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so I want to I want to start um um this
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talk on microcopy
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um with the story of kind of how um I
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came to start using uh the term and
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writing a blog post about it Um a few
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years ago I was working uh for a company
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uh called user interface
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engineering in um the Boston area in uh
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Massachusetts and um I was doing a whole
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bunch of things for them I was doing uh
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consulting um web design web development
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and I and we were just starting to offer
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um webinars for sale So um we would
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record webinars um and then you could
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come to the website and purchase access
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to them And so as part of that I um
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built a um checkout e-commerce checkout
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system and um this is this is the
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primary screen from it Right so it's
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pretty typical uh billing information
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screen Um you can see we have card
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information up top and then uh billing
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uh address stuff down bottom And um it
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was the first time I I'd ever built
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something like that Um and we were we
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were accessing PayPal Um we were at the
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time and so every transaction
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um that that was sent went to PayPal
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then PayPal would send back a um a
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response And so if the if the purchase
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went through successfully the response
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would be okay Um and if the if there was
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a problem you would get an error code
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And uh we quickly realized that it was
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very beneficial to send ourselves the
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error codes to figure out exactly what
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was going on Um there were a lot of
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errors Uh credit card number is wrong Um
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the expiration date uh is wrong Um the
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security code is wrong You can see we
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even put a copy a little link to the
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right of that how to find this on your
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card Um back then it was I don't know
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seven or eight years ago It was
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relatively new and people had no idea
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how to find it Um they also um sometimes
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the country wasn't listed Um people you
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know countries change uh relatively
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often um and so we had to put copy in
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there for that Um but there there were a
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whole host of there were hundreds of of
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possible errors and we kept getting um
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errors over and over again Um some we
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couldn't do anything about Um but one in
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particular we got um which was that the
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address people were putting in didn't
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match the card number Um it didn't match
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the address that that that person had on
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the card Um and this was relatively
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common It affected like 5 to 10% of
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transactions And so we we were you
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losing real money um by um by having
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that error so much Um and so um you know
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we were tracking it over time Um and
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then we thought okay well why don't we
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try to put in some copy to see if we can
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fix that problem Um so we just added
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this copy right here Be sure to enter
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the billing address associated with your
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credit card Um and overnight we started
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making more money The problem went away
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completely Um never get emailed about it
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again Um and that was it right so
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um didn't really think much of it at the
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time and you know just kind of went on
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and and kept building other stuff and
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and doing more more stuff like that Um
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but since then um or or I should say
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after after that fact um I started
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noticing um other other
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places where little bits of copy like
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that had a pretty cool effect right so
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here's a very common pattern um that
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you'll see on like a free trial or sign
