UX Writing Challenge: Day 1
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
Context
Delayed or cancelled flights due to reasons like bad weather, staff shortages, labour union strike, and mechanical issues cause inconvenience to travellers. A “flight segment” is an industry term used to define the operation of a flight with a single flight designator (flight number) between the point where passengers first board an aircraft and their final destination. Whereas, a “flight leg” is a trip of an aircraft from one airport to another. Short flights are 1 leg. Long-haul may have 2 or more legs.
Hypothetical scenario
Building on the queue and the context; consider the following scenario
A traveller booked a flight from London to Sydney (one flight segment) but it has to stop at Singapore for refuelling. So, from London to Singapore (Leg 1) and Singapore to Sydney (Leg 2) on the same segment. While the aircraft stops at Singapore, the traveller is notified that the flight (Leg 2) is cancelled due to bad weather.
The UX writing challenge is to write a message from the airline app notifying about the cancellation and possible solutions.
Solution
The UX microcopy needs to be empathetic, polite, and optimistic in order to calm down a potentially angry, confused, and frustrated traveller. It must be solution and support oriented. Concise and clear microcopy is the goal.
Headline
Oh, snap! Looks like your flight got cancelled
Body text
We apologise [name of the traveller] for the inconvenience. Your BA782 flight is cancelled due to bad weather. You are requested to check out some options we have for you.Buttons
[Request refund]
[Contact airline]
[Check flight schedule]
[Other options]
