the art of writing promotional text to make an emotional impression on the reader, usually to encourage a purchase. Don't confuse with [tag:copyright] or [tag:copy-editing].
13
votes
8answers
648 views
What to do when customers search for “Cheap” when you want to convey “Quality”?
An ecom client that I am working with has an interesting SEO challenge. They sell products that they want to convey quality and value; however, the #1 thing searched for on Google, Bing, and their ...
25
votes
5answers
1k views
Why do we have OS names like Mountain Lion, Jellybean, and Quantal Quetzal instead of numbers?
Less of a pressing question and more a "what happened here"?
At some point in the past decade (most) OS's have switched over to these codenames for their versions with names like Mountain Lion, ...
3
votes
2answers
74 views
Managing copy during interaction & visual design
I'm about to begin a web architecture and design project that will have many pages with lots of content / copy across several different languages. One of the challenges is that for each geographical ...
0
votes
2answers
47 views
What info to put on a mobile app info site (2.5 min average site visit)
I'm building a mobile - optimized website for my iPhone app. The app is intended to help people with mood disorders, like depression and bipolar to track their moods, events in their life as well as ...
4
votes
3answers
178 views
The meaning of 'between'
We have a UI which allows the user to specify criteria for the selection of customer records, and there's been some debate about the meaning of the term 'between'. For instance when the user seeks to ...
6
votes
4answers
291 views
Does using bold font for keywords and key points increase readability of user manuals?
I find myself writing quite a lot of articles, user manual-like documents, as well as posting hundreds of questions on stackexchange sites.
Over time, I developed a certain style of writing, which ...
4
votes
1answer
120 views
Prompt user to edit an inline-edit field
Background
Using an edit-in-place field for users to provide their name.
Problem
The phrase "Type your name" imperatively indicates that users can (and should!) type their name. However, unless the ...
10
votes
3answers
939 views
Should we use 'Title Case' or 'Sentence case' for headlines and buttons on the web?
I am wondering if we should use Title Case or Sentence case for buttons and headings and the web?
Title Case:
Sentence Case:
In Yahoo's UI guidelines I couldn't find ...
1
vote
2answers
318 views
Long form sales page techniques and / or examples? [closed]
I've worked with a number of UX experts over the last several months and while I have resisted going down the "long form" path, they have circled me back around to this time after time without fail. ...
2
votes
2answers
104 views
What is the general best practice for bolding keywords in content?
For example:
In a product description in a store, what are the best practices for bolding a product name that appears in the product description?
In a Blog, should you bold keywords for SEO, ...
1
vote
1answer
96 views
Currently designing a “Help” page, what would be considered too-much help to see on one page?
The page for "help" within the site is designed well. The site totals about 40 questions, which has been reduced down from 86. My objective is to simplify the user experience for viewing/navigating ...
1
vote
2answers
112 views
A proper message for re-try
I am implementing a 're-try' feature on a P2P utility for the situation where the connection is broken, but I don't know what message is appropriate.
The problem is, the re-try can only be initiated ...
4
votes
5answers
325 views
A proper title for e-mail and website address together?
I am designing a journal and my native language is not English, though I have to have
the english translation for the same titles in my language. I have to put information of three companies in each ...
2
votes
4answers
113 views
Does personally signing automated communications provide any benefit/value?
I just ordered a few books from bookdepository and received a confirmation email for the order. The letter was signed by a person, "Kieron Smith":
Dear Firstname Lastname,
Thank you ever so ...
0
votes
2answers
120 views
Should we warn the user that data will lost immediately or during saving?
I have an interface for managing account fields in a web app like so:
download bmml source – Wireframes created with Balsamiq Mockups
The premise is simple: Fields are of 2 types (public ...
1
vote
2answers
112 views
Signing up for a site with a social network versus a form
I am designing a registration page for our site where we allow people to signup 3 different ways: Facebook, Twitter and also a manual signup form.
We want to drive people to use Facebook and Twitter ...
6
votes
7answers
215 views
Tagline: “Do this to obtain that” vs “Obtain that by doing this”?
For more readability, appeal and understanding, should a tagline for a site homepage say:
"Do this to obtain that"
or
"Obtain that by doing this" ?
In other words, which one should be first: goal ...
4
votes
4answers
150 views
Relative dates/times- Rounding and how accurate?
I was reading this question about formatting relative dates and times, but there are still some issue that I felt have not been addressed yet.
I would like to:
Keep relative times to just 1 unit, ...
19
votes
3answers
1k views
Why Do Long, Ugly Sales Pages Convert?
It seems impossible to avoid the litany of "snake oil" sales pages consisting of long, boring videos and endless (and I mean endless) text. These look like UX nightmares, and yet they're becoming ...
3
votes
3answers
157 views
The term “User Experience” in sales
This might be redundant, but I'm curious about the end user's experience when they read the phrase "User Experience".
I've seen a number of websites say that they design the best user experience, but ...
2
votes
3answers
222 views
What is an alternative way to display a very large number?
In my application I have a text field that should display numbers (representing money) ranging from 0 to 999 trillions...
The users of my application are the general public, so displaying a ...
-2
votes
4answers
179 views
User friendly language for notifications?
What is the most user friendly way to notify an user that "The items in the rows needs to be re-arranged"
What I have is
Re-sequencing items required, press update button
How can I make this ...
2
votes
3answers
123 views
«English version» or «English»?
If you want to switch to english, for me, the label with only «English» is good, but I think that giving context is better: «English version».
What do you think? I have only two languages and I have ...
1
vote
3answers
155 views
Microcopy for “all people”/“no special group”
In the editor of our new app you can add people to the project and assign them (editors/reviewers). When adding them to the project you can filter all users on the account by predefined user-groups ...
