Bad Copywriting Is The Most Overlooked Problem In Product Design

Bad Copywriting Is The Most Overlooked Problem In Product Design

Even though I’ve been using Spotify for many years, I still get confused as to what “continue” refers to.

Am I clicking “continue” to keep playing music on my other device? Or am I clicking “continue” to continue doing what I want to do… listening to music on my new device?

The problem with this copy is that it isn’t explicit enough. It lets you read what you want into it, depending on what you want to do.

A better version of the page would look something like this (I didn’t have access to the font, and didn’t make it quite as pretty as Spotify’s version, but it gets the message across):

This version of the pop-up makes the primary action very clear. I know that by tapping on the button I’m going to switch the audio to this phone.

There are countless examples like this in the product world. It’s an epidemic. If you’re a product person, you should do a thorough review of the language used in your application — today. Your app’s future may depend on it.

Note: I realize that I’m also making the assumption that the primary reason someone would open up the application while music is playing is to switch devices, rather than continue listening on the same device (using the app as a remote). I don’t have access to the product team’s data, so that may be an inappropriate assumption. However, by making the primary CTA “yes, listen here” I’m able to reduce the ambiguity caused by the current copy. It’s much harder to reduce the ambiguity while making the primary CTA “Continue listening on currently playing device”. This is because I can fit “Yes, listen here” in a button. The copy for the current CTA would have to be something like “Continue listening on ((insert device name, which is probably long, here))”. That’s way too long for a button.

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