Daily UX Writing Challenge: Day 5
Pop-up Message for a Graphic Design App
Hello again!
Welcome to day 5 of my 15-day UX Writing challenge. Today’s task is to create a message a user will see upon opening an app that shutdown unexpectedly.
Read on to see how I tackled the challenge:
UX Writing Challenge: Day 5
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
My Thought Process
Imagine you’re critiquing a design on your phone. You’ve dropped a bunch of comments already. Then suddenly, the phone shuts down right in the middle of your session [You’ll probably feel frustrated by this]. You immediately restart the phone and open the app to continue working. What is the first thing you would want to know as soon as you open the app?
If you’re like most people, you would want to know the status of your work. Was your progress saved? Do you have to start again from scratch?
With this in mind, I decided to put the information the user would be most interested in at the top. I also tried to acknowledge the user’s frustration by using a helpful and reassuring tone.
My solution
Headline:
“Your last session was autosaved”
This message immediately lets the user know the state of what they were working on and eases their anxiety. It is worth noting that I chose to use the passive voice to shift the focus away from the company and onto the user’s experience. Using the active voice, such as “We autosaved your last session,” would emphasize the doer of the action, rather than the action itself.
Body:
“Looks like the app closed unexpectedly. But fret not, we’ve saved your progress so far, so you can continue working like nothing happened.”
The body text explains what happened and reassures them that their progress hasn’t been lost.
Buttons:
I labeled the main button, “Continue working,” as it represents the key action the body text prompts the user to take. This eliminates any ambiguity and ensures that the user knows what to expect when they tap the button.
That’s it for day 5! What do you think about my approach? Let me know in the comments. Expect another update from me tomorrow as I tackle another UX writing challenge.
