Clever Copy for Happy Users STC Summit 2015

Clever Copy for Happy Users
Lauren T. G. Colton
STC Summit | 6.23.2015

Let’s Talk
Key Points
1. Words shape the user experience.
2. Keep testing, keep improving.
3. Our messages are a starting point.
STC Summit | 6.23.2015 @LaurenTGC #stc15

Let’s Talk
Our Glossary:
Clever: being skillful enough to impact others.
Happy: going beyond “satisfactory” experiences.

Let’s Talk
When do words matter?
Project Management
Search Engine Optimization
Information Architecture
Content Strategy
Accessibility
Usability

Intentional Measured Consistent
Know your intent,
your target users,
and clearly
address the
distance between
you.
Balance quantitative
and qualitative
usability testing with
both art and science.
Govern standards
and responsibility
across a project,
and get ready to
change.

“The web does not just connect
machines, it connects people.”
Tim Berners-Lee

Intentional Aware
Who are you?
Where do you come from?
…geographic, social?
Where do you want to go next?
…large user base, localization?

Intentional Aware
Who are you?
Students who wanted to leave the
community after graduation were less
likely to present the regional dialect.
Ito & Preston, 1998

Intentional Aware
Who are you?
Brand Biography
• Expert but not bossy (MailChimp)
• Unconventional (Mozilla)
• Tenacious (msu.edu)

Intentional Aware
Who are target users?
Where do they come from?
…linguistic, socioeconomic?
Where do they want to go next?
…ambitions, affiliations?

Intentional Aware
The same users were likely to have
individualistic tendencies on Facebook,
and collectivistic tendencies on Renren.
Qiu, 2014

Intentional Aware
Who is P1?
Title: Returning users, experienced
Rank: 2
Description: 25-40 years old, with high level of
technical literacy. Completing work-related tasks.
Goal: Open personalized dashboard.
Message: Your day is about to get easier.

Intentional Aware
Limerence
The ego projecting Self onto Other, or seeing beauty in
what is familiar.

Intentional
Bridging the gaps
“…the structural integrity of meaning
across contexts.”
Jorge Arango
Contextual

Intentional
Bridging the gaps
Cognitive Load
The mental effort to comprehend and use a tool or
information, whatever the task complexity or structure.
Contextual

Intentional
Bridging the gaps
Cognitive Load
Balancing emotional, visceral information with linguistic
information.
Contextual

Intentional
Bridging the gaps
Cognitive Load
Rely on user intuition more than working memory:
• Use expected vocabulary and structure.
• Offer scannable, categorized copy.
• Make available actions apparent.
Contextual

Intentional Contextual
Bridging the gaps
Who speaks, about what topic, and in
what style?
Language determines the boundaries of inclusion
and exclusion.

Intentional
Bridging the gaps
Are you willing to bridge that gap?
Strategy: is this a conversation you want to have?
Style Guide: is this a conversation you can have?
Contextual

Intentional
Bridging the gaps
See https://www.crystalknows.com/
Contextual

Intentional Straightforward
Plain Language
Language that is easy to read, use, and
understand on the first encounter.

Avoid jargon
Are these your words, or the words of your
audience?
• Unnecessarily-technical terms
• Legalese
• Marketing copy fads

Avoid jargon
Have alternate
terms for
important ideas.

Give common words common meaning
Use the words of your audience if you can,
and define industry terms when you can’t.
• Check out your competition.
• Search Google Trends.

Use the words of your audience if you can,
and define industry terms when you can’t.
• Check out your competition.
• Search Google Trends.
• Maintain a project style guide.

Be precise
Remove unnecessary words for more-
direct copy.
Show just enough:
• Can this be hidden until expanded?
• Can this be accessed by a search or filter?

Be precise
Most important message at the top.
Short sentences: try for less than 15 words.
Short paragraphs: try for less than 5 sentences.

Promote descriptions, demote exceptions
Put the main idea first.
1. Verb
2. Descriptor
3. Noun
4. Exception

Don’t hide the verbs
Stop hiding your intended meaning behind
passive copy.

Be actionable
Lead with a familiar verb, and be specific.
• After selection, where will users land?
• What benefit do they get out of this action?

Be actionable
What is the primary call to action?
Web: within 400px of top.
Mobile: on screen without scroll.

Use visual aides
Text does not live in a vacuum.
The format shapes user perception.

Use visual aides
The most-important information should
draw the most attention.
Larger text
Intense color
Increased contrast
Bullets and arrows
Proximity
Density
Normal sentence case Headings

Know which grammar rules matter
Grammar is for the sake of clarity; words
should flow as naturally as spoken language.
• You can start sentences with “but” as well as end on
prepositions.
• You can be right, and still be wrong.
• Sometimes an oxford comma changes everything.

The oxford comma can change everything.

Intentional
Remember:
Be aware of your goals and your users.
Work with the contextual gaps.
Use straightforward communication.

“If you torture the data long enough,
it will confess.”
Ronald Coase

Ask both “how?” and “why?”
Measured Balanced
Quantitative: data on “how” users to
build inferences.
Qualitative: understand “why” with
valuable observations.

