Writing Notification Banners

The objective of these guidelines are to show how to write effective notification banners, and to promote consistency across the entire SPA product line.

Golden Rules in Writing Notifications

When writing the text message for notification banners, these rules should always be respected:

• Keep it short and simple

• Nothing technical

• Do not use ‘please’ or ‘sorry’

• Do not state the obvious

• Do not blame the user

Keep it Short

Banners should be as short and clear as possible.

DO NOT USE	DO USE
The email address you entered is already being used by another account. Please try again.	That email is already taken.

Nothing Technical

Shoppers are not software developers and do not understand backend technical errors. Users need to know that something has failed and what their next step to accomplish their goals should be.

DO NOT USE	DO USE
I / O Error	Not a valid email format
Server is not available	There is a connection problem on our side. Try again later.

Do not use ‘Please’ and ‘Sorry’

There are differences between interacting with people vs. computers. While it is customary to say please and sorry to fellow citizens, it can be perceived as shallow and disingenuous when it comes form an automated system. This is mostly because people understand they are dealing with a machine, and machine’s do not feel.

DO NOT USE	DO USE
Sorry, that email is already taken. Please try again	That email is already taken.

Do Not State the Obvious

Notification banners should not mention things that are already obvious to the user. A common example of this is adding ‘Try again’ to the end of an error message. The user only needs to be informed that the operation was not successful.

DO NOT USE	DO USE
Product not added to cart. Try again.	Select a size before adding to cart.

Do Not be Ambiguous

Users care less about the error than they do about what went wrong. While it is nice to know something did not work, it is more constructive to know why.

DO NOT USE	DO USE
The email could not be sent.	Mail not sent. No internet connection.

Do Not Blame the User

In an effort to never appear to blame the user, it is best to NEVER attribute (via pronouns) an error or a success to users.

DO NOT USE	DO USE
Your new password was updated successfully	New password updated successfully
Your search found nothing	The search term yielded no results
You must fill in these fields	These fields are mandatory