UX Writing Challenge: Day 3

I'm taking the Daily UX Writing challenge to become a better UX Writer in 15 days.

Scenario: The user entered the wrong email address to sign in to their account.

Challenge: Tell the user to enter the right email.

40 characters max

Discovery

What is this feature? What are we trying to achieve with this feature?

Error message on a login screen.

What problem are we trying to address?

Telling the user what they need to do to fix a problem.

What do we want to include in the message?

• Tell the user what went wrong - Login failed

• Tell the user why it went wrong - Wrong email address

• Tell the user what to do to fix it - Enter the correct email address or receive a link in their email to log in.

Building the flow

• What’s the required sequence of information on the screen? Why?

  1. The user enters their credentials

  2. Login fails

  3. User sees error message

  4. User takes corrective action

• What does the error message do?

  • Makes the user feel empowered even though they made a mistake

  • Tells them how to fix the problem

  • Questions I would ask the designer and developer

    • Is this message displayed when:

      • the email isn't formatted correctly or has a typo ([e-mail])?

      • the user is trying to log in with an email address ([e-mail]) different to the one that they registered with ([e-mail])?

The words

BRDEPT: Brainstorm, Research, Draft, Edit, Proofread, Test.

Brainstorm: Quickly writing out every idea for the copy, good or bad

Login error message
Hmm, it looks like you entered the wrong email. Try again or let us send a link directly to your registered email address.
Looks like you got the email wrong. Try again or click here to get a link directly in your inbox.
Darn! That was the wrong email. Enter the correct email address or get a link to log in directly in your inbox.
Uh oh! the email you entered is invalid. Try again or receive a link in your email to log in.

Research: Looking at competitors and similar types of apps to find the common approach to a scenario

Screenshot from a Google search about login flow error messages

Screenshot from a Google search about login flow error messages

Screenshot from a Google search about login flow error messages

Here's what ChatGPT suggested

Drafting: Quickly writing copy to get an overview of a flow

• Hmm, that address is invalid. Try again or create a new account.

• Hmm, that address is invalid. Try again.

• Invalid address. Retry or create a new account.

• Invalid address. Retry or create new.

Editing: Checking and correcting points of confusion, areas for improvement in the design, and issues with accessibility, localization/globalization, terminology, and brand voice/tone.

• That address is invalid. Try again.

• Invalid address. Retry or create new.

Proofreading: Checking and correcting use of contractions, grammar and spelling errors, casing errors, and punctuation errors.

Mockup created in Canva

Testing

Test UX copy using any one of these methods:

• A/B testing

• Usability testing

• High fidelity prototype testing with Figma

• Scorecards using content heuristics

The method you choose will depend on the context, time, and constraints on your team.