Considering edge cases

Real users don’t play by your rules. They rush, ignore instructions, and drift off—sidetracked by a notification or a wandering mind. That’s not a quirk to shrug off; it’s the truth to design around. Strong UX writing isn’t about elegant phrasing for ideal conditions—it’s about predicting the stumbles and cushioning the fall.

Begin with a question: What could go wrong? Look at each step. Take a username field. Someone types "user123" without checking, not realizing it’s taken. They sail through the form, hit “Submit,” and get slapped with an error. Tempers flare. The fix? Check availability as they type—a little green checkmark or a red “taken” note keeps them on track.

Bad UX isn’t always a glaring design misstep. Often, it’s subtler—a user staring at a screen, lost, with no hint of what broke or how to fix it. Build for the rushed, the distracted, the barely-there. Smooth their path, and everyone else glides through. Edge cases aren’t exceptions; they’re the proving ground. Master them, and the core experience stands solid.