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Conversational AI is revolutionizing information access, offering a personalized, intuitive search experience that delights users and empowers businesses. A well-designed conversational agent acts as a knowledgeable guide, understanding user intent and effortlessly navigating vast data, which leads to happier, more engaged users, fostering loyalty and trust. Meanwhile, businesses benefit from increased efficiency, reduced costs, and a stronger bottom line. On the other hand, a poorly designed system can lead to frustration, confusion, and, ultimately, abandonment.
Achieving success with conversational AI requires more than just deploying a chatbot. To truly harness this technology, we must master the intricate dynamics of human-AI interaction. This involves understanding how users articulate needs, explore results, and refine queries, paving the way for a seamless and effective search experience.
This article will decode the three phases of conversational search, the challenges users face at each stage, and the strategies and best practices AI agents can employ to enhance the experience.
The Three Phases Of Conversational SearchTo analyze these complex interactions, Trippas et al. (2018) (PDF) proposed a framework that outlines three core phases in the conversational search process:
Building on this framework, Azzopardi et al. (2018) (PDF) identified five key user actions within these phases: reveal, inquire, navigate, interrupt, interrogate, and the corresponding agent actions — inquire, reveal, traverse, suggest, and explain.
In the following sections, I’ll break down each phase of the conversational search journey, delving into the actions users take and the corresponding strategies AI agents can employ, as identified by Azzopardi et al. (2018) (PDF). I’ll also share actionable tactics and real-world examples to guide the implementation of these strategies.
Phase 1: Query Formulation: The Art Of ArticulationIn the initial phase of query formulation, users attempt to translate their needs into prompts. This process involves conscious disclosures — sharing details they believe are relevant — and unconscious non-disclosure — omitting information they may not deem important or struggle to articulate.
This process is fraught with challenges. As Jakob Nielsen aptly pointed out,
“Articulating ideas in written prose is hard. Most likely, half the population can’t do it. This is a usability problem for current prompt-based AI user interfaces.”
— Jakob Nielsen
This can manifest as:
These challenges can lead to frustration for users and less relevant results from the AI agent.
To bridge the articulation gap, AI agents can employ three core strategies:
The key to effective query formulation is balancing elicitation and assumption. Overly aggressive questioning can frustrate users, and making too many assumptions can lead to inaccurate results.
For example,
User: “I need a new phone.”
AI: “What’s your budget? What features are important to you? What size screen do you prefer? What carrier do you use?...”
This rapid-fire questioning can overwhelm the user and make them feel like they're being interrogated. A more effective approach is to start with a few open-ended questions and gradually elicit more details based on the user’s responses.
As Azzopardi et al. (2018) (PDF) stated in the paper,
“There may be a trade-off between the efficiency of the conversation and the accuracy of the information needed as the agent has to decide between how important it is to clarify and how risky it is to infer or impute the underspecified or missing details.”
For example, after clicking one of the initial prompts, “Create a personal webpage,” ChatGPT added another sentence, “Ask me 3 questions first on whatever you need to know,” to elicit more details from the user.
For example, after clicking one of the initial prompts in Gemini, “Generate a stunning, playful image,” more details are added in blue in the input.
Once the query is formed, the focus shifts to exploration. Users embark on a multifaceted journey through search results, seeking to understand their options and make informed decisions.
Two primary user actions mark this phase:
To guide users through the vast landscape of information, AI agents can employ these strategies:
During discovery, it’s vital to avoid information overload, which can overwhelm users and hinder their decision-making. For example,
User: “I’m looking for a place to stay in Tokyo.”
AI: Provides a lengthy list of hotels without any organization or filtering options.
Instead, AI agents should offer the most relevant results and allow users to filter or sort them based on their needs. This might include presenting a few top recommendations based on ratings or popularity, with options to refine the search by price range, location, amenities, and so on.
Additionally, AI agents should understand natural language navigation. For example, if a user asks, “Tell me more about the second hotel,” the AI should provide additional details about that specific option without requiring the user to rephrase their query. This level of understanding is crucial for flexible navigation and a seamless user experience.
As users interact with results, their understanding deepens, and their initial query might not fully capture their evolving needs. During query re-formulation, users refine their search based on exploration and new insights, often involving interrupting and interrogating. Query re-formulation empowers users to course-correct and refine their search.
To navigate the query re-formulation phase effectively, AI agents need to be responsive, transparent, and proactive. Two core strategies for AI agents:
AI agents should balance suggestions with relevance and explain why certain options are suggested while avoiding overwhelming them with unrelated suggestions that increase conversational effort. A bad example would be the following:
User: “I want to visit Italian restaurants in New York.”
AI: Suggest unrelated options, like Mexican restaurants or American restaurants, when the user is interested in Italian cuisine.
This could frustrate the user and reduce trust in the AI.
A better answer could be, “I found these highly-rated Italian restaurants. Would you like to see more options based on different price ranges?” This ensures users understand the reasons behind recommendations, enhancing their satisfaction and trust in the AI's guidance.
While the strategies discussed above can significantly improve the conversational search experience, LLMs still have inherent limitations that can hinder their intuitiveness. These include the following:
To create truly effective and user-centric conversational AI, it’s crucial to address these limitations and make interactions more intuitive. Here are some key strategies:
Understanding and evaluating user satisfaction is fundamental to building effective conversational AI agents. However, directly measuring user satisfaction in the open-domain search context can be challenging, as Zhumin Chu et al. (2022) highlighted. Traditionally, metrics like session abandonment rates or task completion were used as proxies, but these don’t fully capture the nuances of user experience.
To address this, Clemencia Siro et al. (2023) offer a comprehensive approach to gathering and leveraging user feedback:
Additionally, consider these practical tips for incorporating user satisfaction feedback into the AI agent’s training process:
The evolution of conversational search is far from over. As AI technologies continue to advance, we can anticipate exciting developments:
Lately, I’ve learned that there are three sure things in life – death, taxes, and Awesome Motive acquiring popular WordPress businesses. That third certainty is what prompted me to write this post and let you know about the latest addition to their portfolio. 
As lavish influencer lifestyles, wealth flaunting, and hauls dominate social media feeds, we shouldn’t be surprised that excessive consumption has become the default way of living. We see closets filled to the brim with cheap, throw-away items and having the latest gadget arsenal as signifiers of an aspirational life.
Consumerism, however, is more than a cultural trend; it’s the backbone of our economic system. Companies eagerly drive excessive consumption as an increase in sales is directly connected to an increase in profit.
While we learned to accept this level of material consumption as normal, we need to be reminded of the massive environmental impact that comes along with it. As Yvon Chouinard, founder of Patagonia, writes in a New York Times article:
“Obsession with the latest tech gadgets drives open pit mining for precious minerals. Demand for rubber continues to decimate rainforests. Turning these and other raw materials into final products releases one-fifth of all carbon emissions.”
— Yvon Chouinard
In the paper, Scientists’ Warning on Affluence, a group of researchers concluded that reducing material consumption today is essential to avoid the worst of the looming climate change in the coming years. This need for lowering consumption is also reflected in the UN’s Sustainability goals, specifically Goal 17, “Ensuring sustainable consumption and production patterns”.
For a long time, design has been a tool for consumer engineering by for example, designing products with artificially limited useful life (planned obsolescence) to ensure continuous consumption. And if we want to understand specifically UX design’s role in influencing how much and what people buy, we have to take a deeper look at pushy online shopping experiences.
Design Shaping Shopping Habits: The Problem With Current E-commerce DesignToday, most online shopping experiences are designed with persuasion, gamification, nudging and even deception to get unsuspecting users to add more things to their basket.
There are “Hurry, only one item left in stock” type messages and countdown clocks that exploit well-known cognitive biases to nudge users to make impulse purchase decisions. As Michael Keenan explains,
“The scarcity bias says that humans place a higher value on items they believe to be rare and a lower value on things that seem abundant. Scarcity marketing harnesses this bias to make brands more desirable and increase product sales. Online stores use limited releases, flash sales, and countdown timers to induce FOMO — the fear of missing out — among shoppers.”
— Michael Keenan
To make buying things quick and effortless, we remove friction from the checkout process, for example, with the one-click-buy button. As practitioners of user-centered design, we might implement the button and say: thanks to this frictionless and easy checkout process, we improved the customer experience. Or did we just do a huge disservice to our users?
