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UX Writers Weekly Issue #6:
Magical Moments of Confirmation
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Without a doubt, one of my greatest passions is travel, and chances are good that many of you share that passion. After all, the world keeps getting smaller and it’s never been easier to be a globetrotter. Chances are also good that you’ve come across the term ‘ digital nomad.’ You know what I’m talking about: young people who travel the world while making a living with their laptops.
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You’ll see them on social media: girls in
handmade crochet bikinis cliff diving in the Philippines—guys with man buns doing yoga on the back of an elephant in Sri Lanka—couples living in a van and driving from Panama to Patagonia. They might be writers, designers, developers, or freelancers of some sort.
When I first became aware of this work/travel lifestyle, I wanted in. So after three years of busting my hump in Tel Aviv, I was finally able to quit my soul-sucking day job and hit the road. But of course, that road had more bumps in it than I would have imagined, one of which led me to an
important UX writing lesson.
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Shoestring budget
After bouncing around North America—LA, Toronto, NYC—I decided to start my European adventures in Berlin. Soon after, I met an absolutely amazing local, who we’ll call ‘Matilda.’ At some point, she was kind enough to extend an invitation to let me stay at her place for a week, which is awesome when you’re a semi-homeless traveler.
Everything was going
great, and I was super comfy. One day, Matilda had a job interview, so I came back early to her flat to do what I do best: popping open my laptop and creating content for my online communities.
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After about 10 minutes or so, her roommate (who I had met several times) came home, walked past the open bedroom door, looked at me, and then went into the kitchen without saying a word.
"OK, all good" I thought to myself. Turns out it was not all good. It wasn’t even partly good.
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| Knock knock knock
German police officers are scary. I don’t know what kind of training they go through, but I can only imagine that yelling must be a very important part of it. ‘Cause man, when they said "Halt!! Put your hands where I can see them!" you’d better believe my hands went up!
Full disclosure: I had zero previous encounters of any kind with the police before this incident. I’m a nerdy type who wishes no harm to anyone. Needless to say, I was pretty dazed. (And I won’t even go into the whole Jewish/German
past relations thing.)
At this point, the roommate’s yelling that I broke into the apartment and that she has no idea who I am. What a nightmare!
I called Matilda, the police realized that I was no threat, and the situation calmed down. Still though, I was pretty shook up and I decided to get the hell out of that
flat for good.
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Exhausted, I took my suitcase, headed to the nearest cafe, and went to Booking.com to start managing my trip. From Berlin, I was going to Munich for Oktoberfest and then meeting some friends in Prague.
But first, I needed to find an affordable, clean place to stay in Berlin ASAP, since the police incident left me homeless for the rest of the week.
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| A UX Writing Revelation
After finding the perfect place (sharing a room with 7 other people sounded like heaven at that point), I booked a room in Berlin. And this is the confirmation message I received:
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First of all, I must say it was a huge relief just to know I would have a warm bed that night. But notice something cool here.
Booking.com understands that the confirmation section is an opportunity. They give me the option to extend my trip (something I needed to do anyway) which will help increase their sales.
There’s a rule in sales that says you have a better chance when selling to clients you’ve already sold to than to new ones (retention vs. conversion). Booking is doing a great job with this. It was reassuring to me as a user to feel they were concerned and didn’t want me to be
homeless either!
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The Road to Munich
After I finished my Berlin adventure (there is so much more to that story), I was looking for a way to get to Munich for Oktoberfest. I used a ride-sharing service called BlaBlaCar which connects drivers and passengers all over Europe.
After
booking a ride to Munich, this is the translated confirmation I got:
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SMH. A golden opportunity wasted. And who talks like that anyway? Also, who the hell wrote ‘OK!’ on a CTA. Don’t yell at me!
At that moment, I thought of so many different ways to create a better confirmation:
- A meet your driver feature so we could have something to talk about for the long trip.
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| 2. How about something like Uber’s express pool feature that helps ensure the
pickup spot is convenient for both passenger and driver.
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| 3. Maybe me and the driver want to rock out while listing to Bohemian Rhapsody and then stop for Mcdonalds (true story BTW). So why not give users the opportunity to actually talk about it beforehand?
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| Final Thoughts
You see? Confirmation messages give us some of the best opportunities to create an emotional connection with our users and help them fall in love with our product (which means they’ll use it more).
I like to call these "magic moments" because everyone is happy: both the users and the company are kind of in a big group hug.
And on my transatlantic, digital nomadic adventure, I actually felt like one of those magic moments saved my life.
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So, what was the most magical moment you’ve ever had with an app? Was it an "add to calendar" by meetup, or a meet your host by Airbnb? See if you can notice this kind of moment in your own digital experiences, and then try to create the same kind of effect in the apps
you’re working on. And send me your feedback—I’d love to hear your thoughts.
By the way, I recently came across this amazing mega list of UX writing resources curated by Katherine Bradshaw-Jones.
Definitely check those out!
Yalla, till next time,
Yuval
UX Writing Hub
Microcopy & UX Writing
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UX Writing Hub, Merkaz bali hamelacha, 7628706 Tel Aviv, Israel
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