It’s good to remind ourselves that UX writing doesn’t start with the actual writing. Before we need to do our research:
- Understand the goals of the product and company
- Know the target audience
- Be familiar with the style guide and tone of voice
UX writing basics
- Write simply and directly Keep UI text short. Don't write instructions that are longer than necessary to communicate an action.
- Be concise Concise doesn’t mean limited; it means something closer to efficient. Use as few words as possible without losing the meaning. When writing concisely, we make sure every word on the screen has a job.
- Easily translatable Copy should be internationalized across linguistic, geographical, and cultural boundaries. The text should be understandable by anyone regardless of their culture or language. That’s why it’s essential to use simple and direct language because not only will it make content easy to understand, but also easy to translate.
- Be careful with humor Humor can humanize the product. But similar to any other component of UI, humor should be designed. People are likely to read the text in your interface many times, and what might seem funny at first can become irritating over time (especially if you choose to use humor in error messages). Also, remember that humor in one culture doesn’t necessarily translate well to other cultures.
- Don’t forget about capitalization
- all-caps (all the letters are capital)
- title case (the first letter of each word is capitalized excluding prepositions up to 4 letters and articles)
- sentence case (you only capitalize the first letter of the first word and proper nouns, as you would in a sentence).
- Use Title Style Caps to mark field labels, actions, menu items, and page titles
- Choose Sentence style caps for longer copy such as page or field descriptions and tooltips
- Apply ALL-CAPS moderately, only to super important items (short taglines, brand name, core navigation points in website header, short call-to-action text, and abbreviations like OK) and avoid it at all the rest of the cases.
- Avoid slang/technical terms Use the terminology your users are comfortable with. Remove the technical terms and use familiar, understandable words and phrases instead. Use common words that are clearly and easily understandable across all reading levels.
- Address users clearly Avoid ‘the user’, Use ‘you’ / ‘I’ If you mention ‘the user’, it will be a less personal tone. Instead using first person will give a more personalized way to talk. Address users in either the second person (you or your) or the first person (I, me, or my), depending on which is suitable and clearest for the situation. To avoid confusing the user, avoid using "me" or "my," and "you" or "your," in the same phrase. Each form of address is recommended for the following contexts:
- Second person, "you" or "your": This conversational style is appropriate in most situations; as though the UI is speaking directly to the user.
- First person, "I" or "my": In some cases, this form of address emphasizes the user's ownership of content or actions.
- Skip unnecessary punctuation
- Labels
- Hover text
- Bulleted lists
- Dialog body text
- Multiple sentences
- Any sentence followed by a link (links themselves should not be full sentences)
- Use numerals Use numerals ( "1, 2, 3," not "one, two, three") unless writing copy that mixes uses of numbers, such as "Enter two 3s.”
- Write in the present tense
- Begin with the objective When a phrase describes a goal and the action needed to achieve it, start the sentence with the goal. Start a statement with the objective (“to remove a photo”) and end it with the user action (“drag it to the trash”). Don't state the action the user takes (“drag a photo”) before the objective (“to remove it from this album”).
Basically, capitalization is writing or printing in capital letters or with an initial capital. There are three levels of capitalization:
Now, there are hot discussions about using sentence case instead of title case as it feels more friendly and informal. However, for English speakers, it’s still a natural feature of the language that apart from feeling the text as less or more formal marks the levels of text hierarchy. So, the decision is up to you, of course, but consider the following tips about capitalization:
To help readers scan text at a glance, avoid using punctuation in places where it isn't necessary.
8.1. Periods
Avoid using periods on solitary sentences within these UI elements:
Use periods on:
8.2. Periods in longer text
Longer or complex sentences can use periods if doing so better suits the context. For example, if the rest of your app's flow doesn't use periods, introducing them in a few places may appear inconsistent. Skip periods after solo sentences of body text. If there is only a single sentence, don't place periods after body text.
8.3. Colons
Skip colons after labels.
Use the present tense to describe product behavior. Avoid using the future tense to describe the way a product always acts.
When you need to write in the past or future tenses, use simple verb forms. Don't write in different variations of the present tense, such as the present perfect tense.
5 words/phrases to avoid
The right words can make or break trust, they affect your tone of voice and how people perceive your product.
- very (and other intensifiers)
- utilize
- enable
- we understand (in today’s fast-paced world…) and other blah-blah stuff
- end-user
👉 Writing
👉 10 Key Ingredients of Top-Notch UX Writing