4
votes
2answers
148 views
How to request a third-party login within a seperate mobile application
I'm designing a mobile app that requires the user to log-in with their LinkedIn account.
I feel I might have cluttered too much info into it, but everything seems to be important.
I want the user ...
4
votes
4answers
254 views
Is there a convention for identifying final vs. placeholder text in wireframes?
I'm working on a bunch of wireframes where I have a mix of near-final and copy-guide text.
Near-final copy are text that our visual designers should use in their designs verbatim, and copy-guides are ...
0
votes
0answers
84 views
Which is better: 'Help', 'Help center', 'Help desk', 'Help & support', or 'Support'? [closed]
Does any one have split testing data supporting the best copywriting for the title of this section of the site?
5
votes
2answers
297 views
Why are modern ads so fast-paced and flashy compared to older ones?
I once took a class in television production at my local cable studio, and one of our assignments was to go and watch TV with the sound off and pay attention to the ads. The lesson was to look at how ...
6
votes
4answers
215 views
Which grammatical person should I use when writing to the user?
Say a user is signed in to my website and looking at his dashboard which may have a section for his/her incoming messages.
Should I label that section "My incoming messages", "Your incoming messages" ...
-1
votes
1answer
100 views
What should a payment / registration page say? [closed]
I have a bunch of fields and a submit button that will ultimately register a user and record their credit card information.
In order for it to be efficient, trustworthy, and useable, I feel like it ...
1
vote
1answer
197 views
Button Names 'Click here' vs 'something else'
We're having internal arguments about how to label buttons with actions. Other folks in the internet teams, who aren't necessarily User-Focused, demanding that 'Action' buttons to simply read "click ...
7
votes
3answers
319 views
Is there a difference between “blocked” and “banned”?
I've been requested to make a UI that allows to block/ban users from logging in. In the wireframes I've been provided, they use the term "blocked". But I feel like a better term for this would be ...
2
votes
4answers
198 views
Best words to indicate appreciate/depreciate instead of like/dislike
we have designed a system that creates a personalized stream of (text based) content for users. In order for the system to adapt, the users have to constantly give some feedback based on whether a ...
5
votes
6answers
761 views
Wording for “select folder which we're going to create a folder in”
I'm working on an installer wizard, and one of the things which happens once the wizard is run is the creation of a folder based on your project name
We have a step in the wizard to choose where this ...
3
votes
4answers
212 views
Naming words that are grouped
We have multiple lists of words that have been grouped by our users. They use the groupings later to filter. We're having a hard time titling the Filter and the action of Grouping.
"Group" cannot be ...
6
votes
7answers
237 views
How to communicate foreign key constraints in a business application?
I have a business app with various business forms where users edit data. When a user deletes a record - it shows "FK_ABC_AA.. constraint violated, etc."
I want to do better than that and tell the ...
6
votes
5answers
226 views
How to indicate software is a trial?
I have this software which also has a Trial version (30 Days full features active).
What is the best position to add the word "Trial" to signal this version:
the header next to the logo - there is a ...
7
votes
1answer
177 views
During sign ups, how to best instill confidence that email addresses will be safe
Many sign up forms will ask you for an email address so that they can contact you.
Even the most minimal sign-up (other than no sign up) will need an email address to send you a validation email.
...
4
votes
3answers
226 views
Turn 403s into 404s?
I am currently working on a web application where there are different levels of access. Users can get access to some areas of the application, but may not be allowed to access another area.
The ...
138
votes
10answers
6k views
Should a sentence ending with a URL terminate with a period?
Suppose my web service needs to send a password recovery e-mail message to the user. The message will contain a link (with some disposable token). Something like:
To reset your password please ...
0
votes
2answers
428 views
Any alternative text labels for a “Race/Ethnicity” dropdown? [closed]
The phrase 'Race/Ethnicity' or "Race/Ethnic Origin" is used throughout various data reporting. It just looks so odd with a '/' slash. Any alternatives? Here are a few examples of the slash in 'real ...
3
votes
2answers
280 views
How to notify the user of a system error (out of their control)?
What's an easy-to-understand error message for situations where the error is a system error (out of the control of the user and cannot be fixed by the user)?
Here's a few that I came up with, but ...
2
votes
6answers
169 views
Choose, set, or edit?
In the situation where someone has not yet chosen to set some optional data (such as their display name, gender, or birthday), which term is the better description for the action which they take to ...
1
vote
2answers
126 views
Can anyone suggest a way to label a default phone number?
I couldn't come up with much more than simply putting (Default) next to the number, which I'm not too fond of.
Example:
4
votes
2answers
106 views
What is a good text for a tooltip to explain a tour's intensity on a website?
I'm working in a website that will sells tours. Each tour has a physical intensity. We have a slider bar that represents that intensity. It goes from green - yellow - red. The current text that appear ...
4
votes
5answers
419 views
Should we use “please” for validation messages for e-commerce applications
When we build an e-commerce application (most probably a web application), input validation is one of the core concepts of these type of applications. When the validation fails, we need to provide a ...
9
votes
2answers
161 views
How do you test phrasing of labels, links, and descriptive text?
At my workplace, an academic library, we often have extended conflicts over exactly how to phrase labels, links, and descriptive text.
For example, one link on our home page goes to a list of topics, ...
2
votes
4answers
178 views
Who decides about text usability, the ux person or the technical writer?
A technical writer wants to change a label of a table column. He says it is not clear. I, a usability expert, am against it. Who should have the last word?
5
votes
1answer
139 views
What is the benefit of fixed security questions?
Many sites/services seem to make use of a security question as a way of accessing an account if you lose your password or email access.
As an example, Facebook uses this form:
There isn't a ...
21
votes
4answers
1k views
How to tell visitors to activate JavaScript?
How should one tell website visitors that a website makes heavy use of JavaScript?
