UX Writers and Designers in the Workplace –

The answer is clear: yes, it is.

67% indicate that it’s growing strongly at their companies, while only 13% show little growth for the discipline. Encouraging news, but let’s do some cross-tabulation, just for the ol’ heck of it.

The global average score for this question is 3.8. But how do country, sector, and company size influence the score?

UX writing growth by country

Here’s the list of scores for countries with at least 10 respondents. Latin America shows strong growth with Colombia leading the way. On the other end of the scale, we see the Far East and Africa are lagging.

Is product writing/UX writing/content design a growing discipline in your company? (scale of 1–5)
Country	Source
Colombia	4.7
France	4.3
Australia	4.2
Russia	4.2
Ireland	4.1
Mexico	4.1
Poland	4.1
Sweden	4.1
Argentina	4.0
Canada	4.0
Denmark	4.0
Greece	4.0
Lithuania	4.0
Netherlands	4.0
Israel	3.9
United States of America	3.9
Global	3.8
Brazil	3.8
Finland	3.8
Singapore	3.8
Ukraine	3.8
United Arab Emirates	3.8
United Kingdom	3.8
Austria	3.7
India	3.7
Turkey	3.7
Germany	3.6
Spain	3.6
Chile	3.5
South Korea	3.5
Czechia	3.4
Italy	3.4
Norway	3.4
Portugal	3.4
Hong Kong	3.3
Indonesia	3.2
Nigeria	3.2
Malaysia	3.1
South Africa	2.7

How about field or sector? Is the discipline growing more in some sectors than others?

UX writing growth by sector

While the trend isn’t crystal clear, we do see newer, tech-related sectors are more likely to be at the top (social media, tech, e-commerce, fintech), while the bottom has older sectors (utilities, insurance, arts). Though, there are several exceptions.

One of the most striking finds is that while B2B/SaaS is near the top at 4.4, traditional software is at the bottom at 2.8. As someone who’s written for desktop software in the past, I admit I’m not too surprised.

Is product writing/UX writing/content design a growing discipline in your company? (scale of 1–5)
Field/Sector	Source
Logistic	5.0
B2B SaaS	4.4
Social media	4.4
Technology	4.4
Entertainment	4.3
Real Estate	4.3
Banking/Finance	4.2
Big data	4.1
Ecommerce	4.0
Fintech	4.0
FoodTech	4.0
Internet of things	4.0
Accounting	3.9
Delivery	3.9
Design	3.9
Event/Hospitality	3.9
Healthcare	3.9
Project management / CRM	3.9
Telecommunications	3.9
Travel	3.9
Average	3.8
EdTech / E-learning	3.8
Sales and marketing	3.8
Automotive	3.7
Cyber	3.7
Government sites	3.7
HR	3.7
Retail	3.7
Mobility	3.5
Manufacturing industry	3.3
Media	3.3
Arts	3.1
Green tech	3.1
Insurance	3.1
Utilities	3.1
Software	2.8

One last table? Sure thing: growth to company size.

No big surprises here—the larger the company, the more growth.

Is product writing/UX writing/content design a growing discipline in your company? (scale of 1–5)
Company Size	Source
Enterprise (more than 1000 people)	4.0
Large company (200 to 1000 people)	3.8
Medium-sized company (30 to 200 people)	3.5
Small company (up to 30 people)	3.3

Final thoughts

All in all, I’d say things are moving in the right direction. More companies realize the importance of having writers both on the team and involved in making decisions. But we still have a ways to go. So if you’ll indulge me, I’ll make my case.

Excuse the gross oversimplification, but human cognition tends to come in two forms: visual and verbal. We think in pictures and in words. All of us do both, and most favor one over the other. So if we want to create products and experiences that are easily processed by all people, we need to have both visual and verbal thinkers involved in creating them. Designer and writers.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: writing, more than anything else, is thinking. And the world needs writers—the verbal thinkers.

Writers and designers aren’t milk, cereal, or OJ. They’re not friends or enemies. They’re different sides of the same coin, and we need to have both sides for that coin to have true value.

That’s all for now. In future articles in this series, we’ll look at how happy writers in tech are with their salaries, what tools they use, and what they did in previous jobs. See you then.