Writing Prompts
Below are some UX writing prompts that I created designs and copy for. Some were part of a Capstone project, and others were random prompts that I created myself.
Prompt #1
A user opens their online insurance app and wants to pay their insurance bill.
However, there is a technical bug in the app that is preventing them from completing their payment.
Solution
It is vital to give users visibility on the system status when they have fallen off of the happy path. With technical issues, particularly those that might cause a user stress - for example, a financial issue - it’s important to be explicit as to a) the status of their action (in this case, failure), and b) the cause of the problem (a technical issue in the banking system).
I created a message for the user, explaining the cause of the payment failure using simple, non-technical language.
I included a CTA link to contact the Support Team. This gives the user their next step if the problem is not resolved.
Prompt #2
A person is ordering a t-shirt from an online e-commerce store, but the user can’t complete the order as that particular product is out of stock.
Solution
Something that I have come across a lot on retail sites is that items are out of stock, but no other information is available. This concept provides additional information:
The message informs the user of the current status of the item (out of stock), when it will be back. This benefits both the user and the business, as an explicit date increases the likelihood that the user will wait and not look for a similar item from a competitor.
I included a CTA where the user is given the option to add a reminder to return to the site on the date that it is back in stock. Again, this benefits both the customer and the business, as a reminder increases the likelihood that the user will return to the site.
Prompt #3a
A paranormal investigator is using voice-to-text to translate sounds they heard in a “haunted” building. The app is struggling to decipher some words and needs manual intervention from the user.
Solution
You can probably tell I had a bit of fun with this!
The idea is based on the tools that paranormal investigators use, such as an EVP machine. It occurred to me that going back over hours of audio recordings would be a tedious task and having a tool that translated interesting audio patterns would be useful. It would also have the benefit of basing these translations on a large dataset and acting as a impartial judge when human interpretations of sound differ.
This design uses text-to-speech to translate the audio for the user, but at certain points the speech is unclear. At these points in the flow, I added an edit option for the user to review the audio themselves and review what the app has surmised.
A bottom drawer slides up, telling the user what the app’s best guess is. They are also given the option to
I added two CTAs: one that saves the app’s translation, and the other which will allow the user to manually input text for that part of the transcription.
Prompt #3b
A paranormal investigator wants to check on the status of some of the devices they have placed around a building to see if they have captured.
Solution
Assuming that the paranormal investigators have multiple devices planted around the building, I created a list format where notifications of these devices can be monitored.
Each device notification contains the type of device that has been triggered (movement, temperature) and a short description of where it was triggered.
Included a map of the building the user is currently in so they can track patterns in devices being triggered.
Prompt #4
A user is going through the menu of a restaurant on an online app, and they decide that they want to order their food for home delivery. However, this restaurant doesn’t offer home delivery.
Solution
User is advised that home delivery is not an option for this restaurant. Tone is playful, but also serious, reinforcing the idea that this restaurant take food quality and customers seriously.
CTA: reserve a table at the restaurant. While this might not suit the user in this instance - they were looking for takeaway - it might prompt them to book a table for an upcoming occasion.