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up Um you'll get this little message no
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credit card required right that's a
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really um kind of small detail but it
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matters a lot when you're actually
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thinking about signing up for this
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web-based service So that's a that's a
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really kind of important thing to know
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Um here's another site that um uh Mark
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Bolton wrote a book called Designing for
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the Web Um and on the left hand side he
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was using PayPal as well Um he had this
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little bit of copy that says um
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transactions are handle handled through
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PayPal but you don't need a PayPal
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account uh to purchase Um I remember
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when um that was a really huge deal to
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people because there was a huge um
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backlash against PayPal I think it's
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still actually ongoing Um and uh but
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people were extremely wary of having to
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create a PayPal account in order to
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check out So this tiny bit of copy
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actually alleviates a lot of concerns
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that people have Um you know you can
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just use your credit card you don't have
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to create an account
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Another example that um several people
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um including my family members mentioned
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to me is that when you get an email um
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that someone has shared a Google doc
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with you um you um and if you've never
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used Google Docs before it's really it's
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kind of confusing like someone shared a
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document with me but it's not attached
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in the email like where is it i don't
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know Um and so uh of course Google Docs
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is is web- based service and so they
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have this little bit of copy down here
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at the bottom that says it's not an
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attachment um the document stored online
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at Google Docs So you just click the
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link Um and I and I remember people
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telling me um who I was sharing Google
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Docs with like yeah I had no idea until
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I read that little bit of copy that was
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so helpful
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Um and so so all these kind of little
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places um kind of added up in in my head
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and I started thinking like this isn't
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just regular copy right it's like this
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tiny little copy that tells you the
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thing you need to know at like the exact
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right time Um and I call it microcopy Um
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and um so I wrote I subsequently wrote a
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blog post about it um on June 9th
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2009 Uh and it was one of those blog
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articles that you just that that you
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write quickly Um I just had a few
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examples um just describing what I meant
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by it Um I wrote it in like 15 or 20
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minutes Um and if if you know any
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bloggers it's kind of that phenomenon
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where like you you you know you write
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thousands of blog posts and then one
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just kind of takes off and you don't
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really know why and you couldn't have
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predicted it or anything like that Um so
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this was one for me Um and and I got a
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lot of traffic and and all that Um and
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other people started saying to me like
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"Yeah thank you for giving a a name to
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that thing I've seen it I've seen it so
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many times." Um so for better or worse
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uh the the term microcopy is my fault Um
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so I want to talk to you uh more about
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microcopy and about the details of
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microcopy because I think it's um
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extremely interesting Um so to kind of
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define the term uh what is microcopy
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it's just a short sentence um phrase
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Sometimes it's a single word It's just
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like perfectly um placed Um it's it's
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often targeted at a very specific
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question or concern Um so it helps
