Low Fidelity Copy for Usability Testing
And don’t say “the sun has gone in.”
Just the other day we were user testing the first iteration of a prototype app at the amazing Mentally Friendly labs in Sydney, when it was driven home to me just how important the choice of language is when trying to create smooth user flows. As a copywriter in my past life I am aware of this, but it’s very interesting (once you’ve swallowed your ego) to hear a user’s interpretation of your copy first hand.
The offending item was a specific phrase used in a notification message on screen, alerting the user to a change in solar energy production conditions. Even though I’ve lived in Australia for over a decade, I still use English phrases and sayings, that are not used in this neck of the woods. This time it was “the sun has gone in”. Unbeknownst to me, Australians have never heard of this before. I’m putting this down to two factors:
- The English are obsessed with commenting on the weather, with it being a constant topic of conversation.
- Plus of course the fact that the sun does ‘go in’ more often there than here.
For those of you who are still confused, the Australian translation of the sun “going in” simply means the sun has gone behind a cloud, obscured by fog, dense mist, smoke or any other climate occurance.
The particular important of these subtle and not so subtle differences in colloquial language has been highlighted in AI/human interfaces. Whether it’s in home voice AI or online bots, understanding these variations is paramount. Google invested a lot of time and money into making sure the local version of Google Home was Australianised:
“We hired a team of writers to include all of the exclusively Australian words we wanted the system to recognise, while also adding some unique Aussie flavour to the responses,” -Raunaq Shah, product manager for Google Home.
Let’s get back on track. So, without knowing, this alien phrase threw all of our test subjects off course. One even went as far as saying it may prevent her from completing the set task. Slightly embarrassing, as I was facilitating the test knowing my collegues would be giggling away at me behind the dark glass - me, Mr Ex-copywriter. Lesson learnt!
The silver lining in this particular cloud was the sharp, stingy reminder of how important clarity of language is in all information provided to the user along their journey. In particular, any call to action, that requires a desired response must be crystal clear. This one clearly failed dismally.
This was the first sprint of an agile project, and it struck me that just as we use low level fidelity prototypes to initially test simple user tasks, we should take a similar approach and use ‘low fidelity’ copy -i.e. Simple, basic and direct as possible.
When it comes to user testing, if we are using simple lo-fi visuals, surely it follows we should be using simple lo-fi copy too.
This leads to the idea of using different levels of copy fidelity for different levels of prototype visual fidelity. If you’re using low fidelity prototypes, you should be using low fidelity words. And just like the visual design of the prototype, you can pretty up and add colour to the words further along the design process. i.e. adding brand personality and tone of voice, much as you finesse the visuals and add colour. This approach hopefully helps guide users along their path to achieve their goals -which ultimately delivers the desired user experience. One that works!
So just to be completely clear, that will be the very last time I ever use the phrase “the sun’s going in” in the presence of an Australian. Unless I want to confuse them.
