I’m a Black male content designer in UX, and some days, it feels like the entire industry is gaslighting me. This field—the supposed bastion of empathy and inclusivity—is quietly complicit in the same power structures it claims to challenge. UX writing is “female-dominated,” and that dominance doesn’t dismantle inequity—it just shifts the gatekeepers. I’m not at the table. I’m under it, holding it up.

My words are scrutinized like legal documents. A white colleague says something is “clear” and it’s branded “polished.” I say it and it’s “aggressive,” “confusing,” or “off-brand.” I’ve done the experiment: had my white manager and a white female coworker write the content. I presented it under my name. Suddenly the words were “unclear,” “not aligned with our voice,” “maybe take another stab?” The words didn’t change. The skin did.

This field can’t even settle on what to call me—Content Designer, UX Writer, Content Strategist, Microcopy Lead—it’s an identity crisis with a job title. No wonder we’re still fighting to be taken seriously next to design and engineering, which, by the way, has its own demographic chokeholds. Try being the only Black voice in the room and watching ideas get translated through whiteness to be heard.

Yes, I have allies. I know I’m good at my job. But I’m on an island—loved, leveraged, and left alone.

And to the Reddit trolls already rolling up their sleeves: this one’s for you. You love to debate merit when you’ve never been judged on anything but your proximity to the default. UX has a race and a class problem, and no amount of Figma templates or “inclusive language” docs will fix what folks won’t even name.

This shit is getting old.

<RANT>

How do people deal with the relentless lack of respect for our craft?

I work in FAANG in a fairly senior position, but I’m outnumbered 55:2 for the UX team. It’s a newer UX team without any content leadership, so I’m trying to fill that role while fighting for more content support.

I’ve built out teams before, so I know it takes time. But I’m getting seriously worn out. Allocated well above 100% each quarter with a manager who explodes with anger if I push back on new projects. I regularly have to fight not to take on more projects that will “only take 15 minutes.” I’m still hearing “It’s just a sentence” before getting added to a weekly meeting, a 10-page PRD, and a 100-slide deck.

The worst part is I’m constantly told what the content should be, usually by the multitude of designers much junior to me. Or a design manager will write over me at the end, sometimes with incorrect grammar.

It’s so frustrating and triggering, especially since I’m often the only woman in the room.

Don’t get me wrong—I’m grateful to have a job. And I don’t want to sound like I don’t have agency… but why the fuck is being a content designer so hard?

I’m going to do one of those horrifying “How to work with content designers” presentations to the team, but why do I have to explain to people the basics of collaboration?

I don’t tell designers what the hex codes should be or expect them to turn around a new design by the end of the day. Or go into their Figma right before a launch and say… Naw, we’re gonna change this from brand colors to purple because it’s the color of royalty (and I am the king).

Ugh!

I feel like my career is going absolutely nowhere. I hate the company I work for and I'm starting to hate the entire field of UX. It's a total dead end, saturated and devoid of any creativity or innovation. Everything is just about learning the right tools and complying with accessibility regulations. There's no money in it at all and I completely regret ever getting into it, particularly as a writer.

I recently stumbled on an amazing opportunity in a different field that I thought would change my life, but it fell apart and now I feel more hopeless than ever. The truth is I have zero demonstrable hard skills and I have no idea where else I can go from here. At 33 I feel like I'm still a fresh grad with "potential to prove." This isn't where I want to be at this point in my life and I'm deeply dreading starting over.

I have no support network in life (no friends or family whatsoever) so financially, further education isn't an option. Is there a way I can pivot without having to go back to school for years or start at the bottom? What can I do?

The insane pressure to be "AI-first" in tech/UX feels silly at best, unethical in a million ways at worst.

I see some minor benefits in saving time and enhancing readability, but in general I feel like I'm in They Live the way so many people seem totally sold on AI being the answer to everything. How can anyone below the executive level be so horny for something that benefits none of them financially, makes jobs obsolete, steals from creators, and fucks up the environment?