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people uh answer a question Um it it
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tells people okay you don't need an
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account Um you know it's it's like it's
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like you're anticipating um the troubles
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you're going to have with with an
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interface Um it's always extremely
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contextual So um this actually makes it
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really hard to predict So until you do
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like usability testing or until you
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watch people use um your software or
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interface you you probably won't be able
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to predict what microcopy is needed Um
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there some that are getting pretty
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standard like no credit card required um
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or you don't need an account to to use
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PayPal That those are becoming extremely
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common So um you can kind of anticipate
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those Um but there's a lot of a lot more
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cases that um you just can't anticipate
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You don't know if they're
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coming Um and finally um you know I
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think uh microcopy is your secret weapon
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Um I um in I do a lot of usability
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testing uh at HubSpot and so many of the
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problems can just be just removed by
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just adding the tiniest bit of copy It's
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it's really amazing Um and um so I I
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kind of think of it as like a secret
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weapon Um so that's kind of the the main
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benefit is that microcopy reduces
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friction It does a lot of other things
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It clarifies and nudges and reassures
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people Um but the end result is that it
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removes friction from the interface Um
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and I kind of think of it I kind of
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think of it like this person scratching
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their head um kind of sitting down um at
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an interface Um all
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interfaces uh you know introduce
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friction right like to use them takes
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effort of some sort Um so there is
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friction there Um and I kind of think
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about like as you add bits of microcopy
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you kind of give them a set of stairs to
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to get over
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um to get over that interface So a bunch
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of different microcopy changes can make
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an unusable interface into a usable one
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Or like my opening example can make a
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billing uh system where there's 20 to
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30% error where there is a 20 to 30%
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error rate Um and we brought it down to
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under 5% total um by just making those
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small copy changes
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Um so I I my my claim is this that
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writing good microcopy is the fastest
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way to improve your interface Um if if
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you have um you know five minutes to
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improve an interface um redesigning will
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take too long Uh changing actual
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elements on the page will take too long
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Um you know changing the visual design
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will take too long Um but sometimes just
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adding a word or two you know is super
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easy and makes a huge difference Um so
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where is microcopy um the simple answer
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is that it's everywhere Um it's in
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almost any interface you can find Um
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here it's in signup screens So we see it
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uh down here Um on the site uh verb um
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you you would create your site and you
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would put in a site name Um um but at
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the end they say don't stress you can
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change this at any time Um and I've seen
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that work really well This you can
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change this at any time or don't worry
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you can change this later Um that sort
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of copy is extremely valuable Uh be
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especially when you're creating an
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account Um because people often want to
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know that Um especially if you're like
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setting up a URL or something like that
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Um it's it's incredibly valuable to let
