英文原文来自：https://medium.com/@jsaito/how-to-design-words-63d6965051e9

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如何设计产品文案

一个讨厌阅读的作家的心路历程

BY  John Saito（Dropbox设计师）   

翻译：Kevin嚼薯片

从专业层面来说，我是个作家。我通过写字去获得收入。但大多数人都不知道：我讨厌阅读。

别误会，我还是读了不少书。我常常涉猎图书、博客、新闻和杂志。但当作家久了，眼睛变得挑剔，大脑变得无聊。

像一堵墙一样密密麻麻的文字

小时候，我一直认为讨厌阅读是一个弱点。多年以后，我才意识到这个弱点能帮助我成为更好的作家。

你看，我主要是为应用程序和网站去撰写界面文本。这是一种写作的风格，简洁胜过睿智，每个人物角色都很重要。实际上，编写界面文本就是一种设计——为那些讨厌阅读的人去设计文字。

用户不会去阅读你的交互界面

大量的研究已经表明用户在访问网页时是不喜欢阅读文案的。应用程序、游戏或其他任何你与之交互的屏幕也是如此。大多数人只是四处浏览，到处找关键词。

你会惊讶于有多少人会点击“继续”。

因为懒惰？因为粗心？或者他们仅仅只是讨厌阅读文案？不管你用什么理论，结果都是一样。不管你的文案写得多么厉害，在大多数的交互界面上，用户都不会去阅读文案。

正因为如此，你不应该只写文案并把它们粘贴到你的设计中。当你写文案的时候，你可能会发现你的设计需要改变。如果你不能用几句话来解释一个动作，那说明你的设计可能过于复杂。

换句话说：你不应该设计一段长长的文本。你应该用设计文案。

7个文案设计的技巧

作为一名交互界面写手，我学到了一些可以让文案更容易阅读的东西。希望这些技巧在你写作和设计自己的文案时能派上用场。

1. 删减

你能做最首要的事情是，通过缩短你的文本来帮助用户阅读。写完初稿后，反复删减。简化细节，用简单的词语，说到点子上。像一个冷酷的杀手。

文本越短，越容易阅读。

作为一个作家，我知道表达想法和华丽词汇是多么的诱人，但交互界面并不适合。这是Medium才有的。

2. 添加标题

有时，你不能再删减文本了。在这种情况下，看看能否添加一个标题，用几句话来总结你的文本。使用用户可能需要的关键字。如果他们想看更多，能一直读下去。

标题使你的内容更容易浏览。

3. 使用列表

当浏览网页时，我们的眼睛会上下移动。因此，列表通常比段落更容易阅读。

如果你发现自己在一个段落中多次使用“和”或“也”这样的词，试着把这段改写成一个列表。

我喜欢使用列表形式。

4. 善用留白和隔断

有些产品，比如Medium，本身就以文本为重，这并没有什么问题。但有时一段接一段的读起来，会很困难。

当我需要写很多内容的时候，我试着添加很多视觉上的隔断——断行、图片、标题、例子——任何打破文字墙壁的东西。它给人们喘息的机会。甚至可以让他们深入思考和思维跳跃。

例如，在我Medium的文章中，我试着拆分为几个单独的段落，并加入大量的视觉上留白和隔断。

在视觉上放松。

5. 给文案设置优先级

有些写手往往把精力用在选择文案词汇上。文案词汇的选择的确很重要，但我认为文案的展现同样重要。

当你设计你的文案时，想想如何把关键词展示在在屏幕上，如何弱化那些不那么重要的东西。在设计领域，这被称为视觉层次结构。

想想字体的重量、大小、颜色、对比度、排版、加粗、间隔、邻近、对齐、位置——所有这些东西都会影响人们阅读你的文案。先调整一些属性，然后再调整其他属性，直到找到合适的平衡点。

哪个更容易阅读？

6. 慢动作表达

当你试图教育用户如何做某件事时，你很容易就把所有的信息都扔到一个屏幕上，希望他们能学到。但如果你的文本过长，用户很有可能都不会读它。那么怎么办呢?

有时你可以一次向用户展示一些信息。在学术上称为：渐进式提示，但我喜欢把它叫做“慢动作表达”。（听起来更有戏剧性，不是吗？）试着把你的信息分解成小块，循序渐进地展示给用户。

太多文本？尝试着一点点地展示给用户。

你可以做的另一件事是删减一些详细的信息，并链接到帮助文档。许多产品通过添加“学习更多”链接来实现这一点。点击这些链接可以带你到一个有详细细节介绍的帮助页面。

7. 写在实体模型中，而不是文档上

你有没有试过在文档上输出了一些看起来很不错的东西，但最后放到实际实物上却看起来太长了？这就是当你在谷歌文档、Dropbox、或任何其他写作应用程序中写作时所发生的事情。

当您为一个交互界面撰写文案时，看到完整的交互场景是非常重要的。你知道你的文案将如融入到这个界面中。

这就是为什么我宁愿写在Sketch的模型中，也不愿意写在文档上。我发现写在模型中有助于我快速决策，因为我能看到我的文案这个界面中的样子。

临别赠言

文案使我们的世界充满意义。它们帮助我们理解周围的世界。但遗憾的是，很多人都不喜欢阅读文案。如果你能像我一样，我们能让阅读尽可能的简单。去帮助人们理解周围的世界。

上面的建议只是我在设计产品文案时尝试做的一些事情。你有其他的秘诀吗？欢迎分享你的想法和评论。

最后，对所有讨厌阅读的人说一句：感谢你能读完这篇文章。

如果你觉得这篇文章有价值，请在文章底部给我打赏并留言，将获得《产品经理能力模型地图》和《运营能力模式地图》

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How to design words

From a writer who hates to read

BY  John Saito

Technically speaking, I’m a writer. I get paid to write words. But here’s something most people don’t know about me:I hate to read.

