This is part of the 15-day UX Writing Challenge presented by Daily UX Writing.
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.
Constraints:
Headline: 45 characters
Body: 175 characters max
Button(s): 25 characters max
Context & Goals
Let’s suppose that we’re developing notifications for an airline app. We’re given a scenario in which the user is in an airport waiting for a flight home when unfortunately, bad weather causes their flight to be cancelled.
Our job is to create a notification that alerts them of the flight cancellation. Since these alerts will be notifications, our goal to grab the user’s attention as much as possible.
Notification Concepts
Whether or not the user is using their phone, notifications usually appear like this:
While the lock screen notification size can be a bit more flexible than the banners (ones that drop down), we need something to grab the user’s attention with the limited space that we have.
With that we can write:
Headline: Cancelled Flight
Body: We’re sorry, your flight [number] to [destination] was cancelled. Click to learn why and your available next steps.
I understand that this headline sounds robotic and not as empathetic as I’d like. However, since we’re given limited space and we need to grab the user’s attention, we need something that’s short and impactful.
The reason I chose the wording Cancelled Flight, instead of Flight Cancelled or Flight [number] to [destination] was cancelled, was because I needed a short headline that creates alertness. With Cancelled as the first word, the user will immediately know the situation without having to read much further.
While it may be easier for developers to write something like Flight [Status] (e.g Flight Update, Flight Arriving, Flight Boarding), we can easily change the wording to [Status] Flight (e.g Arriving Flight, Boarding Flight). While it’s easier to have Flight Update as an umbrella term, it’s really vague and doesn’t give users a clear sense of what is happening unless they click on the notification.
The body:
We’re sorry, your flight [number] to [destination] was cancelled. Click to learn why and your available next steps.
To me, this has more empathy and strikes a nice balance between empathy and formal tone.
Since we’re limited on space, we must get the user to act immediately. By requesting that they Click to learn, we’re asking them to take action to learn the reason for the cancellation and what steps they can take next.
Here’s what I think it would look like:
Conclusions
Cancelled flights are never fun. What can be worse is when passengers aren’t aware and don’t know what to do next.
In this challenge, we were given limited space to alert the user of their situation. However, with our alert, the user is updated and provided with guidance to learn more about the situation as well as next steps they could take.
What I enjoyed about this process was the research involved in how similar airlines such as United Airlines or Delta presented their push notifications. While some of them seemed robotic, likely because of their brand voice, I wanted to present something that struck a balance between empathy and formality.
Not only that, but I also managed to practice creating concepts using Figma.
How would you tackle this challenge? I’d love to hear your thoughts and any feedback you’d have for me. Thanks!