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people know whether or not they can
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change it Um if you can't change it it's
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really good to say that too like this is
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permanent You can't change this so you
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better get it
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right We also see microcopy in
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application settings This is um the
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WordPress admin screen Um and you can
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see nestled underneath that first set of
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options is these settings may be
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overridden for individual articles Um
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and I actually remember going in there
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one day and wondering to myself these
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settings seem global and I want to set a
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specific setting for a blog post or
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something like that And then that that
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microcopy answered the exact question
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that I had at the exact right moment So
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um I really appreciated that Uh on the
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Zappos 404 page um they have a lot of
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fun copy on this page Um but what I
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really like is um that they're fairly
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certain that Dash the dog ate the page
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That's where the page went Um so
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microcopy can be fun It can be kind of
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humorous You can add style um and humor
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and kind of your own uh personality Um
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and and people really notice it too In
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fact someone sent me this page uh or
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sent me a link to this page um saying
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"Hey you should check out this copy It's
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it's really cool Um so people really do
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notice those little things Um you also
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see microcopy in email signup Um this is
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a very common pattern Uh no spam just
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pri prizes pinky swear right so um it's
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kind of fun Um they you also see um the
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message often like we hate spam just as
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much as you do Um there's a lot of
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variance on it Um but you'll see it um
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on most email signups these days Yeah
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that's where it
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is Um on social signup uh policies and
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things Um this is Plancast Um with
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social signin you see it a lot um over
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here on the side Um you can sign into
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Plancast with either Twitter or Facebook
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And it says "We won't send anything back
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to your account without your explicit
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permission." Um extremely valuable to
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know that Um especially in light of all
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those services uh that automatically
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tweet for you or automatically throw
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stuff up on your wall that sort of
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thing Um here's a mo here's a mobile
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flow
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Um this is an Instagram Um you can send
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pictures that you take in Instagram to
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your Flickr account Um and this time
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this was really timely copy that says it
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will now launch Safari so you can log in
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um and authorize Instagram But the
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question that I had which it answered
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was your photo will be here when you get
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back So I can still post to Instagram um
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and still continue on doing the task
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that I was doing Um so that little
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reassurance was was really
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nice Um here's an example of using
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microcopy to solicit
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feedback Um please take the short survey
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We promise to read every word I'm not
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sure I believe them but
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um it was kind of it was kind of nice to
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to read that I it did build some trust
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in me and I actually took the survey Um
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and it made me take the survey seriously
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um which I almost never
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do Um success and error messages are
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often nice places to put microcopy Um
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here's um some examples You can you know
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be fun Holy guacamole Uh best check
00:16:03
yourself You're not looking too good Um
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it's it's kind of an easy place to be
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fun and kind of show your personality Um
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at at HubSpot we try to um we try to
