Title: The Grammar of Interactivity
Context: Wording on buttons is very often a hot button issue. (Get it?)
Synopsis: “Update your details.” “Check my messages.” “Use our help system to figure out why you can’t figure out what to do.” OK, so that last one might have been made up, but you feel me. What exactly are we supposed to write on buttons to help users understand what’s going to happen once they click on it? “Save”, “Close”, “Share”; those are the easy ones. How is it possible to synthesize workflows of great complexity into just a call-to-action with just a very few, clearly phrased, words? The answer of course — as it so often is — is “linguistics”. (I’ll wait right here while you go look up “linguistics”.) OK, welcome back. Now that we’re all on the same page as to the science behind properly worded buttons, let’s next decide precisely what those words should be. Just click here to learn more and you can get started…wait…crap.
Best Bit: “I call this the ‘Would you like to? / I would like to’ test, or WYLTIWLT (pronounced ‘wilty-wilt’ – a bit like WYSIWYG) for short.”
via uxbooth.com
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