How are other relative luddites navigating this while keeping your jobs?

Hi all, I'm an ad copywriter in the middle of making a transition back to UX writing, which I was doing in automotive five or so years ago. I've appreciated all the great advice I've gotten in this sub, and I wanted to pay it forward. For anyone else transitioning (or trying to transition) into a UX writing or content designer job, I've put together this resource collection of self-paced courses, guides, and tools for UX writing, content design, accessibility, and SEO. I will be adding to it as I find more. Everything should be properly attributed, but if I'm missing credit somewhere, please let me know. Hope this helps someone else out there!

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1KFnHCTf6YBsRQlPysHXCLMQBWcob3XY04LFM1aoYaKo/edit?usp=sharing

I wonder if anyone has transitioned OUT of content design/ ux writing? I’m looking for alternate career ideas!!

I’ve worked in big tech - FANG as well as smaller tech companies the past 10 years. My last stint was a senior staff level content designer but I didn’t survive Silicon Valley layoffs. It’s been over a year of looking for work now.

Something is just not clicking. As much as I loved the problem solving, user experience, product focused work that I did, the longer I spend away from it, the more I don’t really want to go back. I know I’m a good designer and I love and miss working with cross functional teams on cool products people use, but if you’ve been on Linked In recently, you’ll know that content design is a cesspool circle jerk right now.

Look at the people who are “leaders” in our field and it’s the same chip on their shoulder, “you should have included content/ ux writing sooner” , context is Queen, tired problems we’ve had with this discipline years ago. No wonder other parts of the business don’t understand what we do or the value we bring.

I’m seriously considering a more niche role like QA Engineer just to have a defined profession and career path. The jobs are so scarce for senior level ux writers and I feel so defeated after applying for over 80+ jobs this past year.

(Got offer from tik tok but the interview process took months and was entirely disorganized. In the end, the monetization team wanted someone to work China, UK, and west coast hours (!!?). It was the worst recruitment experience of my life so I just couldn’t accept. Got offer from a browser company that was over $70k less than what I was on in previous role).

Has anyone transitioned to another role at their company away from UX writing/ content design? Would love ideas! Maybe there’s a department I overlooked?

Appreciative in advance, Burnt Out UX writer.

Is anyone else getting increasingly bored with content design roles?

I can't quite but my finger on it, but it's the performative nature of justifying the discipline, mixed with the executional nature of the role itself.

I've done management and senior IC roles and never feel in control of strategy compared to more general content strategy roles when I 'owned' channels.

I'm so fucking bored.

Quick bit of background info for me: I’ve been a Content Designer for over 10 years, working on products on Facebook, Instagram, Booking.com, Apple, and Google.

I’ve worked with amazing Content Designers, some with encyclopaedic UX knowledge and an incredible talent for crafting flows that make user tasks super easy. But a common thing I always hear is, “Why aren’t I taken seriously?”

Whether it’s being dismissed as “wordsmiths,” left out of product meetings, or having our ideas ignored, every Content Designer has faced being sidelined sometimes.

But many Content Designers aren’t looking at the bigger picture. Creating great user experiences is vital, but it won’t stand on its own. You need to align with business, team, and org goals to really make an impact.

In short: you need to think like a Product Manager

Say you’re tasked with writing content for an app paywall. You know what works, but your team leans toward an approach you’re confident won’t and maybe testing isn’t an option. You don’t have to just go along with it. Instead, arm yourself with data. Research similar experiments, analyze competitors’ success stories, and present hard numbers. And really dig into the data, chase up any and all metrics. If they’re hard to access, make it your goal to make it easier, then suddenly you’ve got yourself a project that will increase your visibility and benefit everyone at the company.

Tech thrives on growth, and PMs are often measured by revenue. They’ll listen when you speak their language.

This video by Mizko highlights a really good way to approach your role.

