Remember what it is you’re trying to do when writing for a wide audience: communicate an idea clearly and accurately. If a reader ends up confused, it’s not their failure as a reader but yours as a writer.

Alok Jha

Remember what it is you’re trying to do when writing for a wide audience: communicate an idea clearly and accurately. If a reader ends up confused, it’s not their failure as a reader but yours as a writer.

Alok Jha

Found on Vimeo after joining a group.

It’s unlikely that my definition of “important” will be the same as theirs. Does this mean I’ll get an email every time a video is added to the group? When someone joins or leaves? What about forum postings? There should at least be an explanation of what constitutes “important”.

Ambiguous options kill kittens.

Love the choice of language on this NASA comment form.

A lovely example of naturalistic copy writing as interface from Magcloud. This neat concise paragraph sits above the normal bog-standard order confirmation table layout telling you everything you need to know right at that moment.

I love the release notes for Panic’s new version of Transmit.

More form design cleverness, this time on Panic’s blog comment form.

Really nice mad-libs style form on the Vaultpress beta-application. The hint text has real character too; “I’m most interested in VaultPress because [aliens are after my server].”

Found on Pingdom, an “I will decide later” option. Never seen this on a license agreement before. Wonder what the numbers are on the people who pick it? Is anyone else offering this option?

Wilton argues against all the people who say users don’t read online. “People read online all the time,” she says. But copy has to be targeted, useful and authentic, or users will indeed skip over it. “We know people only read what’s necessary online,” she says. “We have to make every single word count.

Denise's Writing for Relationships presentation from IxDA’s Interaction ’10.