Daily UX Writing challenge

[dotsara]

I learned about this one from Kjartan and Jo: https://dailyuxwriting.com/

I'm not typically called on to write UX copy, but I notice UX copy, so I'm trying it out! That said, I don't want to give away someone else's work by posting the full challenges here (they're easy enough to acquire on your own: sign-up for the challenge).

[dotsara]

Scenario: A traveler is in an airport waiting for the last leg of a flight home when their flight gets abruptly canceled due to bad weather.

Challenge components: headline, body, button

component	content	character count
headline	Flight canceled due to weather, let's re-book	45
body	Your flight (VA987) has been canceled due to bad weather in the area. Find a new flight using our app, or call customer service for assistance re-booking	153
buttons	[Get help] [Find new flight]	23

🤔 I'm not sure "let's rebook" is the best approach. I wanted it to be friendly after the cancellation downer, but it might also be too… colloquial? Not sure. But I've already spent 5 minutes over the allotted 10 on it, so here we are.

[dotsara]

Scenario: A user is a working parent, and a big sports fan, in the midst of their favorite sports season who can no longer attend games.

Challenge components: headline, body, button(s)

component	content	character count
headline	Love your local team & can't get to games?	42
body	The SportsBug app keeps you up-to-date with live score updates, highlight videos, and even game start reminders so you can try to catch them on TV!	147
button	Download SportsBug today	24

🕐 7 minutes

[dotsara]

Scenario: The user entered the wrong email address to sign in to their account.

Challenge component: message, 40 char max

Email not recognized. Please try again?

Character count: 39 🕐 4 minutes

This is trickier than I expected given the character-count restriction. When I was at Mystery, I got used to their very friendly "Hm, it looks like that email's not in our system"-style message, but 40 characters is quite a small space to be friendly in a way that won't be annoying if you see it 5x

~That said, I don't love the very terse solution I settled on. Win some, lose some.~

I swapped in a ? for the last . I think it helps a lot.

[dotsara]

Scenario: A user is in their favorite supermarket. They open the supermarket’s app on their phone to see what’s on sale and are greeted by a promotion.

Challenge components: headline, body, button(s)

[dotsara]

Four months+ later and we back!

[dotsara]

Repeating this one for the sake of the timeline. 🤓

Scenario: A user is in their favorite supermarket. They open the supermarket’s app on their phone to see what’s on sale and are greeted by a promotion.

Challenge components: headline, body, button(s)

component	content	character count
headline	Check out produce for great deals on veggies!	45
body	Cold and wet outside? What's better than a big tray of roasted veggies or a cauldron of delicious soup? Now's the perfect time to stock up on ingredients with our deals.	169
button	"veggie deals" "more deals →"	24

I don't love the second half of the last sentence in the body, but I'm at time, so it'll do. (:

🕐 15 minutes

[dotsara]

Scenario: The user works in graphic design. While critiquing a design in a mobile app, their phone abruptly turns off. When they restart the phone, they reopen the app.

Challenge: Write a message that the user will read immediately upon opening the app. What do they need to know? What steps (if any) do they need to take to recover their content? What if they can't recover the content? 

Headline: 40 characters max Body: 140 characters max Button(s): 20 characters max

👇 Assumptions in play:

• the app auto-saves comments as users go, e.g. when there's a break > 1s, the app will save (locally / to the cloud) the comment, but then when a user moves to a new field or section, some kind of subtle notification lights up on the screen or on the previous field to message the whole thing's been saved "officially".
  • I'm making this assumption because if I were using an app like this, even one instance of the app crashing and my content being unrecoverable might send me elsewhere. That's why I like the idea of saving locally and to the cloud.
• name of the project

component	content	character count
headline	Return to Logo Refresh project?	31
body	Critique quit unexpectedly, but your feedback was saved and ready for you to continue or review and complete.	109
buttons	"Return" "Project list →"	20

🕐 15 minutes