UX Copy

Overview

The words are part of the design: a button label decides whether the user knows what happens next, an error decides whether they can recover. Copy written as an afterthought — "Submit", "Error occurred", "No data" — is how a well-drawn screen still fails.

Core principle: Say what happens, in the user's words, in the product's language — and write the longest version you will ever see.

Language and voice

• Write in the product audience's content language (the brief names it) — never in TaskTrooper's own UI locale just because the board is in it.
• Read the product's existing strings first (locales/*.json, Localizable.strings, res/values/strings.xml, lib/l10n/*.arb) and reuse its terms exactly: if the app says "Workspace", a new screen does not say "Project". Match its voice — formal or casual, "you" or impersonal.
• Copy the brief gives is used verbatim. Copy you wrote is listed in #notes as draft copy.

Patterns

Element	Write	Not
Button	verb + object, sentence case: "Send invoice"	"Submit", "OK", "Click here"
Destructive button	names the thing: "Delete invoice"	"Delete", "Yes"
Field label	a noun above the field: "Customer email"	the placeholder as the only label
Placeholder	an example: "name@company.com"	the label repeated
Helper text	the constraint, before the user hits it: "At least 8 characters"	a tooltip-only hint
Error	what happened + how to fix, no blame, no apology: "Enter an email address like name@company.com"	"Invalid input", "Oops! Something went wrong"
System error	what failed + what to do: "Invoices couldn't load. Check your connection and try again." + "Retry"	an error code alone
Empty, first use	why it is empty + the one next action: "No invoices yet — create your first one in under a minute." + "New invoice"	"No data"
Empty, no results	the query + the way out: "No invoices match "Ortiz"" + "Clear search"	the first-use empty state
Success	the outcome with the object: "Invoice INV-204 sent to Dana Ortiz"	"Success!"
Confirmation dialog	title asks with the object ("Delete invoice INV-204?"), body states the consequence ("This can't be undone."), buttons are the verb and "Cancel"	"Are you sure?" with Yes / No
Link	where it goes: "View invoice"	"Click here", "More"
Icon-only control	its accessible name, written in the spec: "Filter invoices"	nothing

Numbers, dates, plurals

• Amounts, dates and numbers in the content language's locale format, with the currency the product uses; tabular figures where amounts line up.
• Plurals for every count ("1 invoice", "2 invoices"); relative dates only for recent events ("2 hours ago"), absolute beyond that.

Length

• Draw the longest plausible string at least once: the longest customer name, a title that wraps to three lines, a five-digit count. German, Finnish and Turkish run 30–40% longer than English.
• Say what truncates and where the full text lives — on touch screens there is no hover to reveal it.

Common Mistakes

• Generic labels that fit any screen ("Submit", "Details", "Manage").
• One empty state for "nothing yet" and "nothing matches".
• Apologetic, jokey or blaming errors.
• Copy in the board's language instead of the product's.

Red Flags

• A placeholder doing a label's job.
• An error message that does not say how to recover.
• A destructive action whose button says only "Delete" or "Yes".