Gliding through the checkout process in seconds leaves no time for the user to ask, “Do I actually want this?” or “Do I have the money for this?”. Indeed, putting users on autopilot to make thoughtless decisions is the goal.
As a business.com article says: “Click to buy helps customers complete shopping within seconds and reduces the amount of time they have to reconsider their purchase.”
Amanda Mull writes from a user perspective about how it has become “too easy to buy stuff you don’t want”:
“The order took maybe 15 seconds. I selected my size and put the shoes in my cart, and my phone automatically filled in my login credentials and added my new credit card number. You can always return them, I thought to myself as I tapped the “Buy” button. [...] I had completed some version of the online checkout process a million times before, but I never could remember it being quite so spontaneous and thoughtless. If it’s going to be that easy all the time, I thought to myself, I’m cooked.”
— Amanda Mull
This quote also highlights that this thoughtless consumption is not only harmful to the environment but also to the very same user we say we center our design process around. The rising popularity of buy-now-pay-later services, credit card debt, and personal finance gurus to help “Overcoming Overspending” are indicators that people are spending more than they can afford, a huge source of stress for many.
The one-click-buy button is not about improving user experience but building an environment where users are “more likely to buy more and buy often.” If we care to put this bluntly, frictionless and persuasive e-commerce design is not user-centered but business-centered design.
While it is not unusual for design to be a tool to achieve business goals, we, designers, should be clear about who we are serving and at what cost with the power of design. To reckon with our impact, first, we have to understand the source of power we yield — the power asymmetry between the designer and the user.
Power Asymmetry Between User And DesignerImagine a scale: on one end sits the designer and the user on the other. Now, let’s take an inventory of the sources of power each party has in their hands in an online shopping situation and see how the scale balances.
Designers are equipped with knowledge about psychology, biases, nudging, and persuasion techniques. If we don’t have the time to learn all that, we can reach for an out-of-the-box solution that uses those exact psychological and behavioral insights. For example, Nudgify, a Woocommerce integration, promises to help “you get more sales and reduce shopping cart abandonment by creating Urgency and removing Friction.”
Erika Hall puts it this way: “When you are designing, you are making choices on behalf of other people.” We even have a word for this: choice architecture. Choice architecture refers to the deliberate crafting of decision-making environments. By subtly shaping how options are presented, choice architecture influences individual decision-making, often without their explicit awareness.
On top of this, we also collect funnel metrics, behavioral data, and A/B test things to make sure our designs work as intended. In other words, we control the environment where the user is going to make decisions, and we are knowledgeable about how to tweak it in a way to encourage the decisions we want the user to make. Or, as Vitaly Friedman says in one of his articles:
“We’ve learned how to craft truly beautiful interfaces and well-orchestrated interactions. And we’ve also learned how to encourage action to meet the project’s requirements and drive business metrics. In fact, we can make pretty much anything work, really.”
— Vitaly Friedman
On the other end of the scale, we have the user who is usually unaware of our persuasion efforts, oblivious about their own biases, let alone understanding when and how those are triggered.
Luckily, regulation around Deceptive Design on e-commerce is increasing. For example, companies are not allowed to use fake countdown timers. However, these regulations are not universal, and enforcement is lax, so often users are still not protected by law against pushy shopping experiences.
After this overview, let’s see how the scale balances:
When we understand this power asymmetry between designer and user, we need to ask ourselves:
If we look at e-commerce design today, more often than not, the unfortunate answer is mindless and excessive consumption.
This needs to change. We need to use the power of design to encourage sustainable user behavior and thus move us toward a sustainable future.
What Is Sustainable E-commerce?The discussion about sustainable e-commerce usually revolves around recyclable packaging, green delivery, and making the site energy-efficient with sustainable UX. All these actions and angles are important and should be part of our design process, but can we build a truly sustainable e-commerce if we are still encouraging unsustainable user behavior by design?
To achieve truly sustainable e-commerce, designers must shift from encouraging impulse purchases to supporting thoughtful decisions. Instead of using persuasion, gamification, and deception to boost sales, we should use our design skills to provide users with the time, space, and information they need to make mindful purchase decisions. I call this approach Kind Commerce.
But The Business?!While the intent of designing Kind Commerce is noble, we have a bitter reality to deal with: we live and work in an economic system based on perpetual growth. We are often measured on achieving KPIs like “increased conversion” or “reduced cart abandonment rate”. We are expected to use UX to achieve aggressive sales goals, and often, we are not in a position to change that.
It is a frustrating situation to be in because we can argue that the system needs to change, so it is possible for UXers to move away from persuasive e-commerce design. However, system change won’t happen unless we push for it. A catch-22 situation. So, what are the things we could do today?
“Add to basket” is beautifully highlighted in green, indicating a way forward, with insurance added in automatically. That’s a clear dark pattern, of course. The design, however, is likely to drive business KPIs, i.e., increase a spend per customer. But it will also generate a wrong purchase. The implications of it for businesses might be severe and irreversible — with plenty of complaints, customer support inquiries, and high costs of processing returns.”
— Vitaly Friedman
Helping users find the right products and make decisions they won’t regret can help the company save all the resources they would need to spend on dealing with complaints and returns. On top of this, the company can save millions of dollars by avoiding lawsuits for unfair commercial practices.
I know, I know, it sounds like an insane proposition in a profession obsessed with eliminating friction, but hear me out. Instead of “helping” users glide through the checkout process with one-click buy buttons, adding a step to review their order and give them a pause could help reduce unnecessary purchases. A positive reframing for this technique could be helpful to express our true intentions.
Instead of saying “adding friction,” we could say “adding a protective step”. Another example of “adding a protective step” could be getting rid of the “Quick Add” buttons and making users go to the product page to take a look at what they are going to buy. For example, Organic Basics doesn’t have a “Quick Add” button; users can only add things to their cart from the product page.
Once we make sure users will visit product pages, we can help them make more informed decisions. We can be transparent about the social and environmental impact of an item or provide guidelines on how to care for the product to last a long time.
For example, Asket has a section called “Lifecycle” where they highlight how to care for, repair and recycle their products. There is also a “Full Transparency” section to inform about the cost and impact of the garment.
Aggressive landing pages where everything is moving, blinking, modals popping up, 10 different discounts are presented are overwhelming, confusing and distracting, a fertile environment for impulse decisions.
Respect your user’s attention by designing pages that don’t raise their blood pressure to 180 the second they open them. No modals automatically popping up, no flashing carousels, and no discount dumping. Aim for static banners and display offers in a clear and transparent way. For example, H&M shows only one banner highlighting a discount on their landing page, and that’s it. If a fast fashion brand like H&M can design calm pages, there is no excuse why others couldn’t.
Fake urgency and social proof can not only get you fined for millions of dollars but also can turn users away. So simply do not add urgency messages and countdown clocks where there is no real deadline behind an offer. Don’t use fake social proof messages. Don’t say something has a limited supply when it doesn’t.
I would even take this a step further and recommend using persuasion sparingly, even if they are honest. Instead of overloading the product page with every possible persuasion method (urgency, social proof, incentive, assuming they are all honest), choose one yet impactful persuasion point.
To make it clear, I’m not advocating for designing bad or cumbersome user experiences to obstruct customers from buying things. Of course, I want a delightful and easy way to buy things we need.
I’m also well aware that design is never neutral. We need to present options and arrange user flows, and whichever way we choose to do that will influence user decisions and actions.
What I’m advocating for is at least putting the user back in the center of our design process. We read earlier that users think it is “too easy to buy things you don’t need” and feel that the current state of e-commerce design is contributing to their excessive spending. Understanding this and calling ourselves user-centered, we ought to change our approach significantly.
On top of this, I’m advocating for expanding our perspective to consider the wider environmental and social impact of our designs and align our work with the move toward a sustainable future.
Mindful Consumption Beyond E-commerce DesignE-commerce design is a practical example of how design is a part of encouraging excessive, unnecessary consumption today. In this article, we looked at what we can do on this practical level to help our users shop more mindfully. However, transforming online shopping experiences is only a part of a bigger mission: moving away from a culture where excessive consumption is the aspiration for customers and the ultimate goal of companies.
As Cliff Kuang says in his article,
“The designers of the coming era need to think of themselves as inventing a new way of living that doesn’t privilege consumption as the only expression of cultural value. At the very least, we need to start framing consumption differently.”
