasks and responsibilities' of a UX writer within a team. It highly popular and provocative read within the industry.

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