Microcopy: Write Small UI Text That Improves Decisions

Microcopy is the smallest writing on a website and the writing people actually read.

Button labels, field labels, the hint under an input, the error when something goes wrong, the line on an empty screen, the confirmation afterwards.

This guide covers where it lives, the four places worth fixing first, and how to write it so somebody finishes what they started.

Key Takeaways

• Buttons say what happens. Never Submit or Continue.
• Hints arrive before mistakes. Not after them.
• Errors say how to fix it. Never what somebody did wrong.
• Doubt lives at the click. Answer it beside the button.
• Empty screens need writing too. They are usually blank.

Where Microcopy Lives

Seven places, and most sites have written none of them deliberately. Button words, field labels, hints under inputs, error messages, empty screens, confirmations and reassurance lines.

They are also the only writing some visitors will read at all. Somebody who skimmed the page and went straight to the form has read nothing else.

Each one is a few words long, which is why it gets left to whoever built the page or to whatever the tool put there by default.

That default is the problem. Form tools say Submit, error messages describe what the software noticed, and empty screens say nothing at all.

Microcopy ux work is unusually cheap for that reason. A page redesign is a project, and rewriting six button labels is an afternoon.

These are also the moments when somebody is deciding whether to continue. The writing elsewhere persuaded them to start, and this is where they either finish or give up.

It is the highest value writing per word on any website. A single button label can matter more than a page of prose above it.

Four Places to Fix First

In the order they cost you completions. None of these needs a designer, a developer or a new tool.

1. Button words

Button microcopy is where this work pays back fastest. A button should say what happens when it is pressed, from the visitor's point of view.

Submit, Send, Continue, Sign up, Learn more and Checkout all describe the mechanism rather than the outcome.

The test is whether the label would make sense on its own, with the page removed. Submit passes no such test.

Get my free guide, Send my message, Book my slot. The verb and the thing they get, in their words rather than yours.

Match the label to what the page promised. A page offering a free guide should not end in a button that says Submit, because the two do not even sound related.

My rather than your is a small change that does real work. My quote reads as theirs, and your quote reads as a form you are making them fill in.

Keep it to two to four words. Longer labels wrap on a phone, and a wrapped button looks broken.

2. Labels and hints

This is the second place people give up, and it is usually fixable in the form builder you already have.

Every field needs a label above it, visible while somebody types, rather than placeholder text that disappears on the first keystroke.

Labels should name the thing in the visitor's language rather than your database's. Your phone number beats Contact number field.

Then a hint where one helps, under the field, in plainer language than the label.

Hints belong under the field rather than beside it, so they survive on a narrow screen without rearranging anything.

The useful hints answer a question before it becomes a hesitation. Why you want a phone number, what format a date should be in, whether a field is optional.

Mark the optional fields rather than the required ones where most of a form is compulsory. It reads better and it answers the question people actually have.

Keep them short and specific. A hint that restates the label adds reading without adding help.

Hints are also where you can be human without being unprofessional. A sentence explaining why makes a form feel like it was written by somebody.

Say why you are asking for anything personal. We will only message you about your booking does more for completion than any amount of reassurance elsewhere on the page.

3. Reassurance at the click

The doubt lives at the button rather than earlier on the page.

Somebody about to press something is wondering what happens next, whether it commits them to anything, and what you will do with their details.

Answer those three in a short line beside the button. No card needed. Takes about a minute. We never share your email.

Keep each line to a handful of words. Four short reassurances read instantly, and one long sentence of reassurance reads as nervousness.

Place one line, not four, where the page is already busy. The reassurance competes with everything else for the same glance.

Only say what is true. A reassurance that turns out to be false is worse than none, because it is discovered at exactly the wrong moment.

Put them where the eye already is. Directly under the button works, and a paragraph three sections up does not.

And say what happens next. Whether a human replies, and roughly when, is the question nobody asks and everybody has.

4. Empty screens and confirmations

An empty screen is a writing opportunity that almost every site wastes.

Nothing saved yet, browse the guides to add your first one, and a button to do it. That is a blank page turned into an instruction.

Write it as an instruction rather than an apology. Nothing here yet is a statement of fact, and here is how to change that is help.

Confirmations matter for the opposite reason. Somebody has just done something and wants to know it worked.

A confirmation that only says Thank you leaves somebody wondering whether anything was actually recorded.

Say it plainly, repeat when you will reply, and give them something sensible to do next.

Search results with nothing in them deserve the same attention. Instead of a dead end, offer the categories, the popular items and a way to ask.

Loading and waiting states count as well. A moment of silence after a tap is the point at which people press a second time.

Both of these get skipped because nobody designs for them. They are the screens that exist between the states anybody thought about.

How to Write It

Five rules, and they apply to every one of the seven places. None of them is about being a better writer.

Reading aloud is the one people skip and the one that works. Interface copy written to be read silently almost always sounds stilted when spoken.

Error messages deserve their own note. Say what is wrong and what a correct answer looks like, never what the person did.

Put the message beside the field it concerns rather than at the top of the form. A list of errors above a long form makes somebody hunt for each one.

That email is missing an at sign, please check it. Not invalid input, and not your email is wrong.

Common Mistakes

• Buttons that say Submit. The default in most form tools.
• Hints after the error. The help arrives too late to help.
• Errors that blame the user. Invalid input, incorrect entry.
• Empty screens with nothing on them. A dead end nobody wrote.
• Placeholder text as the label. It vanishes on the first keystroke.
• Clever instead of clear. Nobody is enjoying this part.
• Reassurance that is not true. Found out at the worst moment.

Test the whole set by filling in your own forms badly. Leave fields blank, mistype an email, submit nothing, and read every message that comes back.

The first is worth fixing today on every site you own. It takes a minute per button and it is the single clearest improvement on this list.

Microcopy examples worth copying are easiest to collect from products you use yourself. The next time something you are doing online feels easy, look at what the small text said.

Keep a note of the ones you change and what they now say. On a site with several forms, the same message often appears in more than one place.

Then read every error message your forms can produce. Most of them were written by a developer describing what the code noticed.

FAQs

What is microcopy?

The small text on buttons, field labels, hints, error messages, empty screens and confirmations. It is a few words at a time, and it arrives at the exact moments somebody is deciding whether to continue, which makes it the highest value writing per word on a site.

What should a button say?

What happens when it is pressed, in the visitor's words. Get my free guide rather than Submit. Two to four words, so it does not wrap on a phone. Using my rather than your makes the action read as theirs instead of yours.

How do I write a good error message?

Say what is wrong and what a correct answer looks like, and never what the person did. That email is missing an at sign, please check it. Not invalid input. The message is help rather than a verdict, and the wording decides which it reads as.

Where should form hints go?

Under the field, in plainer language than the label, before anybody makes the mistake. The useful ones answer a question that would otherwise become a hesitation, such as why you want a phone number or whether a field is optional.

Does microcopy really matter?

It arrives at the moments people abandon tasks, so it carries weight well out of proportion to its length. A button naming the outcome, a hint before a mistake and an error that explains the fix all remove reasons to give up.

Conclusion

Microcopy is a few words at a time in the places people hesitate.

Name the outcome on buttons, put hints before mistakes, write errors as help, and give empty screens something to say.

Ux writing is a job title in large companies and an afternoon in a small one. The rules are the same and the surface area is much smaller.

Start anywhere in that list and the work is measured in minutes rather than days.

Start with your buttons, because that is a minute of work and the clearest improvement available.

If you would rather hand it over, see how we approach web design.