— Cliff Kuang
Or, as Manuel Lima puts in his book, The New Designer,
“We need the design to refocus its attention where it is needed — not in creating things that harm the environment for hundreds of years or in selling things we don’t need in a continuous push down the sales funnel but, instead, in helping people and the planet solve real problems. [...] Designs’s ultimate project is to reimagine how we produce, deliver, consume products, physical or digital, to rethink the existing business models.”
— Manuel Lima
So buckle up, designers, we have work to do!
To Sum It UpToday, design is part of the problem of encouraging and facilitating excessive consumption through persuasive e-commerce design and through designing for companies with linear and exploitative business models. For a liveable future, we need to change this. On a tactical level, we need to start advocating and designing mindful shopping experiences, and on a strategic level, we need to use our knowledge and skills to elevate sustainable businesses.
I’m not saying that it is going to be an easy or quick transition, but the best time to start is now. In a dire state of need for sustainable transformation, designers with power and agency can’t stay silent or continue proliferating the problem.
“As designers, we need to see ourselves as gatekeepers of what we are bringing into the world and what we choose not to bring into the world. Design is a craft with responsibility. The responsibility to help create a better world for all.”
— Mike Monteiro
The world of online security may seem complex, but understanding the basics of how SSL certificates work and why HTTPS is essential can empower you to make safer choices online. Just like Jane, you can navigate the digital landscape with confidence, knowing that your data is protected from prying eyes. So next time you browse the web, remember the story of Jane and the coffee shop hacker and choose secure, trusted websites for your online activities. Let’s start our day with Jane who was enjoying her coffee peacefully.
It was a sunny afternoon, and Jane decided to take a break from her hectic day. She headed to her favorite coffee shop, ordered a latte, and found a cozy corner to catch up on some online shopping and emails. As she settled in, she connected her laptop to the coffee shop’s free Wi-Fi and began browsing. Little did she know, a hacker named Bob was sitting just a few tables away, eager to intercept her data.
One of the reasons I can’t stop thinking about native Web Components is how you can use them anywhere. “Incremental adoption” is the fancy phrase, I suppose.
We’ve even started using them on the new editor for CodePen we’re still hard at work on to solve some interesting issues I’m sure we’ll talk about someday. We’re using React/Next there, which isn’t famous for it’s support of Web Components, but it’s mostly been fine. Other JavaScript frameworks are much more friendly, and of course if you aren’t using a JavaScript framework you haven’t a care in the world; Web Components can be part of your world.
Because they are pretty easy to slip in anywhere, they work pretty well on CodePen. I mentioned a list of “stand alone” Web Components the other week here at the ol’ Corner, then I converted them into Pens just to prove that. A lot of web components are published to npm to using a site like esm.sh makes linking up the resources pretty easy.
What’s cool about using web components like I have above is that they just might last forever. I ranted a little about this on Mastodon the other day. The fewer dependencies a web component has, the longer it will last. It will certainly outlive your JavaScript framework, as Jake Lazaroff put it:
If we want our work to be accessible in five or ten or even 20 years, we need to use the web with no layers in between. For all its warts, the web has become the most resilient, portable, future-proof computing platform we’ve ever created — at least, if we build with that in mind.
I think that’s cool.
I makes me think what will break about those demos I posted. Like, what is going to make this Pen stop working someday? If CodePen goes offline, it will. But we’ve just had our 12th birthday are are going strong. You’d have to fight me to the death for that to happen. The web component is linked up from esm.sh so if that went down it would stop working. That’s definitely possible, we’ve seen free CDN-like websites like this come and go. But you could just change to a different one. The code is on npm, so that could die or the author could pull it down. But there doesn’t seem to be a lot of risk of that, and it’s open source so mirrors will exist. Pretty resilient, I’d say! Although different projects have different needs there and you could always get stronger by reducing even those dependencies.
Oh hey speaking of web components and things that are super cool… check out David Darnes new one just for us: <code-pen>.
The idea is that it’s a convienient way to use our Post to Prefill API. So you’d author code like this:
<script type="module" src="code-pen.js"></script>
<code-pen>
<pre>
<code><p>Hello world</p></code>
</pre>
<pre>
<code>:root { color: hotpink; }</code>
</pre>
<pre>
<code>document.querySelector("p").style.backgroundColor = "orange";</code>
</pre>
</code-pen>(Or you could use Markdown triple backticks and avoid the code escaping, among other options)
Then it builds an “Open in CodePen” button that users can click to open that code in a real Pen. The point is usually stuff like documentation and blog posts where you want to manage all the code yourself, not maintain both the text and the Pens separately. Thanks David, this is super cool.
David also recently published a free eBook called The Case for Web Components you might want to check out if you’re looking to be further convinced or need more learnings on the basic to decide. In it, he mentioned the use case of “design systems”, which seems like an awful big one to me. These days, if you’re creating a design system, doing it in anything other than web components seems weird. Web components will last and be movable between frameworks as your project evolves, with little if any downside.
While we’re on the subject let’s just get a little more into the weeds.
Ultimately a Web Component is a class in JavaScript. It has standard methods, like a constructor that is called when the class is instantiated. It also has a method connectedCallback that runs when on each instance of a web component when it shows up in the DOM. This is a bit of a subtle difference and can be quite a gotcha, as Nolan Lawson says. If your component needs to do stuff that might be unique to each instance, that belongs in connectedCallback. I think it’s a real superpower of web components! For example, it’s kinda like getting event delegation for free.
There is an approach to web components called HTML web components which is essentially:
<web-component> to extend the functionality That’s fun and obviously useful (e.g. a blog post with a web component would render fine over RSS). It’s related but not quite the same declarative shadow DOM. Raymond Camden explores something interesting here… how does a web component know if the HTML inside it changes? Unfortunately there is no obvious solution or helper API for this… other than the platform itself. The trick is that you use a MutationObserver on itself internally to watch for changes and then do whatever you gotta do. Interesting stuff. I’d be tempted to rip the whole thing out of the DOM and replace it just so connectedCallback does it’s thing, rather than craft every web component such that it’s watching for it’s own changes.
I hadn’t really thought that much about watching for changes like that before, as it just hasn’t come up for me. Similarly, Ben Nadel points out that the contents of a <template> can be mutated at any time, and new components instantiated off it will use that new content. That makes sense to me, it’s just a twist of how I normally think of components. I think of the template as this static thing which takes data and does what it needs to do. Less so do I think of a template itself that is dynamic based on data.
User journey maps are a remarkably effective way to visualize the user’s experience for the entire team. Instead of pointing to documents scattered across remote fringes of Sharepoint, we bring key insights together — in one single place.
Let’s explore a couple of helpful customer journey templates to get started and how companies use them in practice.
This article is part of our ongoing series on UX. You might want to take a look at Smart Interface Design Patterns 🍣 and the upcoming live UX training as well. Use code BIRDIE to save 15% off.
AirBnB Customer Journey BlueprintAirBnB Customer Journey Blueprint (also check Google Drive example) is a wonderful practical example of how to visualize the entire customer experience for two personas, across eight touch points, with user policies, UI screens and all interactions with the customer service — all on one single page.
Now, unlike AirBnB, your product might not need a mapping against user policies. However, it might need other lanes that would be more relevant for your team. For example, include relevant findings and recommendations from UX research. List key actions needed for the next stage. Include relevant UX metrics and unsuccessful touchpoints.
Whatever works for you, works for you — just make sure to avoid assumptions and refer to facts and insights from research.
Spotify Customer Journey MapSpotify Customer Journey Blueprint (high resolution) breaks down customer experiences by distinct user profiles, and for each includes mobile and desktop views, pain points, thoughts, and actions. Also, notice branches for customers who skip authentication or admin tasks.
To get started with user journey maps, we first choose a lens: Are we reflecting the current state or projecting a future state? Then, we choose a customer who experiences the journey — and we capture the situation/goals that they are focusing on.
Next, we list high-level actions users are going through. We start by defining the first and last stages and fill in between. Don’t get too granular: list key actions needed for the next stage. Add the user’s thoughts, feelings, sentiments, and emotional curves.
Eventually, add user’s key touchpoints with people, services, tools. Map user journey across mobile and desktop screens. Transfer insights from other research (e.g., customer support). Fill in stage after stage until the entire map is complete.