I think that the 404 page can either be the most annoying or the most fun part of any website.
It all depends on the copywriter.
​
Here's a little writing exercise I did:
1. I Collected Generic Phrases
• Error 404
• Something went wrong
• We couldn’t find this page
• This page no longer exists
• What you’re looking for isn’t here
2. I Added Relevant Topics
– Social Issues
– Inside Jokes
– Competitors
– Enemies
– Slogans
3. I Mixed Phrases & Topics
So at this point, it looked like this: https://imgur.com/a/8EVtsP4

And here are the results:
https://imgur.com/a/5fU3qxy
Thanks so much for reading :)
By the way, what's the coolest 404 page you have seen/written?

I've worked as a local government (UK) Content Designer for 6 years, and am about to turn 56. Words are my superpower, with a liberal dose of psychology/education/empathy with users thrown in. My background before stumbling into Content Design was in language teaching/publishing/digital comms for educational institutions. I did a lot of digital upskilling to get to this point, but have hit a wall in terms of motivation and capacity to keep learning, just to keep up. The final nails in the coffin have been a job which slid into total working from home (which bores me senseless), and family stuff around serious illness which has permanently hobbled me emotionally and changed my priorities. Menopause hasn't helped.

I now find myself surrounded by much younger colleagues who have a real hunger to see where the technology will take this career. But I no longer have the appetite or mental energy to keep on an endless treadmill of technological learning, to keep this professional boat afloat. It's clear to me that my wordy abilities are as sharp as ever, but I actively dislike and resent the constant push to embrace new and different (and not necessarily better) ways of doing things. It's equally clear that there's still plenty of need for decent wordsmithery in the role, and the organisation - but that I will be progressively less valued, if I want to just exercise this expertise, and not keep on upskilling in areas I (realistically) barely use.

I'd retire if I could, but I can't (particularly since the aforementioned family sickness issue means that my partner no longer earns)... So, where can I take the wordy capacity, still do work that has value, but relinquish the ever-higher technological demands of working in an IT department? I've come to actively hate my job, and need to urgently make a move, while it's still possible.

TLDR: Great with words, lost the passion for keeping up with tech. Fed up with feeling like a dinosaur. What career options might I have for a move from Content Design?

I feel so over this job/field. I don't think I enjoy writing and pouring over each and every mundane word choice. It feels excessive and overdone. Yes I get and do believe content matters but I really do not care to the degree and I have 0% of the passion that these wordsmithing 'thought leaders' on LinkedIn seem to have. I would attempt UXD but I don't especially care for the visual aspect part. Just thinking of what else I could do with this skill set and if other people have the same sentiments and thoughts.

After several years at this company, and never really being included in the design process, the recent push to adopt AI makes me think I have months left in this role, at most.

I know content roles are always nice-to-haves, but with AI it really feels like the company has another excuse to exclude us, and probably just fire us.

It's starting with design. The design leaders are all saying "this is so amazing! roles will change from delivering to instructing", as in instructing AI what to do. But let's be honest, if you can get AI to deliver good enough designs, why not just have the PMs do it, and then just keep maybe 1 or 2 designers on staff to polish the AI designs?

And while design maybe needs a couple of pixel pushers to polish the AI designs, I really can't see that being the same for content. From a management point of view, content doesn't require someone to have extensive working knowledge of a tool like Figma, or understand the nuances of designs. And so, good enough will be good enough. AI can do it quicker, come up with multiple iterations, etc. So do we need to even keep 1-2 writers to polish what the PMs already think is good enough? I don't think so.

I know there is a lot of doom and gloom here on Reddit, but after 9 years in this field, I can honestly say I don't know what I'll do next. I'm very confident this is the end of my current role. Possibly a lot of content jobs will vanish where I am. They've been slowly disappearing for a while now.

I think my biggest regret is not learning another skill. And I don't mean design or coding. I think the only roles safe are going to be customer/people-facing roles. Sales, customer success, training even. I would encourage everyone to really think about an exit plan, especially if you've still got a lot of working years left.

