I'm assuming that the full usage is /r <message>
, but this answer also applies if it's /r <username>
, or /r <username> <message>
.
You could put the space followed by a placeholder - I'd recommend typing the instructional part in one font, and the actual code to type in a fixed-width font which will make the space more clearly visible:
Click or type /r [message]
to respond
This should make it evident to users that a space is required, and what they're then expected to follow /r
with. You'll have to be careful that the brackets notation for a placeholder doesn't confuse users (they may think they actually need to type the brackets around their message), but you could consider as alternatives:
Click or type /r message
to respond
Removes the brackets, but produces ambiguity over whether message
is a placeholder or needs to be typed. You may be able to avoid this by making the message
part stand out:
Click or type /r
your_message
to respond
You could also potentially highlight the space - for example, /r
and message
could be highlighted in green, whilst the space between them is highlighted in yellow, to make it stand out without printing a character, but this could cause accessiblity issues with colorblind users.
One last idea: make /r [message]
clickable - the physical underline under the phrase (assuming your styling underlines links) will further highlight the space, and clicking it will paste the command into the application ready for the user to add their message. They aren't likely to use it this way more than once, but it would clearly demonstrate the intended usage on their first try.
Finally, if there is room to do so, you can provide an example usage:
Click or type /r [message]
to respond, for example:
/r hello!
Makes it clear that /rhello!
is not the intended usage.
space
triggering it then why not go for a-
or an underscore_
? That way the user can deliberately choose what they want to type without any confusion./r_
vs/r
/r
, to me at least. Do users type\r
and then a message to respond? (such as\r I agree, the UX SE is the best!
), or is it\r SomeGuy101
to be replaced by\whisper SomeGuy101
?/r
is replaced with/whisper SomeGuy
. Afterwards follows the actual message./r hello!
, this would be replaced with/whisper SomeGuy hello!
?