Daily UX Writing Challenge
Day 1: Flight Cancellation Message
Hi. I’m Izu. A Medical Radiographer, and UX Writer. This is my first medium post, and interestingly, my first attempt at the Daily UX Writing Challenge. I hope you enjoy the read.
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.
Headline: 45 characters
Body: 175 characters max
Button(s): 25 characters max
Goals
Notify traveler of cancellation.
Tell them what they need to do next.
Since the challenge didn’t just state “a message”, but “a message from the airline app”, it is safe to assume this message would be in form of a phone notification, as opposed to an email. Phone notifications are good, especially because they give you information, even when you are not currently on the app interface. This will help get the user’s attention, as fast as possible, so all we need to do is tell them why their attention is needed, and fast!
Copy
Headline — FLIGHT 3350 CANCELED.
Body: Due to unfavorable weather conditions, your flight to Abuja has been canceled. Not to worry, we have outlined options for rescheduling and compensation.
Button: View options
Rationale
Flight [Number] Canceled is straight to the point, descriptive of the flight, and embodies the central message of the notification. Every other content revolves around the flight cancellation situation. I did not use a headline like “Alert”, because I want to give the user as much important information, as fast as possible.
Using “Alert” would mean the user would have read the headline but still not gotten the message yet.
I also did not use the headline “Flight Cancelled,” because I wanted the user to recognize the flight being canceled at first glance. I’ve never used an airline app before so I don’t know how it works, but I know that many mobile apps send notifications about certain things that concern specific people, to ALL users. I wouldn’t want the user to think it was just a flight cancellation that didn’t concern them.
Starting with “Due to unfavorable weather conditions…” is in line with my attempt to give as much important information, as fast as possible. After the headline, they know the flight has been canceled. If I had started with “Your flight has been canceled due to…” it would mean a few seconds of going through what they already know before what they don’t, and that’s not ideal.
I know “Not to worry,…” might not be the most common statement of reassurance, especially from an airline, but I feel it would work in this case, as it is introducing a sentence that shows what to do to make the situation less unfavorable.
I read about different things the customer is entitled to when their flight is canceled due to weather, and I got a good number of ideas, especially with the recent effects of Storm Eunice. However, I noticed that I can’t easily give the user a good scope of what they are entitled to, from the notifications panel, so I opted to highlight the two most positive words the traveler would want to hear in such a situation; rescheduling, and compensation.
The button just carries a simple CTA, based on the information given in the body of the message. Even with my black and white interface, I managed to show that the CTA should carry the brand color, as an extra assurance that what is waiting behind that click is something from Qwikfly. Just the way the CTAs on Twitter notifications are blue, and those on YouTube are red.
There is no outright apology because it is a weather situation, which is regarded as an act of God. This means that the situation is uncontrollable to both the airline and the traveler. Also, in terms of the repercussions, it is unfortunate and stressful for both parties.
This was a nice challenge for me, and my first attempt at actual microcopy outside the four walls of my Udemy mobile classroom. Kindly let me know what you think, and what areas I can change or improve on.
