UX Writing Starts with Empathy

I have been learning about UX writing, and I see terrible UX everywhere now. Most recently, I noticed it while trying to pay a parking ticket online.

I know, I don’t expect much from government websites either, but at the minimum they shouldn’t get salty with you! Check out what happened when I tried to fill out the amount of the ticket (mine wasn’t even in the system yet after a week):

Okay. Jeez. Calm down! How was I supposed to know I shouldn’t type the symbol? There are no instructions, and nothing in the field to indicate whether it is assumed.

Next, I attempted to type in the violation code. You know how when you type in the date or your credit card number, there’s usually a template in the field to guide you? Not here!

The city of Chicago is gonna make me guess exactly what it means by “correctly.” Hyphens? No hyphens? Leave out the (b)? I guess I’ll try them all! No biggie, I don’t have anything else to do!

Empathy is a central concept of UX. You put yourself in the user’s shoes, imagining what they’re feeling and what they want. You can imagine that someone paying a ticket might want to get this noisome task done as quickly as possible. They’re probably in a foul mood about getting the ticket in the first place, so you might want to use neutral or even supportive language. Empty fields and snappish messages don’t do much to help. But I suppose they’re pretty on-brand for the notoriously corrupt city of Chicago. I wonder if Mayor Lori Lightfoot will do something about this pressing issue.

Even when UX is not egregiously flawed, it can still be frustrating. Witness this message after I filled out a form to download a document.

First of all, where’s my document? I checked my email and download folder for a few minutes until I figured out that I was supposed to scroll down and click a button below the fold. FAIL. The download button should be above the fold, or there should be copy pointing to it.

Also, “Form submitted successfully” is robot talk. I don’t care if my form was submitted successfully — I just want my download. Why not say something like, “Download your document below”? It literally communicates where to go for the next tep.

I’m having the same experience with UX that I had after a psychological awakening about narcissists. Suddenly I saw them — or people with lots of narcissistic traits — everywhere! I was sympathetic, as narcissism is a result of great emotional pain and neglect, but it sure made dealing with certain situations and people a challenge. Same with UX and navigating the Internet. I understand why your site is that way, but I’m rolling my eyes.

Don’t know where to start? Here are some tips on developing more empathy for users and the steps toward creating an empathy map.

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Originally published at https://www.linkedin.com.