The Role of Microcopy in Enhancing User Experience

Microcopies decide the fate of the design. To some, this may sound an exaggeration but Microcopies do play a very crucial role in the user experience which is crucial for a good design. Microcopies are short phrases in the user interface that help the users figure out what’s happening on the screen and how to perform actions on the interface. Collectively these short phrases decide the user experience and the user’s journey through the application or website. In this article, we will discuss what Microcopy is. And what is the role of Microcopy in Enhancing User Experience?

What is Microcopy?

Microcopies are short phrases in the user interface that help the users figure out what’s happening on the screen and how to perform actions on the interface. Collectively these short phrases decide the user experience and the user’s journey through the application or website. They are the words that appear on a user interface that help the users understand how to use the product.

For example, let’s consider Twitter.com On Twitter’s user interface, you can see words like “Home”, “Moments”, “Notifications”, and “Messages” Each of these words has been selected very carefully to make sure that the user knows how to use Twitter. For example, consider the word, “Home”, on Twitter’s user interface.

How to create Microcopy?

1. Start from the user’s perspective:

• So the Microcopy process starts when design team first designs the user interface and then they send a message to the UX team for the microcopy for the user interface. Now it is very tempting for designers to get right into the words, figure out which words we should use and how to phrase them. But that’s not the most efficient way to write the microcopy so take a step back and look at the big picture. Look at the user experience. Think through what the user is trying to accomplish in that moment. Think about what emotions the user is feeling at that moment.

2. Write short and effective copies:

• Next step after taking the bigger picture into account is to write the individual copies. For example, if you are introducing a new feature, the user is probably curious or they are skeptical about it. So next step is to think through what’s the user’s state of mind at that point and choose the words that match that emotion and the task they are trying to accomplish. Whereas if it’s an error message, then the user is probably in a frustrated frame of mind. And they do not want a chatty, enthusiastic microcopy. What they want is professional help to solve their problem and move on with their task.

3. Feedback and Iterate:

• The final step involves taking the feedback from all the stakeholders in the project and make appropriate changes accordingly. Also most of the designers take user interviews and implement them into their Microcopies as a part of this step. At this point, our final Microcopy is completely ready to handover to other teams in the organization.

Role of Microcopy in Enhancing User Experience

User Empathy:

• One of the most underrated but crucial aspect of user experience is User Empathy. User Empathy is all about creating a connection with the user and a well written Microcopy ensures that the user feels that the application cares about him/her.

Brand Voice:

• Microcopies gives a different level of connect with the users, and this is very effective branding. Unlike other texts that goes into the website or application, Microcopy is short, effective and highlighted – the top 3 requirements for brand building. The user would make the perception about the website using the main highlighted text which in most cases in a part of Microcopy.

Clarity and Control:

• While it is absolutely essential to have individual and innovative opinions from all team members, but if these are not channeled, the application or website may loose its goal. Microcopies enable to set a sort of written theme for the website or application.

Ensuring Transparency:

• Since some of the digital products may raise concern for user’s privacy, we need something that makes the user believe the credibility of our website or application. Microcopy is a good way to build that trust and credibility with the user.

Encouraging People to Take Action:

• A creative and effective Microcopy can prompt users to get something done. Good examples of these would be the creative and innovative notifications that come from applications like Zomato, BlinkIt, Swiggy, etc.

Best Practices

Asking these questions while writing a Microcopy will ensure a well written Microcopy canvas:

• Who’s the target user?
• What’s the purpose of the copy?
• What are the user’s concerns and emotions at that moment?
• What is the user context?
• Do I have their full attention or do I need to highlight something to get their attention?
• What is the action I expect the users to take based on the microcopy?

Conclusion

Microcopies are short phrases in user interface that helps the users in figuring out what’s happening in the screen and how to perform actions on the interface. One very important factor about Microcopies is to make sure every word on the UI has a distinct job. If not, get rid of it. Keep the most important information or keywords at the beginning of the sentence, and edit everything that comes after it. To summarize the process of designing microcopies is first, to step back, fill out the canvas, and think through the user experience for each screen. Second write individual copies and final step to take feedback and iterate. Make sure to follow the points we discussed in this article to create an effective microcopy for your next project.