Why good writing isn’t enough: writers need to think like UX designers

You know that moment when you nail the perfect headline… only for your reader to bounce after the first paragraph? It stings, right? The thing is, we talk so much about clarity and tone in writing circles, but not enough about the actual flow of attention.

What makes someone scroll? What makes them pause? Or worse, click away halfway through your best metaphor?

Turns out, a lot of writers feel things like “flow” and “attention patterns,” but they’re not sure what constitutes it. We’ve been relying on gut instinct, vibes, and that mysterious inner rhythm to guide readers through our work. And honestly? That’s worked… kind of. But try finding actual resources that really break this stuff down? Good luck. Trust me, I tried.

So in a way, I might be a Neil Armstrong of this tiny corner of writing. If some points feel a little rough, consider it my first step on the moon. Now, let’s get into it.

To write or to flow?

There’s a huge, and unspoken, difference between writing and designing attention flow. Think about it like this: with traditional forms of writing, you have a certain luxury—the reader has already made a conscious choice to be there.

They’ve picked up the book, bought the magazine, or subscribed to the publication. They’ve already invested their time, and you’ve got their permission.

This gives you room to breathe. You can afford a slow start, even indulge them in nuance, build suspense slowly, and trust that your reader will stick with you for the journey. The contract is simple: you write, and they read.

But marketing content??? Your reader is not curled up in a café reading your blog or newsletter like it's poetry. They’re standing in line at Domino’s with 14 apps open and a dying phone battery. You likely interrupted their scroll, and you’ve got about 3 seconds to prove you’re worth staying for before they tap away to watch a cat aggressively headbutt a watermelon.

This is why simply “writing well” no longer cuts it. You need to become a UX designer disguised as a writer.

What is content/narrative flow?

It goes by many names: attention flow, narrative flow, content flow, or just flow. At its core, content flow is the deliberate path you create for your reader to follow when reading your piece. It’s the writers’ version of a UX journey. Line by line. Sentence by sentence. Scroll by scroll. Just like a well-designed webpage, landing funnel, or app interface, your content should guide attention like a current—never too fast that it disorients, and never too slow that it stalls.

Every part of writing has one job: earn the next line. So, keeping track of your content flow helps you optimise your piece to get readers hooked until the end.

To fully grasp the concept, you must start asking questions like: What do readers see first? What follows immediately? When do I drop a question that stops them mid-scroll? When do I introduce a new idea or break a common belief? When do I finally reveal the “aha” moment they’ve been chasing?

Here’s a brilliant piece by Willow Loveday Little that digs a bit deeper into the narrative flow concept.

Why writing with flow matters for content writers and marketers

Flow means your ideas land exactly how you intended, without your reader tripping over awkward pacing, weird transitions, or walls of text. A well-designed flow makes your writing feel effortless to read, even if it took you hours to craft. It keeps people leaning into your piece, not checking how much is left.

It matters because it’s the bridge between attention and action. Without it, your hook might grab interest, but readers will drop off before your pitch.

Your insights might truly be intriguing, but they’ll get buried in clunky structure or unnecessary complexity.

Your offer might be irresistible, but if the reader’s journey toward it is scattered or confusing, they’ll abandon the page before they ever see it.

And your SEO efforts might drive traffic, but visitors won’t stick around long enough to engage or convert.

Key elements of designing attention flow in your content

So if writing is no longer just about words and writers now have to engineer attention, what does that actually look like? Let’s break down the building blocks of the stuff that makes people stop, stay, and scroll just a little bit more.

1. Hook

Studies show that users decide whether to stay or bounce within just 3–5 seconds of landing on your content. And it all starts with the punchy, intriguing first line that either pulls them in or pushes them away.

The best hooks do one or more of three things: create curiosity, challenge assumptions, or speak directly to an urgent pain or desire. But bad hooks start vague (“In today’s fast-paced world...”), get overly clever, or take too long to get to the point.

If you're struggling to write better hooks/intros, Cynthia Odenu-Odenu offers a lengthy breakdown on how to sidestep the usual intro traps here (I absolutely love her tips and tricks).

2. Pacing and formatting

Ever see a post that looks like a wall of grey text and just… nope your way out of it? Your reader does that too. Don’t underestimate how much white space boosts readability. You want short paragraphs, breathing room, and clean structure. People literally “eyeball scan” before they commit.

So, open your piece and glance at it like a distracted reader would. Is it easy to skim? Or does it look like an academic block of doom?

The general rules are to use:

• Bullet points to list ideas and line breaks to rest the eyes

• Bold lines to signal key takeaways

• Sentence variation to create rhythm

  
  

Eve Ainsworth’s guide on pacing nails this topic, you should give it a read.

3. Structure and narrative tension

Humans are hardwired to love stories, we just can’t resist a juicy gist. You can play on this instinct by weaving narrative tension into your content: start with a question you’ll answer later, drop a bold claim but explain it in a few scrolls, or use open loops (“But here’s the twist…”) to keep their curiosity alive.

Every section should act like a breadcrumb and make the reader want just one more bite.

4. Clarity and simplicity

You finish a paragraph, sit back, and think: Wow, that sounds smart. But sounding smart isn’t the goal. Being clear is. Big ideas dressed in big words don’t convert. Those said simply land much better. Clarity removes the mental friction between your reader and your message. If someone has to reread your sentence twice to “get it,” you’ve probably lost them.

This is why readability scores exist. It’s not because people are dumb—far from it. It’s because everyone is busy, distracted, and half-tired. Even you scan more than you read. The greatest compliment your writing can earn is: “That was so easy to read.” Because when it’s easy to read, it’s easy to trust. And when it’s easy to trust, it’s easy to act.

5. Call to action

One mistake many writers make, and which I’ve been guilty of, is treating CTA like an afterthought. Just tack it on at the end like an awkward exit: “Uh, anyway... click here?” But CTAs aren't the end but the destination. Since the entire piece is a journey, the CTA is where you’ve been guiding them to all along.

Every hook, insight, and emotional beat was building up to this moment. So, make it the natural next step in the conversation you’ve been having with the reader. They should align with the reader’s momentum and gently say: “You’ve come this far, here’s what to do next.”

One hack that does the trick for me is to ask: What journey am I designing and where do I want the readers to go? Then I write the path to get them there.

Takeaway: writers are designers now

The job description for “writer” has quietly evolved. Writing is now part emotion (making readers feel something), part UX (guiding their eyes and actions), and part psychology (understanding why they stay, click, or bounce).

At the end of the day, your words are competing with your other words. They’re also competing with everything else happening in your reader’s brain at that exact moment. And in that noisy battlefield, the writer who can engineer attention wins, always.

If you enjoyed this, tell Odewole Abdulmumeen in the comments!