Text Design for interface design: Easy to understand text

Article Description: Considerations for text design.

The text that appears in the application is collectively referred to as text, which can be divided into headings, control labels, supplemental instructions, error messages, and operational text, depending on the function. Text information is the most basic interaction element, such as the early command-line interface, users rely on reading and writing characters to interact with the computer, a large number of characters require user memory, graphical interface to increase intuitive graphics interaction, reducing the cost of learning, but the text itself to convey the most accurate, complex information or text description mainly, Therefore, in the interface design is still important, easy to understand the text can provide the user's operational efficiency.

Concise

Simplicity is the use of the least text to convey the most accurate information, do not repeat, not long-winded, can use three words to express clearly do not use five words, such as the title word "Address Book" than "My Address book" Concise, mobile phone is more personalized products, generally there is no more than a shared scenario.

For example, the title "Search Interface" and "Category Interface", "interface" is not the title of the current interface itself, although the ambiguity is small, but the mobile interface display space is limited, should try to simplify the text.

The text content is too much, although the description is very detailed, but the user must have the patience to read carefully, the user wants to get the desired results, rather than a large paragraph of text interpretation. There will not be so many text pop-up boxes in the mobile interface, but it is necessary for the user to get the information in the shortest time.

Refer to Win7 and iOS and other excellent operating systems, using the "inverted pyramid" structure , such as the first display of the most basic display, and then show more details, if the pop-up window can not be fully displayed, you may increase the link to allow users to see more detailed use of help. The reason for this design is that when users concentrate on reading, they read from left to right and from top to bottom in the normal order. But in the use of applications, especially mobile applications, the user's attention is not necessarily completely in the interface, for text users can sweep over, may not really understand the meaning of words. When the user is impatient, it is possible to skip text to manipulate the control directly. Assuming that the user scans the interface, users will generally read the interface text in the following order:

1. Intermediate Interactive controls
2. Submit button
3. Interactive controls elsewhere
4. Main Title Description
5. Supplementary explanation
6. Window title
7. Other static text in the body area
8. Footnote

Because the control is the most eye-catching, there is reason to believe that users read the phone pop-up interface text in order:

1. Control
2. Pop box body
3. Pop-up title

Mobile phone pop-up boxes usually do not have a complex explanation, in the design should be noted:

A short statement may not use the title.

A question must be complete, such as "Delete all URLs?" "Are you sure you want to delete all URLs?" ”。

The title should not be longer than the text.

Avoid too long body text, try to control in 1-2 lines, the use of scroll bar in the pop-up experience is not good.

Consistency

Similar meanings use the same words, such as "return", "Go Back" and "back", the meaning of expression and the effect of operation consistent, should be unified into a word.

If the system or other applications use the word "back", you should follow the user's habits and reduce the cost of learning.

Punctuation

Punctuation is also an integral part of a statement, and using punctuation marks requires attention:

• A short statement does not use a period.
• Questions use question marks.
• The exclamation point task completes and needs to attract the attention of the user to use, for example: Congratulations, registration success!
• Ellipses can indicate that additional information is required or hidden, that the text is truncated, or that the task is in progress. For example: Download ...
• Quotes can prevent text from being confused, such as: url "Sina" deleted successfully.

Tone

User reading text is equivalent to the program and user communication, should maintain a polite tone, to ensure that the text clear, natural and indirect, the text should not be too formal, design text can assume that the user is face-to-face communication. For example, "This file is protected and cannot be removed without special permission" is better than "cannot delete new text document: Access Denied", conveying the reason why the operation cannot be performed, without causing the user to feel blamed.

The text can be slightly colloquial, such as "Follow the steps" Better than "register by following steps".

Using an encouraging tone, the expression program allows the user to do something rather than allow the user to do anything. For example, use "You can delete files" instead of "programs that allow you to delete the file."

Bootstrap User

Don't let users feel uneasy and frustrated, especially when there are errors, such as "errors" and "warnings."

Use the words that the user can understand, give the user to perform the action to provide the effective suggestion, tell the user not only just the result of the operation, but also should tell the user "next" should do, reduce the user's thinking time.