Then, identify pain points and highlight them with red dots. Add relevant jobs-to-be-done, metrics, channels if needed. Attach links to quotes, photos, videos, prototypes, Figma files. Finally, explore ideas and opportunities to address pain points.
Free Customer Journey Maps Templates (Miro, Figma)You don’t have to reinvent the wheel from scratch. Below, you will find a few useful starter kits to get up and running fast. However, please make sure to customize these templates for your needs, as every product will require its own specific details, dependencies, and decisions.
Keep in mind that customer journeys are often non-linear, with unpredictable entry points and integrations way beyond the final stage of a customer journey map. It’s in those moments when things leave a perfect path that a product’s UX is actually stress-tested.
So consider mapping unsuccessful touchpoints as well — failures, error messages, conflicts, incompatibilities, warnings, connectivity issues, eventual lock-outs and frequent log-outs, authentication issues, outages, and urgent support inquiries.
Also, make sure to question assumptions and biases early. Once they live in your UX map, they grow roots — and it might not take long until they are seen as the foundation of everything, which can be remarkably difficult to challenge or question later. Good luck, everyone!
Meet Smart Interface Design PatternsIf you are interested in UX and design patterns, take a look at Smart Interface Design Patterns, our 10h-video course with 100s of practical examples from real-life projects — with a live UX training later this year. Everything from mega-dropdowns to complex enterprise tables — with 5 new segments added every year. Jump to a free preview. Use code BIRDIE to save 15% off.
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Kickstarting an e-commerce store can feel like trying to build a castle out of LEGO blocks without a manual. Whether you’re a seasoned entrepreneur or a novice, the journey is riddled with choices, among which selecting the right theme tops the list. Fear not, the world of Shopify is a goldmine brimming with dazzling yet completely free themes. They can make your store look like a million bucks, even if you’re still waiting for your first sale.
Think of free Shopify themes as your store’s virtual wardrobe – you wouldn’t dress your shop in pajamas, right? With countless options at your fingertips, it’s as if you have an online stylist at your service. These templates bring style and functionality without the hefty price tag. Plus, they’re an absolute cinch to install.
Ready to dive into the slick, stylish, and snazzy world of Shopify themes? Buckle up, because we’ve got the lowdown on the best free templates to make your site shine brighter than a disco ball at Studio 54.
Imagine walking into a grocery store where aisles twist like a labyrinth and bananas are shelved next to light bulbs. Chaos, right? That’s what a default Shopify theme can feel like. A custom theme transforms your store from that chaotic mess into a seamless shopping experience – think IKEA without the frustration.
It’s not just about looks, though you’ll definitely turn heads with a snazzy setup. A tailored theme aligns with your brand’s vibe, making customers feel right at home, like they’re visiting a favorite café. Plus, you get to flaunt unique features that can boost sales quicker than a cat video goes viral.
In the crowded market, standing out isn’t optional; it’s survival. So, treat your store like that Instagram-perfect coffee shop. The right theme sets the stage for delightful discoveries and ensures your customers keep coming back for more lattes – and purchases.
Imagine your Shopify store as a superhero; its theme is the cape. A quality theme doesn’t just swoosh dramatically—it gets things done. Flashy looks? Absolutely. But more importantly, it makes shopping a breeze. Think of it as offering an all-access pass to your products without the annoying velvet ropes.
Why settle for a default when you can go deluxe? A high-caliber theme means faster load times. Shoppers are like goldfish—easily distracted. Keep ’em hooked with a snappy interface.
Responsiveness? That’s non-negotiable. Your theme needs to look sharp on any device, just like you in your LinkedIn profile pic. Don’t forget SEO-friendly designs. Your store should be a magnet for search engines, pulling in customers like free samples at Costco.
In short, a quality Shopify theme is your behind-the-scenes co-star, ensuring every visitor has an unforgettable, purchase-inducing experience.💰
Ready to supercharge your Shopify store with an epic theme but overwhelmed by the sea of options? No sweat, you’re not alone. Start with your vibe. Are you selling high-end fashion or quirky handmade crafts? Your theme should scream your brand’s personality louder than a teenager at a concert.
Next, check the functionality. Test drive those demos like you’re at a car show. Look for features you need—sliders, product zooms, Instagram feeds—you name it.
Don’t forget mobile. Seriously, most people shop on their phones while doing everything else. Make sure your theme looks sleek on any screen size.
Reviews are your friends. If Sally from Iowa found it helpful, you might too. But take ’em with a pinch of salt; some folks are never satisfied.
Lastly, support. Free stuff is great until it breaks. Ensure there’s a helpful community or some support for those inevitable hiccups.
Follow these pointers and you’ll pick a theme that’s as fabulous as your products. 🕶️
Sure, who doesn’t love free stuff? Free Shopify themes are like finding a $20 bill in your old jeans. They help you save some serious cash while offering a decent range of customization. Money saved on themes means more budget for killer marketing campaigns, right?
Plus, many free themes are backed by Shopify’s solid dev team. You won’t get stuck with some buggy afterthought of a theme. These templates are user-focused and often just as snazzy as their paid counterparts. They can give your store a polished look without squeezing your wallet dry.
If you’re just dipping your toes into the e-commerce ocean, free themes are a no-brainer. They let you experiment without financial commitment. And hey, if your store blows up overnight, you can always upgrade later. It’s all about working smart, not hard!
Choosing the right Shopify theme isn’t rocket science, but a little insider wisdom never hurt anyone, right? First, think about your brand style. If your store is all about Gothic fashion, a pastel floral theme won’t do the trick.
Keep an eye on functionality— it’s like checking for the engine before buying a car. Does it support all your desired features? Integrated social media? A snazzy product slider? Check the reviews like you’re stalking an ex’s Facebook. See what other users say about it.
Make sure it looks good on mobile. Folks are more likely to shop while waiting in line for their coffee than sitting at a desktop. Test drive different themes with your actual content. Sometimes what looks like gold turns out to be glitter.
And finally, don’t stress too much. It’s okay to start simple and upgrade later. After all, even Rome wasn’t built on a premium template!
Ready to wrap this up? Free Shopify templates can be lifesavers for new store owners with a tight budget. Don’t worry; you won’t sacrifice style or functionality. Imagine these themes as your e-commerce Swiss Army knife: they’ve got it all, and they don’t cost a dime.
Remember, your site’s look is its first impression. Make it count! Test different free themes like you’re trying on outfits before a big date. Do they fit your brand? Are they responsive? If your theme doesn’t make your products shine, swipe left.
Stay flexible. If your first choice doesn’t attract customers, try another. After all, even astronauts do test runs!
So go ahead, dive into the pool of the best free Shopify templates. You might find the perfect one faster than you can say, “Shopify theme for free!” Your future self—and your sales—will thank you.
The post Best Free Shopify Templates That Will Elevate Your E-Commerce Store appeared first on CSS Author.
Want your Photoshop images to look like professional watercolor paintings, but don’t want to spend hours editing? In this post, we’ll be sharing the best watercolor Photoshop Actions that...
The post 31 Best Watercolor Photoshop Actions (2024) appeared first on Onextrapixel.
Does Anyone know how a beginner like me in tech can start learning cyber security or starting a career in cyber engineering?
Howdy, WordPress friends. In this edition, I’ll cover WordCamp Europe 2024 (and tell you more about its venue in 2025), an ongoing supply chain attack that’s affecting lots of plugins/WordPress sites (make sure your sites are safe), several new WordPress acquisitions, and plenty more news and tidbits.
Creating a visually appealing and user-friendly website is more important than ever. Modern creators need the best tools to bring their visions to life. From AI-powered web design to traditional software, today’s web page design tools suite diverse needs, ensuring dynamic and engaging web experiences.
Creators have various options to build stunning websites. Tools like Wix and WordPress allow easy customization. Webflow caters to more advanced users with intricate design needs. Squarespace offers beautifully designed templates, while Weebly provides intuitive drag-and-drop features. These tools simplify web development for everyone.
Wix is an intuitive online website design tool catering to beginners and professionals. With its drag-and-drop interface, users can create stunning web pages effortlessly. Wix’s flexibility allows creators to customize templates, making the design process both quick and seamless.
