ux-writing-content-design

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---
name: ux-writing-content-design
description: "Use when writing, critiquing, or implementing product UX copy, microcopy, labels, CTAs, empty states, onboarding, errors, or notifications."
license: MIT
metadata:
  author: hueyexe
---

# UX Writing & Content Design

## Purpose

Help an AI agent write and evaluate product copy that helps people understand an interface, take action, recover from problems, and trust the product. Treat words as part of the design system and interaction model, not as decoration added after the interface is finished.

This skill covers product UX copy: microcopy, button labels, links, labels, hints, descriptions, empty states, onboarding, validation, errors, success messages, loading/progress states, notifications, terminology, voice, tone, and content strategy. It does not cover long-form marketing copy except when that copy directly affects product comprehension, action, trust, onboarding, or conversion inside a product experience.

## When to use this skill

Use this skill when the user asks you to:

- Write, rewrite, or critique UI text, product copy, UX copy, microcopy, form copy, navigation labels, CTAs, onboarding, empty states, errors, confirmations, loading states, notifications, help text, or design-system content guidance.
- Review a UI, mockup, screenshot, frontend component, flow, prototype, or design system for clarity, tone, usability, trust, recovery, or accessibility.
- Design or implement frontend states where copy affects user understanding or behavior.
- Create content rules, voice and tone guidance, terminology, content patterns, or a UX writing checklist.

## When not to use this skill

Do not use this skill as the primary skill for:

- Long-form marketing pages, ads, brand campaigns, PR, SEO articles, or sales copy unless they affect an in-product UX flow.
- Pure visual styling, layout, illustration, or animation tasks where no interface text, state, or comprehension issue is involved.
- Legal, medical, financial, or compliance wording that requires a licensed professional. You may improve clarity, but flag the need for expert review.
- Translation/localization itself. Use this skill to make source copy localizable and context-safe, then use translation/localization expertise separately.

## Core principles

1. **Words are design material.** Do not merely choose “nice words.” Use words to solve user problems and shape interaction behavior.
2. **Start with the user task and product purpose.** Copy is effective only when it supports what the user is trying to do and what the product legitimately needs.
3. **Prefer useful over clever.** Personality and delight are secondary to comprehension, action, trust, and recovery.
4. **Design the conversation, not isolated strings.** Inspect the entry point, action, system response, next step, inverse action, and failure path.
5. **Use the right pattern for the state.** A label, hint, tooltip, inline error, banner, empty state, notification, or confirmation each has a different job.
6. **Write in context.** Draft and evaluate text where it appears, with surrounding UI, component constraints, state, platform, and device.
7. **Make actions consequence-revealing.** Buttons and links should say what happens, not describe the input method.
8. **Errors are stress cases.** Avoid the error when possible, explain clearly when it happens, and help the user resolve it.
9. **Respect people on the margins.** Sensitive questions, forced choices, default suggestions, and “harmless” quick replies can exclude or hurt people.
10. **Be concise, not cryptic.** Short copy is valuable only when users can still understand it immediately.
11. **Measure when the stakes justify it.** Use usability testing, behavioral metrics, support data, and A/B tests when copy changes affect activation, conversion, retention, recovery, or trust.
12. **Make copy implementable.** Content should work with semantic HTML, accessibility APIs, localization, design tokens, component sta