This is part of the 15-day UX Writing Challenge presented by Daily UX Writing.
Scenario: A short-haul truck driver has a phone app that monitors his route, schedule, fuel & deliveries.
He has 6 more deliveries before stopping for fuel and lunch. Due to unexpected traffic, he’s behind schedule.
He can choose to stay on his planned route for a few more stops, but risk running low on fuel and missing lunch, or he can get fuel and lunch now and finish the deliveries later.
Challenge: Write a push notification alerting him of this dilemma and options.
Headline: 30 characters max
Body: 45 characters max
Button(s): 25 characters max
Task & Goals
For many of us, we take for granted the amount of work that goes on behind the scenes of our online orders. While it seems like a simple act of pressing Purchase and waiting a couple of days for our purchase to arrive at our homes, there are a lot of logistics involved such as:
- the systems that allows for the purchase to be confirmed
- packing the orders and sending them away
- delivery systems to make sure it arrives safely and on time
Each step of the process is constantly measured to make the overall process faster, cheaper, and more efficient.
In this challenge, we’re working on the delivery system. Our users are the truck drivers that deliver goods and we’re working on an app that keeps track of their route, schedule, fuel & deliveries.
While our app does the best that it can to provide the best route and updates to our drivers, there’s only so much that it can control. In situations such as traffic and delays, drivers are often asked to find the balance between meeting their delivery or taking their deserved breaks.
Here’s the scenario:
Our driver has six more deliveries before he’s suppose to stop for fuel and lunch. But due to unexpected traffic, he’s unfortunately behind schedule. There are two possible options that he can take:
1. Finish his deliveries but run the risk of running out of fuel and missing lunch
2. Stop for fuel and lunch and postpone the deliveries
In situations like this, our goal is write an alert notification that tells him what his options are, given the situation.
Concepts & Ideas
We’ll assume that we work for a company that values their drivers. Our team believes that their health and safety is our number one priority. However, if the driver wants, they have the decision to stop or keep going with their rounds.
So here’s my idea:
Headline: Traffic Causes Delivery Delays
Body: Rest and refuel at the nearest gas station.
Button: Find Nearest Station | Close
This challenge is difficult because as much as I’d want to provide more information to our drivers and express empathy, the character constraints don’t allow it. Plus, they’re expected to be on the road. So a long message could be dangerous if they have to read while driving.
For our app, let’s assume that it can read traffic flow and pick the most optimal route for our drivers. Having a feature like this is important because it can gather traffic data and determine the frequency of heavy-traffic flows to adjust future routes.
In our headline, we alert the user that heavy traffic has caused a delay in their deliveries. I chose to mention traffic as the cause because I don’t want the drivers to think that it’s their fault.
According to our app, it’s best that our drivers take a break and refuel instead of finishing their routes. The reasoning behind this is that if our drivers decide to push through, they may be at risk of causing further delays if they run out of fuel or can’t concentrate because they haven’t taken a break.
That’s why we make it easier for them to find the nearest stop with the click of a button. But according to our stakeholders, we have to give them an option as opposed to forcing them to postpone their route.
Here’s what the final copy would look like:
Conclusion
Challenges like these demonstrate why it’s so important to have writers and content designers involved in the design dialogue. Notice how I had to throw in a lot of assumptions about our app just to make this copy. While I know this thinking process allows for greater creativity, this will not work when working on a real product with a real team.
We should work with as few assumptions as possible because there are real consequences involved if our copy provides misinformation, which could lead to a frustrating user experience.
How would you tackle this challenge? Let me know your thoughts in the comments. Again, I welcome any constructive feedback that you may have. Thanks for reading!