One of the most popular website design programs is WordPress. It offers both beginners and pros numerous plugins to enhance functionality. With a vast library of themes, customizing your site is a breeze. Additionally, its SEO-friendly structure benefits content visibility.
For creators seeking flexibility, Webflow is a strong contender. It offers a no-code platform, enabling users to design without deep coding knowledge. Adding animations and interactions is simple. Plus, its clean interface and robust e-commerce capabilities make it ideal for diverse projects.
Squarespace offers an intuitive platform for effortless website creation. Its sleek templates cater to diverse industries, making it a go-to for many. With drag-and-drop functionality, users can customize their site seamlessly. E-commerce integration and responsive design features further enhance its appeal.
Weebly is straightforward and ideal for beginners. It offers a drag-and-drop interface that makes creating websites a breeze. Users can quickly integrate e-commerce features, enhancing online store functionality. Built-in SEO tools help improve search engine visibility. Affordable plans provide great value for small businesses and entrepreneurs.
From Divi AI to Uizard, these tools take web design to the next level. Framer, with its intuitive interface, simplifies complex tasks. Codewp is perfect for coders seeking efficiency. These AI-powered web design options are revolutionizing website creation, making models smarter and faster.
Divi AI is an advanced tool for web design. It automates various aspects of website creation, allowing designers to focus on creativity. Users can easily generate custom layouts and content. By harnessing AI, Divi simplifies design tasks, speeding up project timelines significantly.
Wix AI stands as a game changer for web creators. It streamlines site-building with smart templates and intuitive customization. The AI suggests design tweaks based on user input, making it almost like having a digital assistant. Complex tasks become straightforward, aiding both novices and experts alike.
Hostinger AI elevates website design with practical features. It offers tailored templates that adapt to user needs. Ideal for beginners and pros, it simplifies complex tasks, making design effortless. The AI keeps updating, ensuring design stays current and effective.
Framer is an outstanding online website design tool for modern creators. It integrates AI-powered web design to streamline the creation process. With its intuitive interface, even beginners can craft polished websites. Designers appreciate its flexibility and robust feature set for prototyping.
Designers love Uizard for its simplicity. It rapidly converts sketches into digital wireframes. The AI-powered web design tool stands out for speed and ease of use. Ideal for prototyping, Uizard is a go-to choice in the web design tools list. It’s a game-changer for website design programs.
Codewp is a valuable addition to the toolkit for web designers. It’s an AI-powered web design tool that streamlines the coding process. With advanced code generation capabilities, it eases the development of complex functionalities. This online website design tool is efficient and user-friendly.
For visual creativity, Adobe Photoshop stands out, offering extensive editing features. Adobe Illustrator is ideal for vector graphics. Canva simplifies designs with its templates. Figma excels in collaborative design. Affinity Designer provides a cost-effective alternative for professional-grade illustrations.
Figma is an online website design tool known for collaboration. It allows real-time editing and feedback. Users can create, share, and iterate designs swiftly. It’s favored for its intuitive interface and efficiency. Loved by teams, Figma simplifies design workflows.
Canva is a versatile, online website design tool aimed at simplifying graphic creation. It offers pre-made templates that cater to various design needs. Users can drag and drop elements effortlessly. Its intuitive interface suits beginners and pros. Canva supports team collaboration too.
Adobe’s powerful editing tool is essential for web designers. It offers a wide range of features, from simple photo edits to intricate graphic compositions. Users can adjust colors, retouch images, and create stunning visuals. Battery of filters and effects adds creative edge.
For crafting vector graphics, Adobe Illustrator stands out. It’s perfect for creating logos, icons, sketches, and complex illustrations. The tool offers precision with its pen and shape tools. Users can scale artwork without losing quality. Integration with other Adobe products enriches the design process.
For vector graphics, Affinity Designer stands out. It’s fast, smooth, and precise. Web designers appreciate its affordability and capability. Users can work on both vector and raster designs seamlessly. The interface is easy to navigate, making it a favorite among creatives.
Fonts Ninja assists in identifying any font you see. Fontjoy effortlessly generates font pairings. Google’s extensive catalog of free fonts is invaluable. Flipping Typical shows a quick preview of all fonts on your system. Typewolf offers daily inspiration. WhatTheFont identifies fonts from images instantly. Typescale helps in creating harmonious typographic scales.
Identifying fonts can be tricky for many designers. Fonts Ninja simplifies this by letting users hover over any text and instantly see font details. The tool is particularly useful for uncovering the niches of obscure typefaces. It’s a game-changer for anyone passionate about typography.
Fontjoy is a nifty tool for those who love typography. It helps users find harmonious font pairings with ease. By generating fonts that work well together, it saves designers from endless trial and error. It’s perfect for quickly refining text aesthetics.
Google Fonts offers a free library of web fonts that designers can easily integrate into their projects. Its large selection ensures a wide range of typography choices suitable for any style. The platform is user-friendly, making it simple to preview and implement fonts on web pages.
This tool is a font previewer that showcases how different typefaces look with your text. Quick and intuitive, it allows designers to make informed typography choices swiftly. Users can easily compare and select fonts for their projects without hassle.
Typewolf is a treasure trove for font enthusiasts. It offers curated lists of fonts, recommendations, and typography inspiration. This tool helps web designers find the right typeface for their projects by showcasing real-world examples. It’s a designer’s go-to for typography insights.
This tool lets designers identify fonts from images. Simply upload an image, and WhatTheFont will match it to a database of typefaces. It’s quick and reliable. Perfect for those moments when you spot the perfect font but don’t know its name.
Typescale is vital for creating balanced typographic systems. This online tool lets designers generate harmonious font pairings and scale them according to their design needs. It’s easy to use, offering real-time previews. Typescale boosts productivity by simplifying complex tasks.
Coolors offers intuitive color scheme generation. Color Hunt provides a community-driven palette library. Colormind uses AI to create stunning palettes. Pantone Connect ensures accurate color matching. Muzli Colors is perfect for fresh ideas. Paletton aids in choosing harmonious and complementary colors efficiently.
Coolors allows users to craft stunning color palettes with ease. It’s simple and intuitive, making it perfect for both beginners and seasoned designers. Users can generate, save, and export palettes in various formats. Coolors also offers numerous customization options for precise color control.
Color Hunt is a simple and effective tool for finding and sharing color palettes. Users can explore a wide range of trending palettes created by the community. It’s free and user-friendly, making it ideal for quick inspiration in web design.
Colormind is a powerful AI-powered web design tool focused on generating color palettes. It learns from popular art, movies, and images to create visually appealing combinations. Designers can lock certain colors and let the AI handle the rest. It’s intuitive and efficient for quick palette creation.
Pantone Connect is an essential tool for designers focusing on precise color fidelity. It offers the complete Pantone library, ensuring colors are consistent across different mediums. The platform also allows users to create, organize, and share palettes. Integration with design software enhances workflow efficiency.
Muzli Colors simplifies the color selection process. It offers a fresh palette every time you open the app. Designers can explore endless color combinations effortlessly. It’s perfect for finding inspiration during creative blocks. Muzli Colors is an indispensable tool in any designer’s toolkit.
Paletton offers an intuitive interface for creating color schemes. Designers select a main color, and Paletton generates harmonious palettes. It’s excellent for experimenting with color theory. The tool supports various designs, ensuring cohesive aesthetics for any web design project. Handy and user-friendly, Paletton simplifies color coordination.
Invisionapp is a popular choice for creating interactive prototypes. Figma offers real-time collaboration and a robust design interface. Justinmind simplifies the process with its drag-and-drop editor. These tools streamline the transition from concept to finished web design, saving time and reducing errors.
Invisionapp excels in creating interactive prototypes. It’s user-friendly and integrates seamlessly with other design tools. The platform offers valuable features like version control and feedback collection. Designers appreciate its ability to simulate user experiences effectively, bolstering collaboration and streamlining project timelines.
Figma is a versatile online website design tool. It supports real-time collaboration, making teamwork easier. Designers love its user-friendly interface and extensive features. Figma’s robust vector tools and prototyping capabilities set it apart. It’s ideal for creating dynamic designs and interactive prototypes efficiently.
Justinmind is a reliable prototyping tool. It helps designers create interactive wireframes effortlessly. With its drag-and-drop interface, even beginners find it accessible. It’s perfect for both mobile and web applications. Users can test and iterate designs with ease, improving overall workflow efficiency.
