Design: Writing User-Interface Text

We discuss two topics in this column:

• using verbs as nouns in user interfaces
• UX roles in organizations

Ask UXmatters is here to answer your questions about user experience matters. If you want to read our experts’ responses to your questions in an upcoming edition of Ask UXmatters, please send your questions to: [email protected]. Read More

Digital experiences get better through user-centric design. Among the various elements that contribute to a seamless user experience, do not underestimate the role of textual content. When you use text strategically, it can improve the brand value of a product, Web site, or application whether by guiding users, conveying information, or establishing a meaningful connection with customers.

In this article, I’ll describe the art of harnessing the potential power of textual content in UX design to create compelling, memorable Web pages.

The Psychology of Content Consumption

Understanding how users process and interact with textual content is a crucial aspect of effective UX design. Textual content is the primary means of communicating with your users through a product or service. If text fails to engage users or convey the right messages, the entire user experience can suffer. Read More

In this column, instead of talking about one of my usual topics—tactics to avoid errors—I’ll discuss how to work within constraints and pragmatically address real-world issues. During the software-development process, your team may ask you to design an error message. Annoying edge cases all too often pop up—usually too late in the process to fix the issue in any other way.

For starters, I never write what I’d call error messages. Admittedly, I occasionally use that term—in the same way I might use words such as sitemap—just at the beginning of a conversation to orient everyone to my process. Just as I did in the title of this column. But I then switch to a more meaningful term and get everyone to talk about exception messages. Read More