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think of our website or web application
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um as a person um and kind of think like
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what type of person is it well you know
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it's it's friendly
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um it's intelligent it's
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helpful Uh and so we try to write copy
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uh with that in mind right so we try to
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write copy as if the application is
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talking to you and is a friendly helpful
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person Um it's hard it's hard to do Um
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but you when you kind of write a whole
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bunch of tiny pieces of copy um over
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time they really do add up and kind of
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give your application personality So um
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it's really kind of fun Um here's an
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example I think of microcopy in a
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physical space Um this was I believe at
00:17:05
an airport Um and where um this store
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used to be um they put this mark on the
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ground this sign on the ground that says
00:17:17
our milk is moved So they actually had
00:17:19
moved the store So they put a sign on
00:17:21
the ground pointing to where the new
00:17:23
store was Um so it's really helpful for
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people who had been to the store before
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um and didn't know that it moved Um
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welcome messages are a great place to um
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put microcopy Here's um several welcome
00:17:40
messages from the email service uh
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Mailchimp Um you log in and it says
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"Wait Josh I've got something stuck in
00:17:48
my teeth." Um and you have really no
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idea what that means until you click on
00:17:52
it Um and uh hi Josh I can have banana
00:17:58
So it just it's just saying something
00:17:59
kind of funny and silly Um people love
00:18:02
this stuff uh who use the service Um in
00:18:06
in fact Mailchimp's pretty well known
00:18:08
for it now Um but you can also use it
00:18:11
like in the third
00:18:12
one Um you can use these little bits of
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copy to introduce services or introduce
00:18:19
features that people might not be aware
00:18:21
of So for example hey Josh you into
00:18:24
Twitter Um that's a really kind of
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interesting way to for for Mailchimp to
00:18:31
now introduce people to their Twitter
00:18:33
integration Um so you click on that you
00:18:35
go you log into Twitter Um and then now
00:18:39
you can use um Mailchimp along with your
00:18:42
Twitter account Um and that sort of
00:18:44
thing So um this also gets brings to
00:18:48
mind the the idea of like training
00:18:50
people where to find
00:18:53
um copy and messages in your interface
00:18:56
So every time you log into Mailchimp
00:18:58
there's some message there Um and most
00:19:00
people that I know who use Mailchimp um
00:19:04
look look and read that message every
00:19:05
single time It's kind of part of their
00:19:08
ritual of of logging in and using the
00:19:11
service Um and so Mailchimp has realized
00:19:14
this and they start putting in you know
00:19:17
um notifications and things like
00:19:19
that Um I was pretty excited to see that
00:19:24
um the Mailchimp uh the folks at
00:19:26
Mailchimp um actually had microcopy
00:19:29
examples in their pattern library Um
00:19:32
that made my day when I saw that Um and
00:19:35
so they actually um talk about all the
00:19:39
messages all the little bits of copy
00:19:42
that they have throughout their site Um
00:19:45
and you know they they gave examples of
00:19:48
all these Um so it's it's really kind of
00:19:50
cool Um it also teaches other people uh
00:19:55
working on Mailchimp like how to how to
00:19:58
write copy um what style and and kind of
00:20:01
how to think of the copy that they write
00:20:03
for the
00:20:08
application Um so in general the
00:20:10
benefits of microcopy
00:20:12
um are pretty straightforward Um it
00:20:15
clears a path for the user it tells in
00:20:18
some cases it's directive and it tells
00:20:20
people like what to do uh and in other
00:20:24
um cases it gives options about what to
00:20:26
do so it clears a path for users um it
00:20:30
makes users happy and I'll give an
00:20:32
example of that in a minute um but when
00:20:35
done right you know and this should be
00:20:37
like any other part of your interface
00:20:39
that's tested you should um you know go
00:20:41
into usability testing with an eye
00:20:43
toward seeing how people respond to your
00:20:45
copy and that sort of
00:20:47
But it can make people happy Um it also
00:20:50
makes people feel loved Like um that's
00:20:53
what people say about uh the Mailchimp
00:20:56
um copy like oh you know they're funny
00:20:59
they're um they you know they like me Um
00:21:01
there there are other examples where
00:21:04
they just give you a compliment like hey
00:21:05
Josh you're looking mighty nice today Um
00:21:08
that sort of stuff Um and people love
00:21:10
that Um you know even though uh it's
00:21:13
just software Um but it's it's it's
00:21:16
really cool Um and I think in the end if
00:21:21
you kind of write copy like that
00:21:23
friendly copy um you can actually make
00:21:26
users more loyal to you Um because
00:21:29
people personify your software right um
00:21:32
they think of your software and and thus
00:21:36
your company uh as this kind of person
00:21:40
and um so they can relate to you better
00:21:43
Um and so let me show you an example of
00:21:48
um of a case study that we did uh at
00:21:51
HubSpot that kind of really showed me
00:21:54
the power of of microcopy and kind of
00:21:58
how people reacted to it Um so here's um
00:22:03
a part of our dashboard when you when
00:22:07
you log into um the HubSpot application
00:22:10
we show you how many visits you've had
00:22:13
and how many leads you've generated from
00:22:15
those visits Um and this so this is um
00:22:19
you know an interesting screen It's
00:22:20
interesting data and we have a graph
00:22:23
that people can check every day Um and
00:22:27
what we found was that um people really
00:22:30
loved to kind of log in to look at the
00:22:34
graph Um but they kind of um in in
00:22:38
usability testing we kind of saw that
00:22:40
they had this problem where they would
00:22:42
see this data and then they would kind
00:22:44
of say to themselves now what like what
00:22:46
do I do um you know and so our first
00:22:49
task was to get the right data in front
