Audience

• Writers
  • ​Content Designers
• UI Designers
• UI Developers
• Testers
• PMs
• Support and Sales
• Others

@TheMikeJang

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OSCON Audience

• Writers
• UI Designers
• UI Developers
• Testers
• Others

@TheMikeJang

O'Reilly

Lead Technical Writer

Product Documentation

Mission

• Complete accurate documentation ...

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Background

Why Graphical UIs

It sells

@TheMikeJang

What do users prefer?

@TheMikeJang

Both

My Answer

Examples of Bad UI Text

• Billboards
• Street Signs
• Airplanes
• UIs

 Fair use (I hope)

UI Text Can't Solve

Bad Design

• Close
• Open
• Lock
• Instructions?

Credit:  Beth Aitman

What Floor?

Source: Quora

Bad UI
Text

Extracted?

Text

Credit:  Ryan Bigge

Useless UI Text

@TheMikeJang

Credit: Gordon Hatton CC-SA-2.0

Worst UI Text Ever

(IMO)

@TheMikeJang

Worst

UI Text

Source: Hawaii Emergency Management Agency

@

Result:

Panic!

Better UI Text

10 Steps to Better UI Text

1.  Know your product
2. "Don't Make Me Think"
3.  One easy breath
4.  Two thoughts
5.  Minimize need for docs
6.  Know your audience
7.  Know your stakeholders
8.  Start with the easy stuff
9.  Harder stuff: do your homework
10.  Scaling: use style guides

Know Your Product

• Complete, Accurate Depiction of Functionality

Info Popup

Can you read that in one breath?

From the Docs

Complete, Accurate Depiction of Functionality

Who Would Read This?

Needs v. Features

Help Users Do Their Jobs

1.  Know your product
2. "Don't Make Me Think"
3.  One easy breath
4.  Two thoughts
5.  Minimize need for docs
6.  Know your audience
7.  Know your stakeholders
8.  Start with the easy stuff
9.  Harder stuff: do your homework
10.  Use style guides (details)

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Principles

of UI Design

Credit:  Steve Krug

Making the User Think

Credit: Gordon Hatton CC-SA-2.0

Sometimes You Should Make Users Think

Good UIs

Prevent

Trouble

Simplicity is Zen

1.  Know your product
2. "Don't Make Me Think"
3.  One easy breath
4.  Two thoughts
5.  Minimize need for docs
6.  Know your audience
7.  Know your stakeholders
8.  Start with the easy stuff
9.  Harder stuff: do your homework
10.  Use style guides (details)

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One Easy Breath

Simplicity is Zen

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Is

This

Zen?

Cause and Effect

1.  Know your product
2. "Don't Make Me Think"
3.  One easy breath
4.  Two thoughts
5.  Minimize need for docs
6.  Know your audience
7.  Know your stakeholders
8.  Start with the easy stuff
9.  Harder stuff: do your homework
10.  Use style guides (details)

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Two Effective Thoughts

The New BSoD

Two Thoughts

Simplicity -> Docs

1.  Know your product
2. "Don't Make Me Think"
3.  One easy breath
4.  Two thoughts
5.  Minimize need for docs
6.  Know your audience
7.  Know your stakeholders
8.  Start with the easy stuff
9.  Harder stuff: do your homework
10.  Use style guides (details)

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Docs Not Always Required

UI

Text

Win

UIs That Require

Documentation

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Simplicity Depends on Audience

1.  Know your product
2. "Don't Make Me Think"
3.  One easy breath
4.  Two thoughts
5.  Minimize need for docs
6.  Know your audience
7.  Know your stakeholders
8.  Start with the easy stuff
9.  Harder stuff: do your homework
10.  Use style guides (details)

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Audience

Audience

Depends on

Audience

The Stakeholder Challenge

1.  Know your product
2. "Don't Make Me Think"
3.  One easy breath
4.  Two thoughts
5.  Minimize need for docs
6.  Know your audience
7.  Know your stakeholders
8.  Start with the easy stuff
9.  Harder stuff: do your homework
10.  Use style guides (details)

