UX Writing Challenge | Day 3

Hello! I am Priyanshi Laddha, an aspiring UX Writer.

It is the third part of my Daily UX Writing Challenge. The prompt that I received on the third day of joining this challenge is as follows:

Scenario: The user entered the wrong email address to sign in to their account.

Challenge: Tell the user to enter the right email.

Character Constraint: 40 characters max.

While surfing through many apps and websites, I observed that generally apps and websites don’t tell users directly that they’ve entered the wrong email. Instead of straight directions, they prefer saying, “Incorrect email or Password”, to widen the problem space for potential imposters(hackers).

Screenshot of an app screen suggesting wrong email or password

But, following the guidelines mentioned in the challenge, I decided to write an error message for the user who has entered the wrong email.

My Solution(s):

Solution 1

Solution 2

Thought Process:

While writing the error messages, there were some key takeaways that I kept in my mind. Since it was a piece of bad news for the user, whose email was not being recognized by the app, I tried my best to not irritate the user and to guide them to an alternative path instead of leaving them on a dead end.

Any user who encounters these kinds of errors will immediately be in a defensive and aggressive state. So, try your level best to not irritate or discourage them further.

“Anytime you write for the user, remember you are not writing for yourself. Be aware of your bias and try to look at things from different perspectives.”

I wanted my message to be clear, concise, and useful. Following the three golden principles of UX Writing, I came up with ideas as follows:

1. Email not found.
2. Enter a valid email address.
3. Wrong email. Sign Up instead.
4. Incorrect Email. Try again.
5. We didn’t recognize this email. Sign up.
6. Record not found. Sign up instead?
7. Email not found. Try again or sign up.

There were a bunch of ideas that were more self-explanatory to the users, but the character limit kept me aligned with the one that I mentioned in “My Solutions” section.

No wonder, the limit of 40 characters in this challenge, make me realize that every character matters, and as a UX Writer, one should try their best to make a great impact with the least words possible.

Again, I’d love to hear how’d you tackle this challenge. Let’s connect on LinkedIn.

Thanks again!