Tag
UX writing
10 posts
- 04ThursdayCase Study·
For years, whenever I explained a bug or a new feature, I laid down 300-word monoliths; until I tested Basecamp's editing discipline in my workshop, I hadn't realized all those details comforted the author's anxiety, not the reader.
The Day Basecamp Cut a 300-Word Update to 3 Sentences: What Stays and What Goes in Text Pruning
Drawing from Basecamp's text-pruning discipline: the micro-craft of trimming 300-word defensive paragraphs into 3 load-bearing sentences built around Problem, Mechanism, and Cost.
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- 06SaturdayDifferent Angle·
For years, I plastered 'BUY NOW' and 'SIGN UP' in all caps across buttons—only to realize nobody wants to take orders from a copywriter they don't even know.
The Hubris of the Imperative: How to Write CTAs That Don't Boss the Reader Around
For years, we slapped 'click now' at the end of our copy and watched engagement plummet. Here are workshop secrets to crafting closing lines that emphasize what the reader gains instead of bossing them around.
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- 05FridayFramework·
I used to think rewriting every passive sentence into active voice improved the copy—until I saw how saying "You entered the wrong password" antagonizes the reader.
The Passive Voice Decision Matrix: Strategic Moments for Concealing the Agent
For years, I redlined every passive sentence into active voice. Yet passive voice is not a grammatical error; it is a strategic lens that pulls focus toward action and outcome.
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- 06SaturdayDifferent Angle·
If you're stuffing sentences with ghost subjects like 'the system' or 'experts' just to keep them active, you might be pulling readers away from the actual action.
Rehabilitating the Passive Voice: How the "Always Use Active Voice" Dogma Suffocates Your Writing
For years, I blindly followed the "never use passive voice" rule and cluttered my prose with redundant subjects. But the passive voice isn't writer laziness—it is strategic spotlight management.
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- 01MondayOpening·
For years at my editorial desk, I defended the 'make every passive sentence active' rule like gospel; yet by tiring the reader with 'who did this?' even when the actor was irrelevant, I was sabotaging the real focus of the sentence.
Passive Voice Phobia: How the Obsession with Active Voice Harms Your Writing
A confession on how years of turning every passive sentence active exhausted my prose—and the moments where the passive voice actually saves the day.
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- 04ThursdayCase Study·
For years, I believed so firmly in the rule that 'passive voice is lazy' that I ended up pointing fingers at the user in every interface message I wrote.
The Art of Not Blaming the User: Mailchimp's Tactical Use of Passive Voice
For years, I blindly followed the rule that 'writing in the passive voice is lazy.' Yet in moments of error, passive voice becomes a tactical tool of empathy that reduces friction.
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- 03WednesdayData·
For years, I bought into the dogma that 'every sentence must be active to keep copy punchy'—until I realized I was writing aggressive error messages that constantly blamed the user.
The Buffer Effect of Passive Voice: When Hiding the Subject Works
For years, I exhausted readers by following the rule of writing every sentence in active voice; yet passive voice serves as a powerful psychological buffer that prevents readers from feeling blamed during errors and crises.
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- 04ThursdayCase Study·
For years, I broke complex paragraphs into bullet points to make them readable—only to realize I was placing mental speed bumps that forced readers to shift gears on every single line.
The Cost of Asymmetric Lists: Stripe's Craft of Parallel Bullet Points
Moving beyond treating bullet points as a dumping ground for random sentences, we break down the parallel grammar architecture Stripe uses on its product pages.
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- 01MondayOpening·
For years, I used bullet points merely to break up long paragraphs visually, unaware that I was forcing the reader's brain to slam on the brakes on every line.
Bullet Point Asymmetry: The Hidden Flaw Breaking Reader Rhythm
While bullet points visually lighten a text, failing to structure them with grammatical parallelism paralyzes the reading flow.
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- 01MondayOpening·
For years, I filled H3 subheadings with noun phrases like 'The Importance of Image Optimization'—piling on information without telling readers what to actually do.
The Encyclopedia Mistake in Subheadings: Turning H3s into Micro-Action Prompts
For years, I filled H3 subheadings in my guides with static noun phrases and turned readers into passive onlookers. Drawing from my own mistakes, here is the craft of transforming subheadings from mere repositories of knowledge into micro-action instructions.
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