How optimistic are your error messages to customers?
Business writing is technical. Yes, that’s the word around. I need to be in my best shoes to convey my product to my customers, so the UI literals needs to be in a standard way, in par with the competitors.
If the above paragraph is what you have been vouching on for a long time, then you are gonna have to take this empathy test. It’s useful for product managers, Content writers, and Developers to redesign goals and align their content strategy towards it.
How empathetic are you? This defines what you wish for your customers, how indirectly you are making employees daily lives easier, and importantly taking them a step closer towards their goal.
UI texts needs to be always crisp; but not always. Use empathy to make your decision
- Give anticipation for consequences
Don’t go easy while there is a negative consequence after an action. Take time to analyze if there are any negative consequence for customers, upon an action.
If the answer is a yes, then point out in the error message what consequences are anticipated.
2. Be explanatory. Don’t always count your words
The length of the text primarily come down to the amount of information that needs to be conveyed. Customers being uninformed can be disastrously inconvenient. Say, a list of rules for your password creation, when put down correctly saves multiple tries of creating one.
3. Ease their decision making
Users can be frustrated when facing an error and not knowing the reason behind it. As a result, they tend to feel lost at the moment and not sure about what to do next.
Try telling the reason behind the error as much as possible. This way, they know the cause for the error and can further make clear decisions on what to do next.
4. Be information. You are the go-to friend
To put simply, UI literals are the text that represents you and your company. If you say a step is wrong and they need to try again, then customers try that again. Whereas, if you say a step is wrong and it cannot be achieved, customers give up and look out for other solutions.
As simple as that, the UI literals are the route they follow!
