Design: Writing User-Interface Text

This is a sample chapter from Michael J. Metts and Andy Welfle’s book Writing Is Designing: Words and the User Experience. 2020, Rosenfeld Media.

Chapter 3: Creating Clarity: Know What You’re Designing

One thing many writers have a strong opinion about is the serial, or Oxford, comma. If you’re unfamiliar, it’s the comma that comes before the and in a list, as in “this book is about writing, designing, and the user experience.”

Every major style guide on writing takes a firm stance. (The Associated Press Style Book, for example, is against using it, but the The Chicago Manual of Style is for it.) It’s common to see writers declare their personal stance in their Twitter profile.

“Without it,” proponents cry, “There will be chaos! No one will know to what we’re referring in lists!” Then they point to an example of an author dedicating their book to “my parents, Beyoncé and God.” Read More

UX design is a complex field that encompasses myriad disciplines, including information architecture, interaction design, user-interface design, user research, usability testing, and more. UX professionals working in each specialty must work in concert together to provide a user experience that is as enjoyable for users and as seamless as possible.

One of the most important, but often overlooked aspects of UX design is UX writing. In this article, I’ll discuss the significance of UX writing and share some design strategies for improving UX writing that I’ve personally implemented in my designs, helping users to successfully achieve their goals. Read More

The first experience people have with your mobile app is the most critical. If they cannot get it working right away, they won’t finish setting it up and won’t come back.

As UX professionals, we often talk about problems with app tours, pound our fists and say “no splash screens,” or discuss the overall onboarding experience. However, there’s still far too little information available about even the basics of designing for security.

Some of the most visible aspects of app security—and those that are most badly done—are registration and sign-on screens. So, in this column, I am going to discuss how to create registration, sign-on, and other related security functions of mobile apps. Read More