00:22:52
of them Um but then our next task was to
00:22:55
make that data actionable Um and if any
00:22:57
of you have ever worked on like an
00:22:59
analytics tool or any tool with data in
00:23:01
it the the real struggle um one of the
00:23:04
real design problems is to make that
00:23:07
data actionable Like what what are
00:23:08
people going to use it for um and that
00:23:10
was definitely the case with with this
00:23:12
screen People were asking okay like my
00:23:15
leads are down or my traffic is down
00:23:17
What do I do
00:23:19
um and so we thought this was a really
00:23:22
good place um that to introduce um some
00:23:27
microcopy to see how we could kind of um
00:23:31
change the user experience here Um and
00:23:33
so when people were doing good or when
00:23:37
their leads were improving we wrote copy
00:23:39
that said "Wow keep doing what you're
00:23:41
doing because it's working." Um and that
00:23:45
we just kind of tried that out We we we
00:23:47
have a copywriter Um we came up with a
00:23:50
whole bunch of different versions of
00:23:52
this Um but people really love this one
00:23:55
because it said keep doing what you're
00:23:58
doing right our software had never told
00:24:00
people that um that when when you're
00:24:03
successful and things are going well
00:24:05
just keep doing what you're doing So we
00:24:07
we weren't telling them to change their
00:24:09
behavior We were telling them to stay
00:24:11
the course Um and I can't tell you how
00:24:13
many people appreciated that message Um
00:24:17
because uh you know when when you have
00:24:19
so much data about what you're doing you
00:24:21
have you know uh analytics we have more
00:24:24
analytics than than anybody can really
00:24:26
use Um it's nice to know when that
00:24:29
analytics package actually tells you
00:24:31
okay here's your next step And in this
00:24:33
case like you don't have to do anything
00:24:35
Just keep doing what you're doing Um
00:24:38
here's another example um when when
00:24:41
things weren't going so well so like
00:24:43
when those graphs were were getting low
00:24:46
and and leads and traffic weren't
00:24:48
weren't going up um we'd say "Uhoh
00:24:51
conversion starting to slide Um time to
00:24:54
shake shake things up a bit." Um and do
00:24:56
some other some other task to to get
00:24:59
your visits and leads back up Um and so
00:25:02
we were correcting um we kind of course
00:25:05
correcting people um who whose marketing
00:25:08
wasn't particularly working at that
00:25:10
point and saying you know you should try
00:25:12
these other
00:25:15
things Um so here's what we learned
00:25:20
um from that dashboard case study Um we
00:25:25
found that overexposure and
00:25:26
repetitiveness breaks the magic So um
00:25:31
that's why uh we had a whole bunch of
00:25:34
different messages So if we showed the
00:25:36
same message every time like keep doing
00:25:38
what you're doing If we showed that
00:25:39
every time um it really gets old quickly
00:25:43
for people who are coming to the
00:25:44
application every day So you really need
00:25:46
to break it up Um have you know several
00:25:50
messages uh in the same way that um
00:25:53
Mailchimp had a bunch of different
00:25:55
messages just saying hello Um so vary
00:25:58
your messages like
00:26:00
that Another thing we learned is that
00:26:02
tone is extremely important Um
00:26:05
especially when something is going wrong
00:26:08
Uh your microcopy needs to be um I call
00:26:13
it appropriately serious If you make
00:26:15
light of something
00:26:18
um and it shouldn't be made light of So
00:26:21
for example um if we kind of made a joke
00:26:24
that uh your your leads were down or
00:26:27
your traffic is down that's actually
00:26:29
someone's job right like you're messing
00:26:31
with someone's job They're trying to
00:26:33
report to um their manager that they're
00:26:36
doing a good job So you know we learned
00:26:39
very quickly not to make light of
00:26:42
someone's traffic going down um or not
00:26:44
to make light that that their marketing
00:26:47
wasn't that effective Um and so so being
00:26:51
appropriately serious is very important
00:26:54
Um
00:26:56
uh once you use microcopy to fix some
00:26:59
issue you'll discover new issues like
00:27:02
the next day Um so people will get over
00:27:05
that initial hurdle and then find a lot
00:27:07
more hurdles So it's actually an
00:27:08
interesting um it's kind of an
00:27:10
interesting way to keep discovering new
00:27:12
things Um and people really do notice uh
00:27:16
microcopy here Here are some couple
00:27:19
quotes from people Um so I just noticed
00:27:22
the wows are cheerleading comments So
00:27:24
they called them cheerleading comments
00:27:26
Um that was my thought Exactly Um and
00:27:30
I'm flattered that you noticed Right So
00:27:32
like they're personifying the software
00:27:34
here Um that was actually a really good
00:27:36
day I was happy to see that Um it's a
00:27:38
cute touch It made my day Right So
00:27:40
people really do notice this stuff Um
00:27:42
here's another one Um I feel like I have
00:27:45
a mini digital coach in my dashboard
00:27:47
Right So another example of people
00:27:49
personifying the software Um that's
00:27:51
really powerful when people start
00:27:53
talking about your software as a
00:27:55
person Um
00:27:58
so I'm
00:28:01
um I'm really passionate about
00:28:03
copywriting U I've been doing UI
00:28:06
design for um about 15 years now Um
00:28:11
designing for the web And the more I do
00:28:14
it the more I focus on copy and I just
00:28:16
keep kind of doubling down on
00:28:19
copywriting Um uh Jenny Reddish talked
00:28:22
about uh the importance of copy um
00:28:26
yesterday um or the day before Um and uh
00:28:31
you know I think that um you know copy
00:28:34
is really the easiest way to improve
00:28:37
your interface the fastest way to
00:28:39
improve your interface the most
00:28:41
effective way to make your interface
00:28:43
friendly the most effective way to
00:28:46
really kind of get that human touch to
00:28:48
into your interface Um so I want to
00:28:51
leave you with two thoughts that um I
00:28:54
feel really really strongly about Uh the
00:28:57
first one is this that if you don't
00:28:59
think copy is the most important part of
00:29:01
an interface just try to take it out
00:29:04
Just try to remove it and see if anyone
00:29:07
can use anything They won't be able to
00:29:10
Right so like um and kind of a correlary
00:29:13
to that is that um I've I've worked with
00:29:17
a lot of designers
00:29:19
uh and you know hired designers um
00:29:23
worked on big projects with designers
00:29:25
and the ones who I think are the best
00:29:28
designers are the ones who sweat copy
00:29:31
and the ones who you can have a
00:29:33
conversation about like button text for
00:29:35
20 minutes right feels feels kind of
00:29:40
silly when you're when you're talking
00:29:42
about details like that Um but the end
00:29:45
result is that you know the design is
00:29:48
always better and it's always stronger
00:29:49
because you're paying attention to those
00:29:51
tiny details So my second thought is
00:29:54
this that if your UI designer doesn't
00:29:57
sweat every single word they add to a
00:29:59
screen that you should probably fire
00:30:01
them because they're not that great I
00:30:04
think copy is that important Um so that
00:30:08
is um that's my final thought for you Uh
00:30:11
thank you