Now don’t get me wrong—I still read quite a bit. I wade my way through books and blogs, news feeds and magazines. But when writers get wordy, my eyes get glossy. My brain gets bored.

All I see is a wall of words.

As a kid, I always thought my aversion to reading was a weakness. It wasn’t until years later that I realized this weakness helped me become a better writer.

You see, I mostly write interface text for apps and websites. It’s a style of writing wherebrevity beats brilliance, and every character counts. Writing interface text is actually a lot like design—designing words for people who hate to read.

People don’t read your interface

Numerous studies have shown how people don’t read on the web. The same goes for apps, games, or any other screens you interact with. Most people just scan around, picking up words here and there.

You’d be surprised how many people would tap “Continue.”

Are people lazy? Careless? Or do they just hate to read? Whatever theory you go with, the results are always the same. People don’t read most of your interface—no matter how great your words are.

Because of that, you shouldn’t just write words and paste them into your design. As you write your words, you might find that your design needs to change. If you can’t explain an action in a few words, it’s a sign that your design is probably too complex.

To put it another way: You shouldn’t design with lorem ipsum. You should design with words.

7 tips for designing with words

As an interface writer, I’ve learned a few things that can make your words a little easier to read. Hopefully these tips can come in handy as you write and design your own words.

1. Trim it down

The most important thing you can do to help people read is to shorten your text. After writing your first draft, trim it down, again and again. Cut out details, use simpler words, and just get to the point. Be ruthless.

The shorter your text, the more likely it’ll be read.

As a writer, I know how tempting it is to stretch your ideas and flex those writing muscles, but an interface isn’t the right place for that. That’s what Medium is for

2. Add headings

Sometimes, you just won’t be able to shorten your text any further. When that happens, see if you can add a heading that sums up your text in a few words. Use keywords that your user might look for. They can always read on if they want to learn more.

Headings make your content more scannable.

3. Make lists

When viewing webpages,our eyes tend to scan up and down. Because of this, lists are usually easier to read than paragraphs.

If you find yourself using words like “and” or “also” multiple times throughout a paragraph, try rewriting that paragraph as a list.

I love making lists.

4. Give them a break

Some products, like Medium, are inherently heavy on content—and there’s nothing wrong with that. But sometimes it can be hard to read paragraph after paragraph after paragraph.

When I need to write a lot of content, I try to add a lot ofvisual relief—line breaks, images, headings, examples—anything that breaks up the walls of words. It gives people a breather. It lets them think and skip around if they need to.

For example, in my Medium posts, I try to keep my paragraphs to just a few lines, and I sprinkle in lots of visual relief.

Sprinkling in some visual relief.

5. Prioritize your words

Some writers tend to focus too much on the choice of words. Word choice is important, but I think the presentation of those words is just as important.

As you design your words, think about how to prioritize the most important words on the screen and how to de-emphasize the less important stuff. In design, this is referred to as visual hierarchy.

Think about font weights, size, colors, contrast, typography, capitalization, spacing, proximity, alignment, movement — all these things affect whether or not people read your words. Dial some attributes up, and dial other attributes down until you find the right balance.

Which is easier to read?

6. The slow reveal

When you’re trying to educate users how to do something, it’s tempting to just throw all that info into a single screen and hope they’ll get it. But chances are, if your text is longer than a couple of lines, many people won’t read it. So what do you do?

Sometimes you can show the user a little bit of info at a time. In textbook-speak, this is calledprogressive disclosure, but I like to call itthe slow reveal. (Sounds more dramatic, doesn’t it?) Try breaking up your info into small chunks and presenting it step-by-step.

Too much text? Try revealing it a little by little.

Another thing you can do is remove some of the more detailed info and link out to help docs. Many products do this by adding “Learn more” links. Clicking those links can take you to a help page with the nitty-gritty details.

7. Write in mocks, not docs

Have you ever written something that looked good on paper, but ended up looking too long when it went live? That’s what happens when you do your writing in Google Docs, Dropbox Paper, or any other writing app.

When you write words for an interface, seeing the full context is so crucial. You need to know how your words are going to look next to everything else around it.

That’s why I prefer to write in Sketch mocks, not in docs. I find that writing in mocks helps inform my writing decisions, because I can see how my words will look in context.

Parting words

Words fill our world with meaning. They help us make sense of the world around us. But the sad thing is that a lot of people just don’t like to read. If you work with words like I do, our goal should be to make reading as easy as possible. Help people make sense of the world around them.

The tips above are just a few of the things I try to do when designing words. Got any tips of your own? Feel free to share your ideas, stories, and comments below.

And to all of you who hate to read—thanks for reading.