#microcopy

I recently took an Uber but accidentally charged the ride to the wrong account. When I got the transaction fixed up, I was impressed by how clearly the messaging was in the receipt. Not only did it let me know that the money was charged to the correct account, it let me know that the other change was refunded accordingly.

Zero states (or empty states) often present an opportunity to flex your personality. Scrumpy (a newcomer in the project management space), embraces the opportunity and just has some fun.

Button labels should encourage action and they should be clear. In their weekly newsletter, InVision breaks those rules …But somehow it still works. Why?

Well, InVision has the blessing (and the curse) of having designers as their core audience. As we deal with interfaces all the time, we often don't need much hand-holding (especially for something like a button label). As long as the title and description are clear, that will suffice (and they do those perfectly) …and to be honest, I look forward to the puns in their labels!

So in a nutshell, knowing your audience trumps best practice.

Placeholder copy is often discouraged because there's a risk users might skip the field altogether (thinking it's already populated).

But for this example on Stack Overflow's Profile description field, as there are only a few fields to fill (and the placeholder copy is really out there…!), the risk just isn't as great. In fact it's just fun to read and might even encourage users to write something more than a standard bio.