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The Challenge

Know Your Stakeholders

Stakeholders

• Product Managers
• Designers
• Front-end Developers
• Back-end Developers
• Support and Sales
• Testers (QA)
• Writers

Product Manager

• Sales
• Customers
• Bandwidth

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UI Style Guides and Mockups

UI Developers

Backend

Developers

Under the Hood

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Support and Sales

• Customers ask you first

• You have customer perspective

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Tester

• UI Text: measurable

• QA == Your Friend

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Writer

• Right words for your audience

• Hemingway, not Tolstoy

But Everyone Writes

By Penarc - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0

Implementation

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Getting to Simplicity

1.  Know your product
2. "Don't Make Me Think"
3.  One easy breath
4.  Two thoughts
5.  Minimize need for docs
6.  Know your audience
7.  Know your stakeholders
8.  Start with the easy stuff
9.  Harder stuff: do your homework
10.  Use style guides (details)

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"Easy Stuff"

• Functional Text

• Capitalization

• Grammar

Start With The Easy Stuff

Exercise

What would you do?

Make Every Word Earn Its Place

My Change

Exercise

What would you do?

Make Every Word Earn Its Place

Option

My Change

Address Redundancies, Grammar

Comparisons

Examples

• Add a New Connector  >  Add Connector
• Setup Password Reset  >  Configure Password Reset

Lessons

• Remove Redundancies
• Review Functional Grammar (e.g. Setup v. Set Up v. Configure)

Not That Easy

Be Flexible

• Minimal viable text
• Incomplete sentences OK
• No periods OK
• Incorrect grammar OK (if it works)
• Don't apologize, don't say please (unless necessary)

Don't Be This Guy

OK to end a sentence with a Preposition

OK to Split Infinitives

To Boldly Go Where No One Has Gone Before

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Simplicity Requires Homework

1.  Know your product
2. "Don't Make Me Think"
3.  One easy breath
4.  Two thoughts
5.  Minimize need for docs
6.  Know your audience
7.  Know your stakeholders
8.  Start with the easy stuff
9.  Harder stuff: do your homework
10.  Use style guides (details)

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The Harder Stuff

More Than Grammar

Complete, Accurate, Wall of Text

Can you read that in one breath?

PR Excerpt

The target object qualifies and a link is found,

but the source object is missing

Before:

After:

Valid target found, link found

Objections

Answer = Context

Use Case

Discussion

Replicating Simplicity

1.  Know your product
2. "Don't Make Me Think"
3.  One easy breath
4.  Two thoughts
5.  Minimize need for docs
6.  Know your audience
7.  Know your stakeholders
8.  Start with the easy stuff
9.  Harder stuff: do your homework
10.  Scaling: use style guides

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Implementation: Style Guide

• Audience
• Precedents

Audience

Precedents

Existing UI Text Style Guides

• Google Material Design
• Microsoft User Interface Text
• GitLab Design System

Recommendation

Create Your Own UI Text Style Guide

• Examples from your UI
• Customized for your audience

It's a Conversation

Accessibility

Suitable for screen readers

• Alternate Text (images)
• Shadow Text
• Error Message Icons (!)
• Pop-up Windows
• Click, Press, Select

Basis:

• US Section 508
• UK Web Content  Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG 2.0) -- level AA

UI Text Style Guide Components

• Style and Tone
• Buttons
• Labels
• Help
• Messages
• Design / Layout
• Terminology, Capitalization, Punctuation

Style and Tone

Make Every Word Earn Its Place

The New

BSoD

The New

BSoD

Labels, Dialog, Shadow

Human Readable Names

Not Self-Documenting

Messages

Don't Blame Users. Be Helpful.

Blame, Apologies = Waste

Credit: Designed for Use, Lukas Mathis

Exception?

Public Domain

Not

Helpful

One Last Exercise

(in compromises)

UI

Text

In Apps

Exercise

• Shorten this statement

• To speed up your app

Options:

Speed

Your App

Improve

App Speed

Don't Be This Guy