5 ms·

Small Copy, Big Impact

30 points by wallflower 6y ago

jacknews 6y ago
I hate to be pendantic, but: "Are there features or actions that are underused because their worded in a non-obvious or unappealing way?" "their" should clearly be "they're". I mean, a post promoting precise "microcopy" should at least get the basics right, I think.
- apike 6y ago
  Quite right – typo now fixed.
  - lpellis 6y ago
    You have some minor typos on a few of your pages ('especally'), since this is about microcopy I thought I'd share :) https://app.pagewatch.dev/4dce7bbb223996f7f93881abd62a6c59629d66bc/dashboard https://app.pagewatch.dev/4dce7bbb223996f7f93881abd62a6c5962...
    - apike 6y ago
      Thanks for the heads up and especially putting that tool on my radar – spelling audit tools I’ve seen tend to just flag a lot of properly spelled technical terms and proper nouns, whereas this Pagewatch tool seems to do a good job of flagging actual spelling errors. Looking forward to investigating more and getting its findings cleaned up.
lanecwagner 6y ago
I've never really given microcopy thought... I probably need to look into that. I'm actually really struggling with copy and messaging right now on https://qvault.io https://qvault.io. If anyone on here takes a peek at the landing page I would love to hear feedback!
- rsweeney21 6y ago
  I just finished re-writing all the copy for www.facet.net, so copy writing is fresh on my mind. Here's some feedback: - It wasn't clear to me what your company does after reading your home page. - When I saw the "Courses" section it clicked. But I only read that far because you asked for feedback. - You should lead with what you do or what benefit the customer will receive. - For example, the main title on your home page should be something like "Learn computer science by playing games" or "Fun, self-guided computer science courses" I would highly recommend https://copyhackers.com/ https://copyhackers.com/.
boxed 6y ago
A solution for their issue that "no transactions in the last 3 months" can break due to server side changes is to return the message from the server instead of having it in the app.
pachico 6y ago
Mmm, ok, however, the example just looks like bad sync between the server side and UX/copy teams because of poorly written user stories. I think they should fix the development processes before the copy strategy.
- apike 6y ago
  Yeah, I think ideally the copy strategy should be part of the development process. Rather than expecting to develop exactly correct copy up front, if it’s iterated along with the rest of the product, the end result comes out better.
timClicks 6y ago
Not the point I guess, but that first example conflates the concepts of concealment and cover.
abcxyz02 6y ago
Sometimes copy can have a big impact to the tune of $300M. https://productlessons.substack.com/p/the-300m-button-and-other-lessons https://productlessons.substack.com/p/the-300m-button-and-ot...

30 points by wallflower 6y ago

I hate to be pendantic, but: "Are there features or actions that are underused because their worded in a non-obvious or unappealing way?" "their" should clearly be "they're". I mean, a post promoting precise "microcopy" should at least get the basics right, I think.

apike 6y ago
Quite right – typo now fixed.
- lpellis 6y ago
  You have some minor typos on a few of your pages ('especally'), since this is about microcopy I thought I'd share :) https://app.pagewatch.dev/4dce7bbb223996f7f93881abd62a6c59629d66bc/dashboard https://app.pagewatch.dev/4dce7bbb223996f7f93881abd62a6c5962...
  - apike 6y ago
    Thanks for the heads up and especially putting that tool on my radar – spelling audit tools I’ve seen tend to just flag a lot of properly spelled technical terms and proper nouns, whereas this Pagewatch tool seems to do a good job of flagging actual spelling errors. Looking forward to investigating more and getting its findings cleaned up.

lanecwagner 6y ago

I've never really given microcopy thought... I probably need to look into that. I'm actually really struggling with copy and messaging right now on https://qvault.io https://qvault.io. If anyone on here takes a peek at the landing page I would love to hear feedback!

rsweeney21 6y ago
I just finished re-writing all the copy for www.facet.net, so copy writing is fresh on my mind. Here's some feedback: - It wasn't clear to me what your company does after reading your home page. - When I saw the "Courses" section it clicked. But I only read that far because you asked for feedback. - You should lead with what you do or what benefit the customer will receive. - For example, the main title on your home page should be something like "Learn computer science by playing games" or "Fun, self-guided computer science courses" I would highly recommend https://copyhackers.com/ https://copyhackers.com/.

boxed 6y ago

A solution for their issue that "no transactions in the last 3 months" can break due to server side changes is to return the message from the server instead of having it in the app.

pachico 6y ago

Mmm, ok, however, the example just looks like bad sync between the server side and UX/copy teams because of poorly written user stories. I think they should fix the development processes before the copy strategy.

apike 6y ago
Yeah, I think ideally the copy strategy should be part of the development process. Rather than expecting to develop exactly correct copy up front, if it’s iterated along with the rest of the product, the end result comes out better.

timClicks 6y ago

Not the point I guess, but that first example conflates the concepts of concealment and cover.

abcxyz02 6y ago

Sometimes copy can have a big impact to the tune of $300M. https://productlessons.substack.com/p/the-300m-button-and-other-lessons https://productlessons.substack.com/p/the-300m-button-and-ot...