Duh. This one’s obvious.
People don’t like being forced to read. Identify the most important info and say that.
Another obvious one —don’t use synonyms.
If one button says “Next”, don’t also use “Proceed” or "Continue” for other buttons.
Inconsistency confuses users. They may think “Next” and “Proceed” lead to different results.
To ensure your wording stays consistent, create a doc for you and your team that houses your most common words.
Get everyone singing the same song.
Talk like two co-workers over lunch —casual, friendly tone in a professional setting.
The tone is casual, but the same jokes can get stale.
Or even worse, no one gets it.
Even so, make routine tasks memorable by adding a bit of flair.
If your brand is playful, don’t be afraid to add emojis.
You wouldn’t want your product to break in other countries, right?
Here’s a good article from Dropbox to help with this.
It’s stronger and easier to understand than the passive voice.
Use it when you need to signal who or what caused an action.
It has its place.
Use it when the action is more important than what caused the action (aka the subject)
Answer this question for the user: “Why exactly am I here?”
Focus on relevance.
Everyone knows what to do when they see a form.
Save your breath.
Reading is work. Every word takes energy. Users like to save energy by skimming.
Leave out the unimportant. They’ll get the gist.
Keep ‘em short and snappy.
snap snap
They make text sound informal and easier to read.
Overused, they become distracting and can make text look messy.
Sentence case is when you only capitalize the first letter of the first word in a phrase.
Use it most of the time —especially for buttons and links.
Title case is when you capitalize the first letter of each word, besides small words like conjunctions and prepositions.
Use it for phrases 2-3 words long —6 max.
Don’t capitalize unless they’re proper terms, branded terms, or terms for a specific functionality.
When using “your” the product feels like a personal assistant. It should be used in a social, collaborative setting —like a project management app or a smart device.
Use it for what the product creates for the user.
“My” implies individual control and ownership. It should be used where data is sensitive and a sense of security is needed —like a tax return site.
Use it for what the user creates in the product.
Point out concerning actions before your user has time to question your motives.
Use you and your to address the user directly.
However, using a personal pronoun isn’t necessary in cases where you’re not distinguishing items that belong to the user from items that belong to others.
Use action verbs.
People should be able to tell at a glance what an element does.
It’s more direct and hooks the user’s attention.
Remember this: Information → Action
Sometimes, people need a little nudge.
Give them training wheels that will subconsciously disappear over time.
Show users what they should expect.
Inform users how to perform an action.
Reassure the user that what they want is on the way.
Reassure the user that what they want has been completed.
Empower the user.
If they can have new abilities, emphasize it. → “Yes, and…”
If they can’t do something, tell them why and how they can fix it. → “No, because…”
It’s unhelpful and depressing.
People will remember how you made them feel.
Bring delight.
The right visuals paired with the right words emphasize the message.
Similar to consistency with words —inconsistency of visuals can confuses users.
Unless you plan to shift the visuals entirely to pair with a shift in the messaging.
In general, avoid acronyms and technical sayings that people might not understand.
Use what you know about your audience to determine what’s appropriate.
In body copy, spell out numbers up to nine.
Use numerals after 10.
Show the user that they’re making the right choice in using your product.
Show only what’s necessary —when it’s necessary.
Experiment and see how people respond. Iterate, test, and improve what needs work.
Contextualized wording is better than generic wording.
No one cares about what you can do. They only care about what you can do for them.
Whew.
I know, it’s pretty long. But I hope it’s helpful for you and your team.
You can find more content like this in my newsletter.
I’d also appreciate if you could show love to my twitter thread about it. If you can’t, no worries :)
Very useful, thanks
No problem 🙂
thank for reading!
Wow, very useful stuff. Thank you for sharing @antdke
Thanks for reading! 😊
Does anyone know a tool that would scan a page (an app?) and point out bad practices when it comes to microcopy? 😅
Haha does a product like that exist?
Nah... well, I’d be surprised if it does ;)
Great stuff man! I think some of these are us devs being lazy 😅Like the 7th example - someone didn't make the button flexible enough to behave correctly when the word is longer (German, I'm looking at you!). Or 28th with the progress bar.
With one, I'd be careful - I mean "11) Assume your user is smart". It really depends on your audience but I guess I know what you're trying to say. The whole design composition should be so easy that you don't have to explain too much.
haha thanks 😊 & yeah I totally understand
and that’s true, there’s nuance to #11. But yea, we should aim to make everything intuitive to avoid over explaining
Thanks for so many actionable tips!
I find copy is often overlooked in apps, but it's actually super important.. It can make or break the experience for the users. So always great to learn more about this :)
couldn't agree more!
Amazing tips , for developers who such at copy writing this is great !
Haha thanks man 🙂 glad you find it useful!
share it with your dev friends ;)
Wow so awesome and useful pro tips. Thanks a lot!!! Do you have an alternative for first one and the 12 ? . Developers use "vague words" sometimes for security reasons.
Good point.
This might work:
Invalid log in
Try again // recover your password
What do you think of that?
It is better, thanks :)
Love these tips :) Thanks for compiling and sharing them
Thanks for reading dude 😊
Glad you like them
This is great stuff! Thanks for sharing it.
Thanks for reading 😊
Great list.
I really enjoy reading your newsletter (even though didn't get to read last 5-6 issues, but have them queued). Any reason why the newsletter hasn't grown over 4000 readers? I think the content is really high quality.
haha thanks 😊
I haven’t updated the number on the site haha. I think I’m at 4,300.
I also haven’t been promoting it a lot because I want to nail down the content quality.
what do you think of short issues? I’m think that may be better for reading over email
to prevent mental strain
I do think your emails are longer than the normal newsletters, that's why I usually postpone reading them. I am not saying this is a bad thing, I like them, only that I use them more as a "for later reading list" than a "cool, a newsletter, let's read it quickly".
that’s great feedback! thank you
I’ll test out doing a super short one next and see what happens
Wow that list is comprehensive. I appreciate you taking the time and I am bookmarking this.
One thing I will disagree with is "assume your customers are smart". My previous startup focused on small businesses who were not tech-savvy. When I didn't write out things and clearly explain, they would get stuck. Drove my head of product design crazy but you have to speak your customers' language.
Haha that’s true. That nuance does exist
Thanks for pointing it out 🙂
What product were you selling with that startup? Aw man, I feel bad for your product design lead lol
Influencer marketplace for small businesses. Many were using influencers for the first time so I would test each page on my mom to make sure it was simple enough lol.
haha clever
a literal “mom test” 😂
Great tips, Anthony! Pretty long post but found a few tips I'll be using 😊
Glad you found it useful Gabriel 🙂
Yea it’s very long lol. Wanted to try out a full comprehensive list and see what the reception would be like
Just thinking out loud – any chance of turning this into a poster compilation? So one could just click and see all the examples there. Heck, could even frame it up on a wall as a reminder of sorts? 🤔
an interesting idea
I’ll think about that
Thanks for the suggestion:)
Excellent post but you put the wrong URL in your call to action!
It should be this guys: https://theproductperson.com/
fixed it
haha yeah thanks man
wow what a blunder by me
This comment was deleted 4 years ago.