Best interview questions for a UX Writer

UX Writer Interview Questions

A UX Writer works closely with the product and design teams to create engaging copy that aligns with the company tone of voice. Their main focus is to improve the user experience, either to make the product better understood, or to make the whole experience smoother.

A few good qualities to look out for in the UX Writers you’ll be interviewing are:

Outstanding communication skills, especially, of course, within writing. The candidate should have several years experience within a role like copywriting or content creation.
They should have a product first mindset that is focused on making the user’s journey better.
Good prioritisation and time management skills would be beneficial as they’ll be working with several different stakeholders at once.

Interviewing a UX Writer

Are you searching for an excellent UX Writer? Then it will soon be time to get to know the candidates a little better in an interview. With our UX Writer interview questions, your interview is prepared quickly and easily.

Please note: Our interview questions are suggestions for the earlier stages of the application process and for candidates with average work experience. They are therefore a little more general.

How to open the job interview

Interviews naturally breed nerves, so the first part of your interview should aim to make the candidate feel comfortable speaking with you, you’ll get much more information out of them and a better sense of the person they are if they feel like they can trust the environment they are in.

To do this you can ask some fun and interesting questions linked to the role, they should be open-ended and encourage conversation.

Job Description available

See our UX Writer Job Description here

For the interview

A positive opener to start

What do you enjoy most about writing and creating content?

What has been your journey so far?

Behavioral Questions

How has the experience you had at your previous company set you up for this role?
Some skills that would be beneficial for the candidate to mention here would be the experience they’ve had working with different teams, building good communication skills and working well with adapting to quick changes.
What has been your favourite UX writing project so far?
This will let them talk about what they’re most passionate about and break the ice a little. It will also give you a good idea of how passionate they are about their role.
How do you keep on top of new trends within the industry?
It’s important in small companies to stay ahead of the curve and be aware of what the competition is doing. Being aware of the competition on social media is a good way to keep track.
What product do you really like the experience of?
This will give you a better idea of how aware of the market they are. There’s no right answer, it’s more about getting a feel for the candidate and how they will fit in to the team as well as the style they'll bring to the team.

Soft Skills

How do you keep your UX writing skills up to date and continue to come up with original ideas?
Any creative job will have the obstacle of being blocked from a lack of fresh ideas. Continually keeping skills up to date and practising new writing processes will help.
How is UX Writing different from Copywriting or Content Writing?
A good candidate will know that UX Writing is focused on the user experience of the product and less about encouraging more users to the site, or trying to sell products with language.
What would you change about our product copy?
Shows how much they know about your company and amount of research they’ve done. It will also display how they can think on their feet. There are always improvements to make in UX copy.

Hard Skills

How would you go about writing about a complex feature for the general consumer?
Sometimes the candidate will be writing for an audience that doesn’t know as much about the product as they do. There’s no right answer to this process, but they should have experience about how it’s worked for them in the past.
Do you have any experience in product design?
A lot of the time a UX Writer has worked in a broader Product role and will have skills you can utilise like design or copywriting. This will give you a good idea of their seniority level.
How do you understand the users that you’re writing for? How do you know what works for that particular consumer?
UX Writers will also work with researchers, product owners and customer success teams to understand where there might be content gaps or room for improvement in the copy.

Operational / Situational Questions

Let’s say you have a broad audience to write a technical article for. How would you go about writing so that everyone understands?
Writing for different audiences is a skill that comes with trial and error. A good candidate will have experience in what has worked in the past for them, or examples of copy that they think does a great job of grabbing everyone's attention.
How do you consistently keep the company tone of voice while also improving the user experience?
Mostly this question is about how the candidate will get to know the company itself and get into the mindset of what areas of improvement there are in UX. Sometimes it’s beneficial to focus on either the tone of voice or the UX, depending on the project.
How do you manage people's expectations of UX writing?
UX Writers will work with many different stakeholders to coordinate projects. It’s great to have good communication skills to explain to different stakeholders the reasons behind the decisions made when it comes to improving UX.