Daily UX Writing Challenge: Day 1
The user’s flight is cancelled due to bad weather
Scenario: A traveler is in an airport waiting for the last leg of a flight home when their flight gets abruptly canceled due to bad weather.
Challenge: Write a message from the airline app notifying them of the cancellation and what they need to do next.
Headline: 45 characters
Body: 175 characters max
Button(s): 25 characters max
My thoughts when I designed the copy:
Although it’s not requested, I decided to add the push notification since traveler might walk around the airport to kill time and if they’re on their phone, they probably don’t open the airline app immediately. A push notification would give them the alert they need.
For the headline, I think it’s better to be blunt and include the reason why, so the user won’t have an early panic mode.
In reality, bad weather is unpredictable, so with the “we also hope it would be over soon”, it would show that the airlines is empathizing with the user. Also, to reassure the user that the airline is still thinking about getting them to their destination as soon as possible, I thought reassigning them to the next flight might be the best solution, albeit temporarily.
I decided to put the new departure time in the message just in case the user didn’t find the new flight time fit for them and want to rebook or cancel right away.
For the second button, I was on the fence if I should write ‘contact’ or ‘call’, but since people who fly generally are busy people, I think it’s better to put ‘call’ so they could resolve it with the management right away. ‘Contact’ can imply that they have to click the app numerous times and it can be frustrating if there were errors in the process.
Feedbacks from Daily UX Writing Facebook group (bulleted for convenience):
- No flight number? What if a user have multiple flight? They should know which flight is cancelled.
- Second button: Too long, something like ‘contact us’ and ‘call customer service’ will do. Do you want to offer only ‘call customer service’, or the user can ‘fill out form’ or any other way?
- UI design: find a way to de-emphasize the second button so the user isn’t confused whether it could be tapped or not. Hyperlink the text or use the outline of the box (no fill) with the text in green might be enough.
My revised version:
- Adding the flight number and country code so the user would know which flight is cancelled
- Changing the 2nd button CTA (Call to Action) to a shorter, more broad options so it would meet the character requirement. Although it’s not specific, in my mind this would lead the users to another page that consists of customer service’s contact method like call, message, etc. This would prevent the situation where one line would be clogged by the users, e.g. if only calling method available, it’s possible everyone on the cancelled flight would call the line and the users would put in queue. It might take longer than expected and it would frustrate the users more.
Feel free to comment on these challanges too everyone, I would love to hear many insight so I can learn more about writing and designing.
Thank you very much in advance!
