Making copy concise

Allowing all users to read and understand instructions, whilst under pressure.

Responsibilities: UX/UI design, UX research, UX writing
Length: Ongoing
Team: HoP, PMs, Customer Support
Year: 2023-4

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HMW allow for all users to quickly and concisely understand what needs to be done under duress?

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A major challenge of this work within the product was making the writing concise and clear for a variety of type of users.

The user type which defined their use and needs of the platform were defined by their job role, as well as their familiarity of the product and the sustainability industry.

Discovery

User segmentation definition and research had been undertaken, via an Appcues-built survey that asked users what their intention was within the platform.

These results are shown below.

As part of the sign-up process form, the user is asked to enter their job title.

I analysed this with Excel, and to obtain a main takeaway of the major shared connections, created this wordmap of the common keywords within job titles shared.

'Manager', 'Sustainability', Quality, Environmental, Technical, Coordinator, Lead and Compliance were the most regular occurences.

These roles have then defined into the usual types of tasks they do on the platform or have responsbility of within their job role.

Define

User writing work and needs were done as and when required. However, I created an internal UX writing guide that defined the importants factors of:

• clarity
• concise
• active voice
• informal but not conversational
• suitable for non-sustainability knowledgable users with jargon explained when necessary
• instructional
• be able to be translated into the 14 main international languages without being confusing/unknown for translation

Design and Development

From this, the projects that determined a clear direction of the UX writing were:
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• the initial 'create an account' email the user receives, when they accept to join the platform, via their SCOs.

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Here, the main aspects to deliver to the user were:

• this user will be creating an account for their organisation
• this user may not have an prior knowledge of M2030
• this user will most likely be a manager: therefore will have lots of other tasks to do which means they are most likely under pressure and time-poor.
• all Jobs-to-be-done need to be clear, upfront and sequential.
• allow for the user to request another link if the previous one expires
• allow for the user to find more information about the platform/M2030 before creating an account

Previously, this e-mail was more of a marketing-style email and contained too many words, which was becoming cumbersome and did not help in reducing customer support tickets related to signing up.

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• inviting other users

An external content consultant created the 'before' design. It was written with an idea of marketing/persuasion in mind, to invite other colleagues into the platform, especially if they had no prior knowledge of M2030.

However, user research stated that this was not relevant to all users, as they had already been 'converted' and that users had spoken to each other to confirm that an invite would be sent and why.

Therefore, in a team of the PM, myself and 2 Customer Support colleagues created the new version, which focused on being instructional.

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• Reduing errors at log in

Customer support tickets mostly consisted of general log in errors. This was due to necessary security systems. However, the UX writing error message did not convey the multitude of errors that could've locked the user out. This was due to the system being 'lean' in its service and Product not being able to prioritise.

Users could be locked out of their account after 3 attempts, but the error notification didn't convey this. This was a simple change: to allow for the system to give different error messages, as the business and user needs are greater.

Email content made concise

Login messages made clear pt 1

Login messages made clear pt 2‍

Login messages made clear pt 3

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