For newcomers and seasoned developers alike, finding free web hosting can be a treasure hunt. x10Hosting delivers unlimited bandwidth. 000webhost is a reliable choice with no ads. Firebase offers dynamic functionalities. Awardspace is beginner-friendly, while Byethost ensures performance. GitHub Pages suits coders perfectly. InfinityFree combines storage and speed.
Offering unlimited bandwidth and storage, x10Hosting is a prime choice for those seeking cost-effective solutions. Its user-friendly interface makes it accessible for beginners. With a robust uptime guarantee, x10Hosting ensures your site remains live and active. Ideal for personal projects.
Providing free and reliable hosting, 000webhost is a favorite among budding developers. Users appreciate its simple control panel and easy setup process. With no ads, 000webhost offers a professional look for personal and small business sites. Enjoy features like custom domains and automatic backups.
Firebase offers robust tools for web designers. With real-time databases, hosting, and authentication services, it simplifies backend development. Users can quickly deploy sites without fuss. Firebase’s intuitive interface supports seamless project management. It’s a fantastic choice for efficient, hassle-free hosting.
Awardspace provides free hosting with a user-friendly interface. Perfect for beginners, it’s reliable and straightforward. This platform includes one-click WordPress installation, ensuring a smooth start for new projects. Additionally, their customer support is responsive, enhancing the overall experience for users.
Byethost offers free web hosting with reliable uptime and generous storage. It’s ideal for those looking to start a new website on a budget. Users can expect a simple-to-navigate control panel and useful tools for managing their sites. This platform’s customer support is available 24/7.
This service provides a seamless way for developers to host static websites directly from their GitHub repositories. It’s particularly great for projects and portfolios. Users love its simplicity and integration with Git version control. Plus, it’s entirely free, making it an attractive option.
InfinityFree offers free web hosting with unlimited disk space and bandwidth. It includes a free subdomain and a user-friendly control panel. Perfect for beginners, this service ensures uptime and reliability without any hidden costs. Ideal for those seeking an uncomplicated hosting solution.
The post Best Web Page Design Tools for Modern Creators -2024 appeared first on CSS Author.
For many of us, July is the epitome of summer. The time for spending every free minute outside to enjoy the sun and those seemingly endless summer days, be it in a nearby park, by a lake, or on a trip exploring new places. So why not bring a bit of that summer joy to your desktop, too?
For this month’s wallpapers post, artists and designers from across the globe once again tickled their creativity to capture the July feeling in a collection of desktop wallpapers. They all come in versions with and without a calendar for July 2024 and can be downloaded for free — as it has been a Smashing tradition for more than 13 years already. A huge thank-you to everyone who submitted their artworks this month — this post wouldn’t exist without you!
As a little bonus goodie, we also compiled a selection of July favorites from our wallpapers archives at the end of this post. So maybe you’ll discover one of your almost-forgotten favorites in here, too? Have a fantastic July, no matter what your plans are!
“The long-awaited vacation is coming closer. After working all year, we find ourselves with months that, although we don’t stop completely, are lived differently. We enjoy the days and nights more, and if we can, the beach will keep us company. Therefore, we’ll spend this month in Australia, enjoying the coral reefs and diving without limits.” — Designed by Veronica Valenzuela from Spain.
“Join gamers worldwide on National Video Game Day to honor the rich history and vibrant culture of gaming. Enjoy exclusive discounts on top titles, participate in exciting online tournaments, and dive into special events featuring your favorite games. Whether you're a casual player or a dedicated enthusiast, there’s something for everyone to celebrate on this epic day!” — Designed by PopArt Studio from Serbia.
“This heartwarming moment captures an unlikely friendship of a gentle Bigfoot and an adorable little girl set against the backdrop of a magical and serene evening in nature.” — Designed by Reethu M from London.
Designed by Ricardo Gimenes from Sweden.
“The inspiration came from the lush gardens and floral landscapes that thrive in the height of summer. I wanted to bring the elegance and tranquility of these blooming flowers into a calendar that people can enjoy throughout the month of July.” — Designed by Hyfa K from India.
Designed by Ricardo Gimenes from Sweden.
“We have been waiting for it for many months: The Paris 2024 Olympics Games are coming in July! My drawing is a vision of the joyful activity of athletes in the stadium, with only colored tracks. I chose to use the colors of the Olympics rings. Let’s go to Paris or watch it on TV.” — Designed by Philippe Brouard from France.
“July is the month of the full buck moon, named after the fact that many deer regrow their antlers around this time. It is also when the United States celebrate their Independence Day with fireworks and fun. I decided to combine these aspects into a magical encounter during the fourth of July. It takes place in a field of larkspur which is a flower associated with July.” — Designed by Quincy van Geffen from the Netherlands.
“World Chocolate Day, celebrated on July 7th, invites chocolate lovers worldwide to indulge in their favorite treat. Commemorating chocolate’s introduction to Europe, this day celebrates its global popularity. Enjoy dark, milk, or white chocolate, bake delicious desserts, and share the sweetness with loved ones.” — Designed by Reethu M from London.
Designed by Lívi Lénárt from Hungary.
“Summer is coming in the northern hemisphere and what better way to enjoy it than with watermelons and cannonballs.” — Designed by Maria Keller from Mexico.
Designed by Lieke Dol from the Netherlands.
“July in South Africa is dreary and wintery so we give all the southern hemisphere dwellers a bit of color for those gray days. And for the northern hemisphere dwellers a bit of pop for their summer!” — Designed by Wonderland Collective from South Africa.
Eternal Summer
“And once you let your imagination go, you find yourself surrounded by eternal summer, unexplored worlds, and all-pervading warmth, where there are no rules of physics and colors tint the sky under your feet.” — Designed by Ana Masnikosa from Belgrade, Serbia.
Designed by Xenia Latii from Germany.
“I enjoy creating tropical designs. They fuel my wanderlust and passion for the exotic, instantaneously transporting me to a tropical destination.” — Designed by Tamsin Raslan from the United States.
“July is the middle of summer, when most of us go on road trips, so I designed a calendar inspired by my love of traveling and summer holidays.” — Designed by Patricia Coroi from Romania.
Designed by Ricardo Gimenes from Sweden.
“In times of clean eating and the world of superfoods there is one vegetable missing. An old, forgotten one. A flower actually. Rare and special. Once it had a royal reputation (I cheated a bit with the blue). The artichocke — this is my superhero in the garden! I am a food lover — you too? Enjoy it — dip it!” — Designed by Alexandra Tamgnoué from Germany.
“Make sure you have a refreshing source of ideas, plans and hopes this July. Especially if you are to escape from urban life for a while.” — Designed by Igor Izhik from Canada.
Designed by Ilaria Bagnasco from Italy.
“Two friends sat under the enchanting moonlight, enjoying the serene ambiance as they savoured their cups of tea. It was a rare and precious connection that transcended the ordinary, kindled by the magic of the moonlight. Eventually, as the night began to wane, they reluctantly stood, their empty cups in hand. They carried with them the memories and the tranquility of the moonlit tea session, knowing that they would return to this special place to create new memories in the future.” — Designed by Bhabna Basak from India.
Designed by Ricardo Gimenes from Sweden.
“Warm summer weather inspired the color palette.” — Designed by Marijana Pivac from Croatia.
Designed by Natalia Szendzielorz from Poland.
Designed by Xenia Latii from Berlin, Germany.
“Make the days count this summer!” — Designed by Meghan Pascarella from the United States.
“A few essential items for the summertime weather at the beach, park, and everywhere in-between.” — Designed by Zach Vandehey from the United States.
Captain Amphicar
“My son and I are obsessed with the Amphicar right now, so why not have a little fun with it?” — Designed by 3 Bicycles Creative from the United States.
Designed by Ricardo Gimenes from Sweden.
Designed by ActiveCollab from the United States.
“In summer everything inspires me.” — Designed by Maria Karapaunova from Bulgaria.
“What’s better than a starry summer night with an (unexpected) friend around a fire camp with some marshmallows? Happy July!” — Designed by Etienne Mansard from the UK.
“Rain has come, showering the existence with new seeds of life. Everywhere life is blooming, as if they were asleep and the falling music of raindrops have awakened them. Feel the drops of rain. Feel this beautiful mystery of life. Listen to its music, melt into it.” — Designed by DMS Software from India.
