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- An Ode to Microcopy
Microcopy, the subtle art of enhancing user experience (UX) through small (microscopic even 🧌) text, goes far beyond mere functionality. It bridges the gap between user frustration and satisfaction, acting as a silent guide to help users understand WTF they are looking at. The importance of microcopy lies in its ability to make or break the user experience, turning potential obstacles into moments of clarity. Having spent a lot of time in both the marketing and product space, I’ll make my opinion known and wait for the microcopy purists to berate me as they see fit.
Microcopy isn’t just about UX.
I say this knowing that you could probably argue that everything within a SaaS product is “UX,” but let's try not to be “that guy.”
At its core, microcopy is about providing clarity and context. Let’s look at a super simple example with Spotify. While I wait for prompt-driven AI playlists to drop, I still have to deal with the process of building new playlists from scratch. Starting with a blank slate is a scary thing for a lot of users and can prevent them from being able to calmly think through what they see. In the example below you’ll see a few things:
A temporary title - I would consider this placeholder content and not true microcopy.
“Let’s find something for your playlist” - This is the primary CTA, not microcopy.
A search bar with some text that says “Search for songs or episodes” - Bingo! We found the microcopy.
Most people know what to do with a search bar. In the context of creating a playlist it should become more obvious, but Spotify used this microcopy to send them down the path of least resistance. Searching for an artist, podcast, or album might take them away from their playlist, or add some confusion based on how search results populate, so they suggest searching for the things the user can directly add to this playlist — which is the whole reason why they are here.
Notice in the images below that the artist search result has an arrow indicating that it will change the search results to show songs from that artist, while the song search allows me to add it with a single click.
This is one example of how a very simple use of microcopy plays a big strategic role in the user’s success in building playlists and the success of that feature within the product. I don’t have any inside data on experiments that were run to figure this out, but I imagine playlists play a role in how frequently the user listens to Spotify, which plays a big role in whether or not they are willing to pay for it. If a user doesn’t get the playlist to a point where they can listen to it, they essentially waste any time and energy they put into it. This is a universal indicator of churn for any product, so it’s smart for Spotify to optimize here.
On a personal note, I have a workout playlist I use anytime I’m doing cardio or weights, I have a playlist of songs I like to play through when I practice drums, and I have one playlist for entertaining my kids and one for each of them when they were babies and I couldn’t get them to calm down and go to sleep. I’m not giving up Spotify… EVER.
Let’s get back into some other examples and use cases shall we?
Error Handling for Humans
Error messages and system feedback are critical moments where microcopy can either lighten the mood or evoke the burning rage of 1000 suns. There’s a great strategy guide for writing the copy for these types of scenarios here, so let’s focus on a few different types of errors and why they are worth thinking about.
Right time, right place: The user missed a required field, acknowledgement, or step in the process and you are showing them exactly what they need to do to move forward. None of that “you missed a required field” at the bottom on a 2-page form bullshit.
Failed to function: This is what I call errors tied to your core product actually getting the information from the back end to the front end. It could be issues with the API or some synch process, but ultimately the user didn’t do anything wrong and you just need to let them know that.
Failed to serve: This is more about your infrastructure pulling through an delivering. No matter how much work you put into scaling, autoscaling, etc. it can still happen, so take the time to write out some human readable messages to let the user know what’s going on and consider making a public status page for reference like OpenAI or Zoom.
bUser permissions are a necessary evil, especially when you’re working in the B2B space. As with anything, it’s only a matter of time before those users try to do something someone doesn’t want them to be able to do. I am a big fan of software that lets the user request permission to complete the task they are working on, but I’d settle for letting them know who (within their org) to reach out to.
Reducing Time to Value
When it comes to activating new users, you have a very limited “budget” for both cognitive load and the decision-making that goes with it. Historically, SaaS products have relied on wizards, pop ups, and interactive tours to take their users through the intended path to activation. We’ve (hopefully) learned that as users become more fluent in navigating software products, they are less willing to delay their ability to do something in it. This is where microcopy isn't just useful; it's critical.
The right guidance or text can remove the need for anything that disrupts the user. That’s right, I’m saying that your good intentions for helping the user get where you want them to go are actually keeping them from getting to where they need to go.
Effective microcopy actually gives the user context when they want or need it. Let’s look at Canva. Whether you are experienced using the platform or a new user who found your way there to get something done quickly, you don’t need to look beyond this single component to take the first step.
You might argue that the labels around each of these icons don’t count as microcopy, but I’m the writer, so I will say they do. Instead of making the user guess what each icon means or assume Canva has what they need, they can confirm and click on what they need.
Another scenario I’d group with time to value is giving users shortcuts, and the ability to get them out of the way. Typeform does this well by giving you AI-powered paths to generate forms that are common among their users or that “dismiss suggestions” options that let confident users get the clutter out of the way and find exactly what they need.
Show me the money
Aside from creating a better experience throughout your product, microcopy has been shown to impact conversion, activation, and retention is significant ways. In fact, you can branch outside of core product metrics, and find correlations between microcopy optimization and support costs as well as marketing performance.
The conversion magic tends to happen when you use microcopy to address the user’s hesitations or concerns head-on. The incredible design does nothing to let the user know how long onboarding is going to take, or whether or not they are going to have to pony up some money to try the thing out.
From a tactical standpoint, you can think about what kinds of objections your users might have and how Microcopy might address them. My friend Jacob, dove deep into some of the psychology behind this here, but let’s take a look at some simple examples:
User: “I don’t have a lot of time.”
Microcopy: “It takes less than 30 seconds.”
User: “I don’t want to pay for this yet.”
Microcopy: “No payment required.”
User: “Are they going to spam me if I give them my email?”
Microcopy: “We will not add you to marketing lists.”
“Is this too legit to quit?”
“Trusted by MC Hammer himself.”
“What does this new thing do? Am I going to lose my work?”
“Save your work and come back at any time.”
Still not convinced? Here’s a collection of case studies worth checking out. We’re talking > 10% increases to conversions… from changing a few tiny words on a page.
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You made it to the end, even after my MC Hammer reference 🥰
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