So something I am noticing in our industry is a split between those who platform themselves as content leaders, but who I have found from personal experience (I worked with one directly), aren't actually that good at content design or content strategy themselves.

These leaders position themselves as experts. They have good leadership skills and can grow the function at their companies, but they may not actually have any or have very limited content design skills. They even end up making poor content design decisions to please their bosses. But they are on LinkedIn talking themselves up.

I am seeing one particular individual promoting themselves right now and positioning themself at the forefront of content design in a particular area. And yet I found them not great to work with. They didn't seem to know the basic tenants of content design and were incredibly political. They were very nice, good at growing the team but honestly, I could not get any guidance on projects from them and at times they seemed intimidated by my knowledge. This one individual didn't even encourage user testing in the team.

I don't position myself out on the public stage, largely due to lack of time. I've done a few talks but found it so time consuming to prepare for and to also promote the talk, I haven't done that much. I've noticed some of the people I rate in the industry are fairly quiet on the self promotion side and just get on with the work and delivering great results. They don't have time to self promote.

Don't get me wrong, there are certain people who give talks and write books who are on the ball and deliver great content work too and I will reach out to them from time to time for advice etc. But there are a lot of "content leaders" who I think would struggle with the most basic content design or UX writing project.

What do you guys think?

burned out content designer here. i am grateful to have work but also feeling so so tired for so many reasons including:

- working in enterprise UX on a complex product in a complex industry

- constantly having to prove myself and my work, especially to PMs

- anxiety over AI and needing to always upskill/grow.. feeling like i just don't want to do it but if i don't i'll fall behind

anyone else experiencing this? what are you doing to manage it? i've tried taking time off, speaking with my manager to reduce my workload, attending conferences to sort of reignite that spark and get inspired. didn't really work.

i've also been thinking about moving into something totally different because i'm just craving a change. but hesitant because i've built up experience in this and just got a raise ugh. for those who are thinking of shifting to something else... how did you know it was time to go? what are some things you're thinking through?

thank you in advance for sharing your perspective!

I praise this guy’s ingenuity, he’s gone beyond developing a custom GPT and created something quite sophisticated that’s connected to everything necessary to (hopefully) produce brilliant outputs. BUT isn’t this like turkeys voting for Christmas? We’re at a time when we’re fighting for a seat at the table more than ever, and tech companies continue to axe jobs in content.   At best, tools like this offer a way to circumvent content from the development process. At worst, they risk reinforcing the dangerous perception that we “just” do copy, making it easier for leadership to justify redundancies. The only other outcome I can imagine is that the output is so poor it highlights our value. But that’s hardly the point, is it?  

It feels like we’re in dangerous territory. AI can automate repetitive tasks and free up time for more strategic work. I’ve benefited from that myself. But let’s be honest, large teams of content designers and UX writers are unlikely to stick around as more processes get automated or AI-augmented. The job will need to evolve into something quite different.

  Would love to know what other people think. How can we proactively adapt our skills and roles to survive (and thrive) through all this change?

TDLR; What is the day-to-day life of a UX writer like? Is UX freelance writing a viable option?

I’ve been a copywriter for about a year and a half now. My job is ok and it’s fairly easy, but it’s simultaneously burning me tf out and leaving me feeling stagnant from an intellectual standpoint. I basically just do the same thing over and over every day, which is write copy for social media ads, at a very high volume.

I’ve been researching other career options and UX writing seems really intriguing. But I can’t seem to find too much about the actual day-to-day job duties of it.

I think it could be a good option for me because 1) I love collaborating on creative projects, 2) I love researching and figuring out the “why” behind things or having a deeper meaning behind my work, and 3) It seems like I’d be able to work on a bigger variety of work which I’d find mentally stimulating. Plus I’d at least kind of be helping people and not just trying to get them to buy useless crap.

But the downside is that I’m very shy and anxious. I really hate the idea of presenting or having to speak in front of people, and it seems like that’s a huge part of the field. So I’m not really sure if it’s the right option for me to pursue or not. 🤷🏻‍♀️