This is part of the 15-day UX Writing Challenge presented by Daily UX Writing.
Scenario: A sports fan is at a wedding while their favorite team is playing against their arch-rivals. Their team scores.
Challenge: How would you, quickly, let the sports fan know about the latest play, the current score, and the key players? Write it.
Headline: 30 characters max
Body: 45 characters max
Task & Goals
We all know that feeling when two big events happen simultaneously and we’re faced with an obligation to attend one over the other.
So imagine this: you’re a huge sports fan and your favorite team is playing against their arch-rivals. This is considered one of the biggest games of the season but they’re playing on the same day as your best friend’s wedding. Obviously, you’ll be attending your friend’s wedding.*
Fortunately, thanks to the app that we’ve been working on, you’re able to get live updates on the game while at the wedding.
With this context in mind, our goal is to provide our user with short and quick notification updates on the game during the wedding.
*Note: Although, are they really your best friend if they scheduled their wedding on the same day as the big game?*
**Note: I’m kidding
Concepts & Ideas
Okay, so there are numerous ways that we can provide updates to our user:
- SMS texting
- emails
- pop-up notifications
However, since we’re assuming that they won’t be on their phone and checking their emails, it’s unlikely that we’ll send email updates. Plus, emails take up inbox space and we’d have to rely on an email app for them to get our notifications. This applies for SMS text messages as well.
That leaves us with pop-up notifications from our app. This is a great method because our notifications can appear on their phone without taking up any inbox space and doesn’t rely on a third-party app.
Here’s the copy:
Headline: Game Update
Body: [Player 35] scores! [Team 1]: 46 vs. [Team 2]: 49
In a real app, we’d replace the words in brackets ([]) with the player’s name and the teams’ names as well. And given various plays, it’s often hard to confine particular moments into 45 character bodies. In addition, we’d also have conversations with our product designers and business teams about how often we send updates to our users. Games are so dynamic that almost anything can be an update, so it’s important to find a balance between informing our users and annoying them.
Here’s what the copy would look like:
We’d want something that the user can look at with a glance. If they wanted to know more, then they can tap the notification. However, since they’re at a wedding, our notification should tell them the most important details with as few words as possible.
Conclusion
This challenge can be difficult when we’re limited to just 45 characters, especially when players can have long names or plays involve multiple players. However, it was a good exercise in exploring the rational behind our decision.
I’m starting to notice that I’m approaching these challenges differently than before. Here are a few things I’ve noticed:
- exploring alternative methods of notifying users & why some are better than others
- putting everything into context (e.g sports fan at wedding = short notifications)
I’m so excited to see what more I can learn from these challenges. Let me know how you think I can improve!
Again, I’d love to hear how’d you tackle this challenge. Thanks again!