“Ever watched Joe’s Apartment when you were a kid? Well, that movie left a soft spot in my heart for the little critters. Don’t get me wrong: I won’t invite them over for dinner, but I won’t grab my flip flop and bring the wrath upon them when I see one running in the house. So there you have it… three roaches… bringing the smack down on that pesky human… ZZZZZZZAP!!” — Designed by Wonderland Collective from South Africa.
July Rocks!
Designed by Joana Moreira from Portugal.
Frogs In The Night
“July is coming and the nights are warmer. Frogs look at the moon while they talk about their day.” — Designed by Veronica Valenzuela from Spain.
Throughout my UX writing career, I’ve held many different roles: a UX writer in a team of UX writers, a solo UX writer replacing someone who left, the first and only UX writer at a company, and even a teacher at a UX writing course, where I reviewed more than 100 home assignments. And oh gosh, what I’ve seen.
Crafting microcopy is not everyone’s strong suit, and it doesn’t have to be. Still, if you’re a UX designer, product manager, analyst, or marketing content writer working in a small company, on an MVP, or on a new product, you might have to get by without a UX writer. So you have the extra workload of creating microcopy. Here are some basic rules that will help you create clear and concise copy and run a quick health check on your designs.
Ensure Your Interface Copy Is Role-playableWhy it’s important:
- To create a friendly, conversational experience;
- To work out a consistent interaction pattern.
When crafting microcopy, think of the interface as a dialog between your product and your user, where:
Ideally, you should be able to role-play your interface copy: a product asks the user to do something — the user does it; a product asks for information — the user types it in or selects an item from the menu; a product informs or warns the user about something — the user takes action.
For example, if your screen is devoted to an event and the CTA is for the user to register, you should opt for a button label like “Save my spot” rather than “Save your spot.” This way, when a user clicks the button, it’s as if they are pronouncing the phrase themselves, which resonates with their thoughts and intentions.
Why it’s important: To build trust and loyalty towards your product.
Some topics, such as personal data, health, or money, are extremely sensitive for people. If your product involves any limitations, peculiarities, or possible negative outcomes related to these sensitive topics, you should convey this information clearly and unequivocally. You will also need to collaborate with your UX/UI Designer closely to ensure you deliver this information in a timely manner and always make it visible without requiring the user to take additional actions (e.g., don’t hide it in tooltips that are only shown by tapping).
Here’s a case from my work experience. For quite some time, I’ve been checking homework assignments for a UX writing course. In this course, all the tasks have revolved around an imaginary app for dog owners. One of the tasks students worked on was creating a flow for booking a consultation with a dog trainer. The consultation had to be paid in advance. In fact, the money was blocked on the user’s bank card and charged three hours before the consultation. That way, a user could cancel the meeting for free no later than three hours before the start time. A majority of the students added this information as a tooltip on the checkout screen; if a user didn’t tap on it, they wouldn’t be warned about the possibility of losing money.
In a real-life situation, this would cause immense negativity from users: they may post about it on social media, and it will show the company in a bad light. Even if you occasionally resort to dark patterns, make sure you can afford any reputational risks.
So, when creating microcopy on sensitive topics:
Why it’s important:
- To make your interface predictable, trustworthy, and reliable;
- To prevent user frustration.
The button label should reflect the specific action that occurs when the user clicks or taps it.
It might seem valid to use a button label that reflects the user’s goal or target action, even if it actually happens a bit later. For example, if your product allows users to book accommodations for vacations or business trips, you might consider using a “Book now” button in the booking flow. However, if tapping it leads the user to an order screen where they need to select a room, fill out personal details, and so on, the accommodation is not booked immediately. So you might want to opt for “Show rooms,” “Select a rate,” or another button label that better reflects what happens next.
Moreover, labels like “Buy now” or “Book now” might seem too pushy and even off-putting (especially when it comes to pricey products involving a long decision-making process), causing users to abandon your website or app in favor of ones with buttons that create the impression they can browse peacefully for as long as they need. You might want to let your users “Explore,” “Learn more,” “Book a call,” or “Start a free trial” first.
As a product manager or someone with a marketing background, you might want to create catchy and fancy button labels to boost conversion rates. For instance, when working on an investment app, you might label a button for opening a brokerage account as “Become an investor.” While this might appeal to users’ egos, it can also come across as pretentious and cheap. Additionally, after opening an account, users may still need to do many things to actually become investors, which can be frustrating. Opt for a straightforward “Open an account” button instead.
In this regard, it’s better not to promise users things that we can’t guarantee or that aren’t entirely up to us. For example, in a flow that includes an OTP password, it’s better to opt for the “Send a code” button rather than “Get a code” since we can’t guarantee there won’t be any network outages or other issues preventing the user from receiving an SMS or a push notification.
Finally, avoid using generic “Yes” or “No” buttons as they do not clearly reflect what happens next. Users might misread the text above or fail to notice a negation, leading to unexpected outcomes. For example, when asking for a confirmation, such as “Are you sure you want to quit?” you might want to go with button labels like “Quit” and “Stay” rather than just “Yes” and “No.”
Tip: If you have difficulty coming up with a button label, this may be a sign that the screen is poorly organized or the flow lacks logic and coherence. For example, a user has to deal with too many different entities and types of tasks on one screen, so the action can’t be summarized with just one verb. Or perhaps a subsequent flow has a lot of variations, making it hard to describe the action a user should take. In such cases, you might want to make changes to the screen (say, break it down into several screens) or the flow (say, add a qualifying question or attribute earlier so that the flow would be less branching).Make It Clear To The User Why They Need To Perform The Action
Why it’s important:
- To create transparency and build trust;
- To boost conversion rates.
An ideal interface is self-explanatory and needs no microcopy. However, sometimes, we need to convince users to do something for us, especially when it involves providing personal information or interacting with third-party products.
You can use the following formula: “To [get this], do [this] + UI element to make it happen.” For example, “To get your results, provide your email,” followed by an input field.
It’s better to provide the reasoning (“to get your results”) first and then the instructions (“provide your email” ): this way, the guidance is more likely to stick in the user’s memory, smoothly leading to the action. If you reverse the order — giving the instructions first and then the reasoning — the user might forget what they need to do and will have to reread the beginning of the sentence, leading to a less smooth and slightly hectic experience.
Ensure The UI Element Copy Doesn’t Explain How To Interact With This Very ElementWhy it’s important:
- If you need to explain how to interact with a UI element, it may be a sign that the interface is not intuitive;
- Risk omitting or not including more important, useful text.
Every now and then, I come across meaningless placeholders or excessive toggle copy that explains how to interact with the field or toggle. The most frequent example is the “Search” placeholder for a search field. Occasionally, I see button labels like “Press to continue.”
Mobile and web interfaces have been around for quite a while, and users understand how to interact with buttons, toggles, and fields. Therefore, explanations such as “click,” “tap,” “enter,” and so on seem excessive in most cases. Perhaps it’s only with a group of checkboxes that you might add something like “Select up to 5.”
You might want to add something more useful. For example, instead of a generic “Search” placeholder for a search field, use specific instances a user might type in. If you’re a fashion marketplace, try placeholders like “oversized hoodies,” “women’s shorts,” and so on. Keep in mind the specifics of your website or app: ensure the placeholder is neither too broad nor too specific, and if a user types something like you’ve provided, their search will be successful.
Why it’s important:
- Not to create extra cognitive load, confusion, or friction;
- To ensure a smooth and simple experience.
Users have short attention spans, scan text instead of reading it thoroughly, and can’t process multiple ideas simultaneously. That’s why it’s crucial to break information down into easily digestible chunks instead of, for example, trying to squeeze all the restrictions into one tooltip.
The golden rule is to provide users only with the information they need at this particular stage to take a specific action or make a decision.
You’ll need to collaborate closely with your designer to ensure the information is distributed over the screen evenly and you don’t overload one design element with a lot of text.
Be Careful With Titles Like “Done,” “Almost There,” “Attention,” And So OnWhy it’s important:
- Not to annoy a user;
- To be more straightforward and economical with users’ time;
- Not to overuse their attention;
- Not to provoke anxiety.
