UX Writing

UX Writing

Announce at start: "I'm using the humane:ux-writing skill to write and review the words inside this product."

The words are part of the interface, not a layer applied to it. A control that names its exact action needs no tooltip; an error that says what to do next needs no support ticket. Clear beats clever, consistent beats varied, and the best error message is the interaction redesigned so the error cannot happen.

What this skill owns, and what it doesn't

Owns: the source wording of every user-facing string, and the decision about what a string must accomplish.

That includes documentation prose — READMEs, docs pages, release notes, onboarding guides. The principles below were written for interface strings and most transfer directly (accuracy, one vocabulary, nothing does double duty, no selling); where a principle is interface-specific it is marked. A doc that contradicts the thing it documents is a HIGH finding, not a typo.

This skill writes the words. It does not judge the usability of the flow around them — that is nielsen-heuristics.

Quick Reference

Step 0 — Read the evidence before writing a word

This is the step that separates this skill from a style guide, and it is not optional when a corpus exists.

1. Look for <corpus_root>/<slug>/jtbd.json. corpus_root is the setup setting (default ~/jtbd); read the configured value rather than assuming the default, or a user who moved their corpus gets "no corpus found" and copy written from assumption. If one exists, read it. If several projects exist, ask which. If none exists, say so plainly in the output — the copy is then written from assumption, and that is a fact the reader should have.
2. Mine the switch forces, because each one tells you what a specific class of string has to accomplish:

3. Reuse the corpus's own words. evidence.quotes[] is the product's real vocabulary, captured from people who use it. A verbatim noun from a quote beats an invented one every time. When you take a word from a quote, cite the evidence id ([Q2]) beside the string.

Step 1 — Recon the voice you already have

Before writing or changing anything, read the surrounding copy, the product's terminology, its localization files, and any style guide. Preserve intentional character. A difference from generic plain language is a finding only when it creates inconsistency, ambiguity, translation risk, or a tone wrong for the stakes — not merely because it has personality.

Tone flexes with the stakes; voice does not change:

Core Principles

1. A Control Names Its Exact Action

Buttons start with a verb naming the specific thing that happens: Send, Save draft, Delete project. Never OK, Submit, Let's go!, or a bare Yes/No on anything consequential. A confirmation repeats the consequence so the dialog is answerable without reading the body: "Delete this project?" offers Delete project and Cancel.

2. Nothing Does Double Duty

A label labels, an example demonstrates, a hint hints. A placeholder is never the field's only label — it disappears exactly when the user needs it. Copy that restates the heading, the metric row, or the data just shown is deleted, not rewritten. If a summary line can't add a conclusion or a next action, drop it.

3. Errors Are Instructions, Placed Where It Broke

An error names what to do next, adjacent to the failing field, phrased positively, and shown before the mistake where possible.

No blame, no "oops", no exclamation marks, no "we" that obscures who failed or what to do. If the same error keeps firing, the fix is the interaction, not the wording — say so rather than polishing it.

4. Empty States Teach

An empty state says what this place is, how to fill it, and gives one clear next action. In a tool or CLI-adjacent surface, show the exact next command in a <code> block and add that everything else still works. Never a bare "No data". Search and filter empties name the query and offer the exit: "No results for 'quarterly'. Clear filters." Never park persistent, load-bearing information in an empty state — it vanishes the moment content arrives.

5. Settings Describe the ON State

Label a toggle for what happens when it is on — "Send read receipts" — and let users infer the off state. Never label the negative; it turns the toggle into a double negative. Link directly to a referenced setting instead of narrating the path to it.

6. Links Describe Their Destination

Link text must make sense read out of context, because screen-reader users navigate by a list of links: "Read the billing docs", never "Click here" (which also assumes a mouse), and never several bare "Learn more" links on one page — suffix each one.

7. When a Sentence Names an Entity, Link the Entity

Verdicts, tooltips, summaries, and empty states are navigation, not decoration. If the copy says "3 projects hire this job", each is reachable from those words.

8. Write for Translation from the First String

Every user-facing string exists in every supported locale from the first commit, in one string table, with a key-parity check. Never build a sentence by concatenating fragments around a variable ("You have " + n + " new messages") — word order and plural rules differ per language; use full templated strings with proper pluralization. No idioms, no wordplay, no humor that won't survive translation. Translate chrome only: verbatim quotes and captured data stay in the language they were captured in, because translating a quote destroys the thing that made it evidence.

9. Address the Reader Directly

"You", not "the user". Skip unnecessary gender. Match the input device — "tap" on touch, "click" with a pointer, "select" when both are possible. Use possessives sparingly ("Favorites" over "Your Favorites") and never switch perspective mid-flow.

10. One Vocabulary, One Capitalization Policy

If it's "Archive" in the menu, it is not "Move to storage" in the toast. A multi-step flow picks one word for advancing and keeps it. Pick title case or sentence case per element type and apply it consistently; sentence case is the safer default — calmer, no per-word rules, localizes cleanly.

11. No Selling Inside the Product

Interface copy is not marketing copy. Delete adjectives that sell ("powerful", "seamless", "delightful", "effortless"), superlatives, and enthusiasm the user did not ask for. The transformation claims belong on the landing page, where before-after owns them. Inside the product, describe.

12. Jargon Needs Evidence

Borrowed from jtbd's kill switch, applied to user-facing strings: every term of art in the copy must be one the user already uses (name the quote), one the interface teaches on first use, or gone. When you cannot point to a quote or a teaching moment, replace it with the plain word.

Common Mistakes

Step 2 — Test it on someone who has read none of this

Copy that survives its author is not the same as copy that survives a stranger. When the strings matter — a hero, an onboarding sequence, a destructive confirmation, a pricing page — hand the artifact to respondent-panel verbatim, with no rationale attached, and treat convergent misreadings as defects in the copy rather than in the readers.

Then revise against the convergent findings only, and re-run the same panel briefs so the comparison is clean. Divergence along an axis (newcomers fine, burned-before users suspicious) is a targeting decision, not a rewrite mandate.

Review Output Format

Use this format when reviewing existing copy rather than writing new copy. If an orchestrator is running this skill as one domain of a larger review, hand it the findings and let its format, severity scale, consolidation, cap, and verdict take precedence over this section.

Findings

One table, ordered by severity, then by reach:

• Severity — HIGH misleads, hides a consequence, or blocks recovery; MEDIUM makes a task harder to understand; LOW is isolated voice or consistency polish.
• Location — cite path/to/file:line, or the exact screen and element when there is no source. Quote the current string exactly, typos included.
• Why — name the violated principle and the comprehension or trust cost.

One root cause is one row; list every affected location in it. Never pad the table: a short review is a valid result. Cap at 15 findings and say what you left out.

Considered but Rejected

Two to five candidates you inspected and deliberately did not report, with the reason — the established voice permits it, the evidence is insufficient, the convention is intentional, or the change adds churn without user benefit. These must be real candidates, not invented filler.

Verification

What you actually checked: the flow walked, the variable interpolation and pluralization exercised, the locales compared for key parity, the narrow-width wrapping observed, the panel run. Anything you could not check is listed as Not verified with what remains. A verification gap is never reported as a finding.

Verdict

Exactly one: Block (a HIGH remains), Needs changes (only MEDIUM/LOW remain), or Approve (no actionable findings and the claimed coverage was verified).