Write the small text that carries an interface — buttons, empty states, errors and labels — so users know what will happen and what to do next. Use when writing UI copy, error messages, empty states, or button labels.
--- name: write-ui-microcopy category: design description: >- Write the small text that carries an interface — buttons, empty states, errors and labels — so users know what will happen and what to do next. Use when writing UI copy, error messages, empty states, or button labels. --- # Write UI Microcopy Microcopy is the text doing the most work per character in your product: button labels, field hints, empty states, error messages, confirmation dialogs. It is usually written last, by whoever is closest to the code, and it is where most usability problems actually live. The whole discipline reduces to one question: **does the reader now know what will happen, and what to do?** ## Buttons say what happens Label the outcome, not the mechanism. | Weak | Strong | |---|---| | OK | Delete 3 files | | Submit | Send invitation | | Yes / No | Discard changes / Keep editing | | Save | Save and publish | `OK` on a destructive dialog is the classic failure: the reader has to reconstruct what they are agreeing to from the sentence above, while their hand is already moving. **Both options should be self-describing.** If a user reads only the buttons and still knows what each does, the dialog works.
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