Don't make me think: how editorial consistency helps the mobile user experience

Is your organisation using consistent language across desktop, mobile and email? If not, you may be confusing your customers. Worst case: could you even be losing customers?

Yesterday I used O2's live chat to change my mobile contract. Then O2 invited me to give feedback.

"Click the Close chat button to do the survey," said the customer representative. (See screenshot below.)

So I dutifully scrolled up and down my mobile screen, squinting for a button called 'Close chat'.

There wasn't one. But there was an 'End session' button (see screenshot below).

Is it the 'End session' button I'm supposed to click? By then I'd lost interest.

To O2 it might seem like an insignificant difference in language. But if, like me, customers only use live chat once every 2 years when they want to renew their mobile contract, they don't wanna have to guess where to click. They want 'no brainer' language in links.

The mobile experience

It's even more important to provide 'no brainer' links for customers using mobiles to interact with you. Any level of frustration is greatly multiplied when you add in:

• 'fat finger' syndrome
• tiny screens 
• the risk of losing your signal if you're on the move
• other people distracting your concentration

easyJet's online check-in

I first blogged about editorial inconsistency - and the hesitation it causes - when I got confused by easyJet using 2 different phrases for the same call to action (in emails: 'Check in online', on the web: 'Print boarding pass'). Read blog post on easyJet.

Steve Krug

Oh, and apologies to usability expert Steve Krug for cannibalising the title of his book: 'Don't make me think!'