Signs it is time to revisit microcopy

This is one of those topics that looks small until it costs you something. A few signals that microcopy is due some attention.

Content is the part of a project most likely to be underestimated and most likely to delay a launch. The version that survives contact with a real deadline is the simple one.

The signals

• Nobody can say when it was last reviewed
• The answer depends on who you ask
• The small words carry a lot of the experience
• Button and error text deserve real drafting

What good looks like

Reassurance next to an action reduces hesitation. In practice this is a scheduling problem more than a technical one. It is worth deciding this deliberately rather than inheriting whatever the last person set up.

The short version

Writing for the web is largely an editing job: the first draft is always longer than it needs to be. Three things worth confirming about microcopy before you move on:

• Someone can say what the current setup is without going to look
• Reassurance next to an action reduces hesitation — and you know whether that is true here
• There is a way to tell whether the last change to this helped

If you want a second opinion on how yours is set up, ask.