Titles, written in bold and larger font sizes, grab users’ attention. Sometimes, titles are the only text users actually read. Titles stick better in their memory, so they must be understandable as a standalone text.
Titles like “One more thing” or “Almost there” might work well if they align with a product’s tone of voice and the flows where they appear are cohesive and can hardly be interrupted. But keep in mind that users might get distracted.
Use this quick check: set your design aside for about 20 minutes, do something else, and then open only the screen for which you’re writing a title. Is what happens on this screen still understandable from the title? Do you easily recall what has or hasn’t happened, what you were doing, and what should be done next?
Why it’s important:
- To make the interface more precise and useful;
- To ease the navigation through the product for a user;
- To reduce cognitive load.
Some products (e.g., any B2B or financial ones) involve many rules and restrictions that must be explained to the user. To make this more understandable, use real-life examples (with specific numbers, dates, and so on) rather than distilling abstract information into a hint, tooltip, or bottom sheet.
It’s better to provide explanations using real-life examples that users can relate to. Check with engineers if it’s possible to get specific data for each user and add variables and conditions to show every user the most relevant microcopy. For example, instead of saying, “Your deposit limit is $1,000 per calendar month,” you could say, “Until Jan 31, you can deposit $400 more.” This relieves the user of unnecessary work, such as figuring out the start date of the calendar month in their case and calculating the remaining amount.
Why it’s important:
- Not to increase cognitive load;
- To prevent friction.
As a rule of thumb, it’s recommended to avoid double negatives, such as “Do not unfollow.” However, I’d go further and advise avoiding single negatives as well. The issue is that to decipher such a message, a user has to perform an excessive logical operation: first eliminating the negation, then trying to understand the gist.
For example, when listing requirements for a username, saying “Don’t use special characters, spaces, or symbols” forces a user to speculate (“If this is not allowed, then the opposite is allowed, which must be…”). It can take additional time to figure out what falls under “special characters.” To simplify the task for the user, opt for something like “Use only numbers and letters.”
Moreover, a user can easily overlook the “not” part and misread the message.
Another aspect worth noting is that negation often seems like a restriction or prohibition, which nobody likes. In some cases, especially in finance, all those don’ts might be perceived with suspicion rather than as precaution.
Express Action With Verbs, Not NounsWhy it’s important:
- To avoid wordiness;
- To make text easily digestible.
When describing an action, use a verb, not a noun. Nouns that convey the meaning of verbs make texts harder to read and give off a legalistic vibe.
Here are some sure signs you need to paraphrase your text for brevity and simplicity:
Why it’s important: Not to create extra cognitive load, confusion, and anxiety.
Ensure you use the same term for the same object or action throughout the entire app. For example, instead of using “account” and “profile” interchangeably, choose one and stick to it to avoid confusing your users.
The more complicated and/or regulated your product is, the more vital it is to choose precise wording and ensure it aligns with legal terms, the wording users see in the help center, and communication with support agents.
Why it’s important:
- Not to annoy a user;
- To save space for more important information.
At first glance, “Oops” may seem sweet and informal (yet with an apologetic touch) and might be expected to decrease tension. However, in the case of repetitive or serious errors, the effect will be quite the opposite.
Use “Oops” and similar words only if you’re sure it suits your brand’s tone of voice and you can finesse it.
As a rule of thumb, good error messages explain what has happened or is happening, why (if we know the reason), and what the user should do. Additionally, include any sensitive information related to the process or flow where the error appears. For example, if an error occurs during the payment process, provide users with information concerning their money.
No Excessive PolitenessWhy it’s important: Not to waste precious space on less critical information.
I’m not suggesting we remove every single “please” from the microcopy. However, when it comes to interfaces, our priority is to convey meaning clearly and concisely and explain to users what to do next and why. Often, if you start your microcopy with “please,” you won’t have enough space to convey the essence of your message. Users will appreciate clear guidelines to perform the desired action more than a polite message they struggle to follow.
Remove Tech JargonWhy it’s important:
- To make the interface understandable for a broad audience;
- To avoid confusion and ensure a frictionless experience.
As tech specialists, we’re often subject to the curse of knowledge, and despite our efforts to prioritize users, tech jargon can sneak into our interface copy. Especially if our product targets a wider audience, users may not be tech-savvy enough to understand terms like “icon.”
To ensure your interface doesn’t overwhelm users with professional jargon, a quick and effective method is to show the interface to individuals outside your product group. If that’s not feasible, here’s how to identify jargon: it’s the terminology you use in daily meetings among yourselves or in Jira task titles (e.g., authorization, authentication, and so on), or abbreviations (e.g., OTP code, KYC process, AML rules, and so on).
Why it’s important:
- For onboarding and navigation;
- To increase discoverability of particular features;
- To promote or boost the use of the product;
- To reduce cognitive load and anxiety about the next steps.
Quite often, a good empty state message is a self-destructing one, i.e. one that helps a user to get rid of this emptiness. An empty state message shouldn’t just state “there’s nothing here” — that’s obvious and therefore unnecessary. Instead, it should provide users with a way out, smoothly guiding them into using the product or a specific feature. A well-crafted empty message can even boost conversions.
Of course, there are exceptions, for example, in a reactive interface like a CRM system for a restaurant displaying the status of orders to workers. If there are no orders in progress and, therefore, no corresponding empty state message, you can’t nudge or motivate restaurant workers to create new orders themselves.
Place All Important Information At The BeginningWhy it’s important:
- To keep the user focused;
- Not to overload a user with info;
- Avoid information loss due to fading or cropping.
As mentioned earlier, users have short attention spans and often don’t want to focus on the texts they read, especially microcopy. Therefore, ensure you place all necessary information at the beginning of your text. Omit lead-ins, introductory words, and so on. Save less vital details for later in the text.
Why it’s important:
- For clarity;
- To overcome the serial position effect;
- To make sure the interface, the flow, and the next steps are understandable for a user even if they scan the text instead of reading.
There’s a phenomenon called the serial position effect: people tend to remember information better if it’s at the beginning or end of a text or sentence, often overlooking the middle part. When it comes to UX/UI design, this effect is reinforced by the visual hierarchy, which includes the bigger font size of the title and the accentuated buttons. What’s more, the body text is often longer, which puts it at risk of being missed. Since users tend to scan rather than read, ensure your title and buttons make sense even without the body text.
Trying to find the balance between providing a user with all the necessary explanations, warnings, and reasonings on one hand and keeping the UI intuitive and frictionless on the other hand is a tricky task.
You can facilitate the process of creating microcopy with the help of ChatGPT and AI-based Figma plugins such as Writer or Grammarly. But beware of the limitations these tools have as of now.
For instance, creating a prompt that includes all the necessary details and contexts can take longer than actually writing a title or a label on your own. Grammarly is a nice tool to check the text for typos and mistakes, but when it comes to microcopy, its suggestions might be a bit inaccurate or confusing: you might want to, say, omit articles for brevity or use elliptical sentences, and Grammarly will identify it as a mistake.
You’ll still need a human eye to evaluate the microcopy &mdahs; and I hope this checklist will come in handy.
Microcopy ChecklistGeneral
✅ Microcopy is role-playable (titles, body text, tooltips, etc., are your “phrases”; button labels, input fields, toggles, menu items, etc. are the user’s “phrases”).
Information presentation & structure
✅ The user has the exact amount of information they need right now to perform an action — not less, not more.
✅ Important information is placed at the beginning of the text.
✅ It’s clear to the user why they need to perform the action.
✅ Everything related to sensitive topics is always visible and static and doesn’t require actions from a user (e.g., not hidden in tooltips).
✅ You provide a user with specific information rather than generic examples.
✅ 1 microcopy item = 1 idea.
✅ 1 entity = 1 term.
✅ Empty state messages provide users with guidelines on what to do (when possible and appropriate).
Style
✅ No tech jargon.
✅ No excessive politeness, esp. at the expense of meaning.
✅ Avoid or reduce the use of “not,” “un-,” and other negatives.
✅ Actions are expressed with verbs, not nouns.
Syntax
✅ UI element copy doesn’t explain how to interact with this very element.
✅ Button label accurately reflects what happens next.
✅ Fewer titles like “done,” “almost there,” and “attention.”
✅ “Oopsies” in error messages are not frequent and align well with the brand’s tone of voice.
✅ Title and buttons are understandable without body text.
