7 Lessons Learned About UX Design = Digital Writing

Everything in life that is SUCCESSFUL always seams to follow the same pattern.

Here are My Lessons Learned from reading Nicolas Cole’s books on Digital Writing and why it matters to your life.

Lesson #1: Digital Writing is User Experience

In his book “The Art and Business of Online Writing” Nicolas talks about digital writing and the five W’s.

The Five W’s gives CONTEXT to the reader or listener:

• Why
• What
• When
• Where
• Who

User Experience Copywriter and Business Analytics is part of my profession as a UX Designer and this is how that role is taught in education as to write and talk purely cognitively with humans when interacting online.

Lesson #2: What Your Father Taught You Growing Up

Your father taught you “investment theory” without even knowing it and this is how he did it.

Research shows it is your father is the HERO in that he taught you this as a child. It has been proven so by studying how the mother and father put their children to bed each night as they raise them. When the father is in charge of bedtime he makes sure the children do what they

• HAVE TO

before they get what

• THEY WANT

The result is that the children are in bed earlier and sleep earlier letting their brains develop to their full potential and become successful in life.

Nicolas Coles describes this to be the very basis for success as a digital writer and in the next lesson I will explain why in more detail.

Lesson #3: Your Personality And Psychology Give You an Advantage

Unfortunately, not all have the advantage of being raised with their father in the family.

You might also had parents that were anti-social in that they are not orderly and industrious. That‘s the opposite of being organized and Conscientious. Experts are very clear that success comes from being orderly and industrious.

That means you:

• Get up every day
• Clean up every day
• Go to work on time every day
• Do the work expected of you every single day

Only after you have done that you get your REWARD. That is precisely what Nicolas Cole advocates. Write every day publish for free and gather the data.

That brings us to the next lesson.

Lesson #4: Writing for FREE is Data-Driven Analysis and User Experience Research

Nicolas Cole advocates writing and publishing for FREE every single day.

This is called “Test and fail early and often”. In user experience design. It is also known as Data Driven Analysis and in Sweden, it is rarely used by the user experience field according to when the data from the yearly UX design survey was presented.

In UX Design we know we are wrong in our assumptions since we are not the user of the product when we make design decisions. As we do when we don’t get hard data on what readers like about our writing. Managers and stakeholders think they know but are always surprised when the user does not like or find their product usable. That is when they hire a User Experience designer or a UX Researcher which preludes any design work.

To understand your users you either do a:

• Semi-structured interview
• Thematic analysis
• Wireframe testing
• Guerilla testing
• Prototype testing
• Product data analysis once launched

Product data analysis is what you do when writing digitally online. It also gets rid of assumptions that are incorrect about your readers.

Data-driven analysis is equal to success and the next lesson gives you a reason to do it.

Lesson #5: Watching Netflix Is Just As Hard As Becoming Successful

I‘d like to compare watching Netflix to becoming successful at most things.

You have a choice in life. Most likely it is taught to you by either your mother or father. You can either DO NOTHING and watch Netflix and complain further down the life line. Most likely bitter and resentful with all that comes with that in the form of bad health and bad habits.

Or you can choose to CREATE, TEST, and reap the benefit of all that is out there further down the line.

You can either put your time into something productive or costly.

But in the end, it is up to you to make a choice every single minute of the day. This brings us to the next lesson.

Lesson #6: Change Your Daily Habits and Get Rich

If you by now have made the choice and want to become successful I welcome you.

By changing your habits every day. You start doing something productive rather than costing you time spent on Netflix. This is simply done by holding yourself accountable whenever you make a decision. Simply ask what your decision will do for your success in the next three steps.

If you make a particular choice.

The consequences of that bring us inevitably to the next lesson.

Lesson #7: What Refusing to Change Will Do To You In The Long Run

1. Regret in life is the birth of RESENTMENT.
2. Resentment gives birth to BITTERNESS.
3. Bitterness is the very foundation of CYNICISM
4. Cynicism creates DEPRESSION
5. Depression shortens YOUR LIFE.

Now you can either make the change or live happy and content that you made an effort and tried.

Or choose the roadmap I just wrote in five sentences above in this lesson.

The choice is yours alone to make!

I am hoping for the latter.

The conclusion to all of this is

Becoming a successful digital writer online, and all that comes with that, is the same thing as going to work as a user experience copywriter, researcher, designer, or business/requirement analyst.

• Your father sets you up to be successful in life (My father did for me) — I thank him for it!
• Always create context for others when communicating through written or verbal language.
• Understand your personality but do not let it be the judge and jury of the rest of your life. Anyone can forcefully change their behaviors simply by training every day. NOTHING IS IMPOSSIBLE.
• Focus on gathering data on your work and analyze that to paint your path forward. What you subjectively think is your path is seldom where you will end up.
• You have to make a choice and invest IN YOU every single day to be successful. There is NO magic pill to success. It is fun work every single day. YES, it is FUN and you should see it as such!
• Choosing not to try and be successful will impact your health in a not-so-great manner. Choose wisely!

P.S. (I’m so grateful for your support!)

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