Ask both “what?” and “why?”
Measured Balanced
Art: Adapting heuristics to goals and
context in fresh ways.
Science: Testing and iterating with defined
questions and processes.

Ask both internally and externally
Measured Balanced
Thought experiments: question yourself
and your internal team.
Scientific experiments: test and measure
the target users.

Measured Experimental
Parking Lot Test
Would a target user stand in a parking lot,
delaying their commute home to hear this
message?
Qualitative | Internal | Interesting

1. Image 3 users, not 100.
2. Is this message informational,
actionable, or entertaining?
3. Do they care?
Parking Lot Test

Do you want to hear how to spend three
less minutes a year on car insurance?
Parking Lot Test

The Mom Test
If your mother heard you say this, would
she call shenanigans?
Qualitative | Internal | Genuine

1. Pick someone who knows you as a
person, and is honest with you.
2. Add “Dear [Mom]” to the beginning.
3. Would they laugh in your face?
The Mom Test

This innovative app will disrupt the dog-
owning community by leveraging a
streamlined, scalable platform.
The Mom Test

Flesch Reading Ease
How much education and concentration
does a user need to understand and act
on this text?
Quantitative | Internal | Understandability

Flesch Reading Ease
Score Easily understood by the average…
90.0–100.0 11 year old (very easy)
60.0–70.0 High school student (standard)
30.0–50.0 College graduate (difficult)
0.0–29.9 Advanced degree graduate (very confusing)

Flesch Reading Ease
“Jump high and hard with intention and heart…take
what you have and stack it up like a tower of teetering
blocks. Build your dream around that.”
Cheryl Strayed, Tiny Beautiful Things
Score: 94.3

Pair Storytelling
Can the target user easily and accurately
summarize this passage?
Qualitative | External | Clear

1. Ask users to read at least one paragraph
of copy out loud.
2. Note where they stumble.
3. Ask them to summarize with a single
sentence.
Pair Storytelling

Pair Storytelling
DESDEMONA
Be thou assured, good Cassio, I will do
All my abilities in thy behalf.
DESDEMONA
I’ll try my best, Cassio.

Measured
Cloze Deletion Test
When shown an incomplete message, do
users fill the blanks with the same terms?
Quantitative | External | Vocabulary
Experimental

Measured
1. For 125–300 words of text, replace
every fifth word with a blank space.
2. Ask users to fill in the blanks.
3. Divide matches by number of blanks,
and look for a score of more than 60%.
Cloze Deletion Test
Experimental

Measured
Want _____ experts on your bookshelf?
_____ Works is sharing our _____ app tips
and tricks _____ the book, Professional
_____ Application Development. We deliver
_____, personalized, powerful mobile _____
for our clients, and we’re _____ our secrets.
Cloze Deletion Test
Experimental

Measured
Reverse Card Sorting
Without page content or interface, can
users anticipate which page in a menu
helps them complete a task?
Quantitative | External | Categorization
Experimental

1. Present a menu structure and task.
2. Track selection, and backtracking.
3. Did groupings and naming conventions
confuse people?

Measured
See https://www.optimalworkshop.com/treejack-demo
Experimental

Measured
Heatmapping
Do user expectations and anticipated
conventions match the expectations and
conventions of your team?
Quantitative | External | Expectations
Experimental

Measured
1. Present copy within a wireframe,
mockup, or screenshot; give a task.
2. Ask users where they would click next.
3. Did user expectations match yours?
Heatmapping
Experimental

Measured
See https://www.optimalworkshop.com/chalkmark-demo
Heatmapping
Experimental

Measured
Five-Second Test
What do users recall drawing their eye?
Is it the action you want them to take?
Quantitative | External | Actionable
Experimental

Measured
1. Show the interface with your copy for
five seconds.
2. Ask what made an impression:
 What does this page do?
 Can you buy apples on this page?
 What do you remember?
Five-Second Test
Experimental

Measured
See https://usabilityhub.com/tests/17a501e73ce7/results/a4e2757dbfbc
Five-Second Test
What does
this page do?
Experimental

Measured
Day-After Recall
After reading a passage, was it “sticky”
enough for users to remember the primary
call to action?
Qualitative | External | Memorable
Experimental

Measured
1. Show a passage of text.
2. Wait a day.
3. Ask them to summarize the point.
Day-After Recall
Experimental

Measured
Send a “can you read this” email, then drop
by to ask about it the next day.
Day-After Recall
Experimental

Measured
A/B Testing
When similar groups are presented
alternate solutions, which guides them to
meet your goals?
Quantitative | External | Performance
Experimental

Measured
1. Divide testers into demographically-
equivalent groups.
2. Show each group a different variation.
3. Do a task analysis.
A/B Testing
Experimental

Measured
A/B Testing
Task A B
Are you registered
to vote?
Speed: 10 sec.
Accuracy: 78%
Speed: 15 sec.
Accuracy: 92%
Where is your polling
location?
Speed: 12 sec.
Accuracy: 85%
Speed: 13 sec.
Accuracy: 89%
Experimental

Measured
Usability Magnitude Estimation
How difficult do users expect a task to be;
what is the difference between their pre-
and post-task assessment?
Qualitative | External | Functional
Experimental

Measured
1. Provide a task, ask how difficult they
expect it to be.
2. Provide copy in interface; users talk
through task completion.
3. Ask how difficult it was.
Experimental

Measured
Task Pre Post Delta
Log into customer portal. 1 2 +1
Pay water bill. 3 3 0
Update payment information. 4 3 -1
Experimental

Measured
Remember:
Ask both “how” and “why” users act.
Question internally and externally.
Balance science and art.

