Guiding users through copy

UX writing

Background

A fictional app created by UX Content Collective as part of UX Writing Fundamental course requisite. It’s conceptualised as a project tracking with in-app payment feature for freelancers and business owners.

  • My role

  • Sole UX Writer. Create style guide, recommend UX copy and product usability enhancements.

  • Year

  • July 2022

  • Tools

  • Figma, Google Docs

👇 Copy & design recommendations

Context

👁️ Overview of fictional app

Name

Handshake

Geographic location

California

User type

Freelancer &
Business owner

Usage of app

Billing and project tracking
Use the app to bill business owners and report progress on a paid project.
Paying and project tracking
Use the app to pay freelancers and track the progress of hours worked.

Note

Freelancer and business owner have a view to one side of the app: one uses it for billing and the other for paying. For this project, to assume both users already know each other and have agreed to work together using Handshake.

👥️ User personas

💼️ User tasks

Freelancer

• Invite business owners to the app
• Create new projects
• Propose a budget for a project
• Track hours worked
• Send invoices to business owners
• Receive payments from business owners

Note: Handshake makes money by collecting a 1% fee whenever a freelancer gets paid.

Business owner

• Invite a freelancer or accept a project
• Review and accept a budget for a project
• See hours tracked against the budget
• Send payments

Note: Business owner use the app for free.

Areas of work

Click the card for details

Create style guide for clear and consistent content

Informal research

Google search to identify user language and understand how they think about tasks.

Based on user type, researched

• how freelancers and business owners typically handle money and payments when they’re not using Handshake

• possible common terms used when both users work together

• general terms used by people who work by the hour but not employees

Money/Payments

• Invoice
• Invoice tracking
• Invoice templates
• Project tracking
• Time tracking
• Estimate
• Rates
• Payments
• Payment terms
• Payment schedule and policies
• Payment method
• Deposits
• Direct deposit
• Project deposit
• Billing Cycle
• Billable hours
• Contract
• Reporting
• CRM
• Gig
• Scope of work
• Net 30, Net 60, Net 90
• Retainer

Common terms

• Project type
• Project scope
• Timeline
• Deadlines
• Due dates
• Context
• Business goals and objectives
• Expectations
• Proposal
• Estimated cost
• Budget
• Invoice
• Contract
• Payment method
• Hourly rate
• Overtime rate
• Late payment fee
• Progress
• Progress billing

General terms

• Independent contractor
• Self-employed person
• Temporary worker
• Freelancer
• Outsourced worker
• Self-employed
• 1099 worker
• Digital nomad
• Moonlighter
Ideate

Emotions, Voice, Style

Emotions when users engage with the app

Voice of Handshake app

A reflection of the company’s brand personality, it’ll be consistent regardless of user type. However, the tone will vary slightly depending on user and situation. Thus a shared vocabulary is created and used, along with defined voice to mediate between user types.

Voice characteristics

Welcoming

“Hi there! Let’s get started.”

Plain-spoken, but not rude

“Let’s align at the start of the project to ensure there are no assumptions.”

Humorous, but not irreverent

“Hello from the other side~ Let’s kickstart this project by accepting the invite."

Tone

Success message

"Hooray! You’re all set to start."


Tone is more fun and friendly to bring excitement to first time users.

Error message

"The password doesn’t match. Try again?"


Tone is more approachable to guide user through the error.

Preferred terms to use

Use these
DON'T use these
Rationale
Budget
Allowance
Allowance connotates reimbursement which can be misleading.
Payment
Remittance
Remittance is not commonly used in comparison to payment, a term that’s easily understandable by users.
Invoice
Statement of charges
Statement of charges is lengthy and unnecessary.
Track
Monitor
Monitor connotates watching over something instead of observing the (measured) state of something over time.
Deadline
Time limit
Time limit connotates an exact time duration (e.g. hours, minutes) rather than a period of time.
Freelancer
Independent contractor
Independent contractor is lengthy and unnecessary.
Business owner
Client
Client might be misleading as it’s a term addressed based on freelancer’s perspective.
Project
Campaign
Campaign connotates working in an organised and active way towards a particular goal, typically a political or social one.

Style of Handshake app

Base on the defined voice and tone as well as knowledge of Handshake app journey (from provided screens), a list of grammar and mechanics are created to help keep writing clear and consistent.

Capitalisation

Type
Usage
Title case
• Use for Freelancers’ and business owners’ name
• Brand names (if applicable e.g. PayPal)
Sentence case
Use for
• H1, H2, H3, H4
• Body copies

Punctuation

Type
Usage
Contractions
(')
Use for informal and friendly tone, and to shorten copy.
Examples:
• “You’re” instead of “You are”
• “What’s” instead of “What is”
Ampersand
(&)
Use if they’re part of a word class, company or brand name.
Examples:
• GrabPay & PayLater Deals
• Ben & Jerry’s
Ellipses
(...)
Use for truncation, accompanied with a button to expand and display full content.
Exclamation point
(!)
Use to instil excitement! But sparingly with a maximum of 1 in
• H1, H2, H3, H4
Period
(.)
Use in
• H3, H4
• Body copies
• Bullet points
Semicolon
(;)
Use if sentence can’t be shortened or simplified.
Question mark
(?)
Use sparingly, with a maximum of 1 in
• H1, H2, H3, H4
(Exclude body copies)

Other guidelines

Type
Format
(Following practice applied in California)
Date
DD/MMM/YYYY
Currency
[Symbol] [Separator] [Amount]
e.g. $1,000.00 / $1,000,000.00‍

Symbol
For easy identification of copy that deals with money.

Separator
Following the most common practice, comma is included to separate thousands.
‍
Amount
Following general practice with most currencies using 2 decimal places.

Enhance copy for better experience

UX writing

With the style guide, it establishes the ground rules of language used. And aids in UX writing for this project along with the following parameters in mind.

• Work with provided screens and avoid redesigning interactions (in this iteration).

• Make small design changes (e.g. add a button, nudge spacing, insert a new text box or an icon) if needed.

• Avoid big design changes that would require new work from the development team.

Areas of consideration

• Are the terms used correct?

• Is it clear what the user needs to do and what happens next?

• Is the tone of voice working?

• Any punctuation, spelling, or grammar corrections needed?

End

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