Daily UX Writing Challenge

I chose to make this message part of a navigational app to show how an event like this could disrupt an in-progress user flow.

This message would appear as soon as the app detects the fire but after the user has started their route. If the fire were detected before the route was started, the app would automatically suggested a route that avoids the fire, and there’d be no need for an alert.

I also think a message like this should be supplemented with voice design to ensure that a user who isn’t looking at their phone would still be aware of the fire.

Lastly, I gave the user a choice to opt out of the reroute, but it’s timed so that the user is led to make the safer decision.

Because the character limits were so short for this one, it seemed pretty clear what info to prioritize. I decided the teams playing were most important, then who was winning, the last play, and finally the name of the player.

This prompt required the most discovery on my part since I’m not a big sports fan. I watched basketball highlights, searched for players on team rosters, and learned the rules of the game.

Lastly, I want to note that if this were a real ask from a stakeholder, I would push back on the character limit. I think there’s more room in this push notification for some additional detail. That way, the user doesn’t have to open the app for the full play during a wedding.

As a casual music fan myself, I often find that I miss out on a lot of concerts, not because I am unaware, but because I am made aware at the wrong time. I might see an ad for a concert, but it’s while I’m doing something unrelated, like checking my email, shopping online, etc.

I solve for that problem by prompting the user with a message to purchase tickets while they’re actually listening to one of their favorite artists.

I also pat the user on the back for their taste in music in the headline to get their attention. As features like Spotify Wrapped have shown, users like to reflect positively upon their music preferences.

Lastly, I use the phrase “Don’t miss your chance” to convey a sense of urgency and demand to nudge the user along.

Much like Uber, Lyft, or Doordash, this app would have the user’s credit card on file and would allow them to book services without having to re-enter a credit card number each time. If the credit card on file has expired, the user would be prompted with this modal upon clicking “Book rental.”

The “Update payment method” button would take the user to where payment methods are stored, like an Account Settings page.

However, it might be even better to allow the user to edit and update their credit card info right in the modal so that the user doesn’t have to navigate away from the page at all.

It was hard for me to imagine a business need that would require the system to collect the user’s name and zip code, but not other info like a phone number or email. In real life, I’d definitely need to work with the product manager on this feature to discuss the requirements.

I’d even argue that we don’t need the user’s first name at all, and can simply write an empty state message instructing the user to enter their zip code.

However, I also wrote a version that more strictly followed the scenario given with the second screen. This could make sense if we were trying to create a personalized onboarding experience for the user. If this were the case, I would probably recommend asking for name and zip code on different screens and upping the character limit so that I could provide more transparency as to why we need this info.

For this one, I created an in-line error when the fraud detection software thinks the user’s name is fake. But I also linked out to an additional resource the user could reach out to learn more about why they’re getting the error message and potentially get help if it’s their real name.

The resource could say something like:

Why we use real names on makefriends

It’s important for all users on our platform to feel confident that they’re making connections with real people. That’s why we’re extra careful about the names we let you use when signing up. Sometimes though, we can be a little too careful. If you’re having trouble signing up using your real name, email us at help@makefriends.com and we’ll assign someone to assist you right away.

The ask for this one is fairly simple as is the rationale for my copy choices. I think the requirements, however, are worth discussing. My initial (and untested) assumption here was that truck drivers would pretty much always have the app that displays their route open. I wasn’t sure about the efficacy of a push notification.

But then I figured there would be edge cases when perhaps a driver accidentally puts his or her phone into sleep mode. In those cases, a push notification would be imperative.

However, I thought again and wondered if we should ever allow users to enter sleep mode while on an active route. This might be too much of an ask if drivers need their phones for other aspects of the job, such as calling recipients.

But maybe it would be an overall better experience for the driver to have a device permanently affixed to their truck, which would never fall asleep, and therefore never require push notifications. There are a lot of answered questions here, but I think anyone designing this message in real life should think about the entire experience of the user – not just what’s happening on the screen.

For this prompt, I imagined a Chrome extension that could crawl the web for the best deals while the user was online shopping.

This message would be triggered by clicking the browser extension icon. Under normal circumstances, this would initiate a crawl that would then populate the overlay with the backpack at varying price points across the web.

Here, we see the error message that would show if anything went wrong when executing the crawl. I gave the user the option to try again or dismiss in case they changed their mind and didn’t want to move all the way over to the “X” button.

For the best viewing experience, please take a look at my prototype in Figma.

This challenge was all about encouraging the user to complete the task at hand. First, I identified the benefits of this feature and made them clear on the first screen.

I used a conversational tone so that the flow could be as transparent as possible while reducing confusion. I also decided to surface when the first three payments would be scheduled so the user could preview their autopay settings.

I wanted to make sure there was an exit route for the user so they could stop at any time. So I added a “Cancel” button that opens up a confirmation modal.

Finally, I added a summary so the user could review all their info at once before submitting.