“...you broadcast your company’s
dysfunction to the whole wide world…”
Lisa Welchman

Consistent Assigned
Digital Governance
Strategy: principals and performance objectives to pick
a direction that leverages the market.
Policy: guidance to manage organizational risk with
what to do, and what not to do.
Standards: the nature of all project aspects, such as
editorial, production, and design.

Consistent Assigned
Digital Governance
What is in your digital inventory?
Who touches each piece?
…do things with purpose.

Consistent Adaptive
Focus on Dialogue
You do not have the last word. Every
message is just a starting point.

Consistent Adaptive
Get Ready for Change
No one is sure where the market, or
technology, will go next.
Are people, informed, able to act, and entertained?

Consistent Adaptive
Get Ready for Change
Use your insights to turn strategy and
observations into next steps with a culture
of adaptation.
• Ask people what they think, and help them speak.
• Thank people, and give recognition for input.
• Don’t punish failure that helps us learn.

Consistent Adaptive
Standardize Reevaluation
If it’s not in the process, it won’t happen.
• Who is accountable?
• What is “success”?
• Which users are top priority?
• When should we ask again?

Consistent
Remember:
Assign who is responsible, and for what.
Work for dialogue.
Make change part of the process.

References & Further Reading
Brooks, David. The Social Animal: The Hidden Sources of Love, Character, and Achievement (New York, NY:
Random House), 2011.
Colton, Lauren. “Mobile User Interface Design” in Professional Mobile Application Development (Indianapolis,
IN: John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 2012), 89–115.
Crystal, https://www.crystalknows.com/.
Deutscher, Guy. Through the Language Glass: Why the World Looks Different in Other Languages (New York,
NY: Metropolitan Books), 2010.
“Federal Plain Language Guidelines.” plainlanguage.gov (1 March 2011).
www.plainlanguage.gov/howto/guidelines/FederalPLGuidelines/FederalPLGuidelines.pdf.
Garner, Bryan. HBR Guide to Better Business Writing (Boston, MA: Harvard Business School Publishing), 2012.
Haverty, Marsha. "What We Mean by Meaning: New Structural Properties of IA.” Presentation at the Information
Architecture Summit, Minneapolis, MN, April 22–26, 2015.
Hay, Steph. “Being Real Builds Trust.” A List Apart (28 August 2012). http://alistapart.com/article/being-real-
builds-trust.
Heath, Chip. Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die (New York, NY: Random House), 2007.
Hinton, Andrew. Understanding Context (Sebastopol, CA: O’Reilly Media, Inc.), 2015.
Ito, Rika & Dennis R. Preston. 1998. Identity, discourse, & language variation. Journal of Language & Social
Psychology 17, 4:465–83.

Optimal Workshop, https://www.optimalworkshop.com/.
Qiu, Lin, Han Lin, & Angela K.-y. Leung. 2014. Cultural Differences and Switching of In-Group Sharing Behavior
Between an American (Facebook) and a Chinese (Renren) Social Networking Site. Journal of Cross-Cultural
Psychology 44, 1: 106–121.
Spool, Jared. "Is Design Metrically Opposed?" Presentation at the Information Architecture Summit,
Minneapolis, MN, April 22–26, 2015.
UsabilityHub, https://usabilityhub.com/.
Wachter-Boettcher, Sarah. Content Everywhere: Strategy and Structure for Future-Ready Content (New York,
NY: Rosenfeld Media), 2012.
Welchman, Lisa. Managing Chaos: Digital Governance by Design (New York, NY: Rosenfeld Media), 2015.
Whitenton, Kathryn. “Minimize Cognitive Load to Maximize Usability.” Nielsen Norman Group (22 December
2013). http://www.nngroup.com/articles/minimize-cognitive-load/.
Wiebe, Joanna. CopyHackers Book 2: Formatting & the Essentials of Web Writing (Victoria, BC: Copyhackers),
2011.
Wiebe, Joanna. CopyHackers Book 4: Buttons & Click-Worthy Calls to Action (Victoria, BC: Copyhackers), 2011.
Zeratsky, John. “5 principles for great interface copywriting.” Google Ventures (18 February 2014).
https://www.gv.com/lib/5-principles-for-great-interface-copywriting.
References & Further Reading

Questions? @LaurenTGC
Key Points
1. Words shape the user experience.
2. Keep testing, keep improving.
3. Our messages are a starting point.

Clever Copy for Happy Users STC Summit 2015

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