UX Copy

The strings inside a product: the text that, if removed, breaks the interface. Naming, labelling, explaining, warning, confirming, recovering.

The six default failures

#	Failure	The rule
1	Writing the string inside the box. Sizing a button, then hunting for two words that fit	Brevity is the last lens. "How do I make it fit?" is the right question at the wrong time
2	Bolting the fix onto the front. A string fails a gate, so you append the missing piece	Cut it to the bone first, then add only what the gate demanded
3	One register for every string	Pick the tonal mode before writing
4	Narrative leak. The product starts talking about itself	Personality is about the reader. Narrative is about the product
5	Fixing one class and walking past the rest	A rewrite is a new string. Re-run every gate on it
6	Grading your own copy "cold." The writer knows what every term means and which numbers are scaled, so the gaps are invisible to them	A subagent with only the rendered text reads it. See The cold read