You Talking to Me?

Matter Vs Manner in UX Copy.

Everything Is Different Today

If you are a history nut, there are only a few things that excite you as much as historic pieces of writing accompanying some product of the past. Everything is different today. The profusion of markets has us constantly keeping our guard up for whatever is pitched at us 24/7. With this unnecessary availability of things, we rarely expose ourselves to the rapture of ownership it used to be.

Dirty Tricks and Design

Partly, because our attention span has shrunk to seconds, and also because of the patterns we’ve learned to recognize, it’s fair to say, we have a good nose for bullshit. This requires a certain behavior from modern products and services.

Here are the main product development aspects with the dirtiest tricks hidden in them:

Personalized engagement. Where you get your customers’ personal data and how you get it doesn’t matter for the most part. What matters is whether you can use it to create faux custom engagement.

Influencers. With social media following being a key indicator of talent and significance, brands are utilizing Instagram and YouTube celebrities to promote their products.

Reverse marketing. Chasing a customer is a common behavior for suppliers since the early days of economy. Taking advantage of the connectivity today’s world has, some brands generate a hype and make customers chase them instead.

UX Writing. Yes, it can be dirty. The easiest and the most pristine way to voice a message is by putting it out in text. Most people don’t see the difference between spoken and written text which makes them translate a lot of speech token into writing. Depending on the industry, time, region, and social constructs, copy becomes indicative. This shapes the standards as more and more writers adopt this certain style. Unfortunately, the change is not always for the better.