Every word in your app is a design decision.
Design · 4 min read
I was working with a client who had a background in communications. She treated every button label, every prompt, every single line of text inside the app like a strategic decision. Not because she was being difficult. Because she understood something most people miss: the words in your app are not decoration. They're part of the interface.
She would take a proposed button label, test it with 10 to 20 real people, and come back with feedback on which word landed and which one confused people. Not A/B testing on a live product. Just asking real humans "what do you think this button does?" and listening to the answers.
That level of care with language changed the product.
Labels are instructions
A button that says "Submit" is technically accurate. A button that says "Send my request" tells the user what's about to happen. A button that says "Done" could mean anything. These differences seem tiny on a Figma screen. They're massive when someone is tapping through your app on a train trying to finish a task before their stop.
Every label is an instruction. Every prompt is a nudge. Every placeholder in a form field is either helpful or confusing. If you get them right, the user flows through the app without thinking. If you get them wrong, they hesitate. They tap the wrong thing. They get stuck.
Most designers (including me) will suggest labels based on convention and experience. But the client who tests them with real people is doing something more valuable. They're finding out whether their users speak the same language as the design team.
Your industry has a vocabulary. Your users might not share it.
This connects directly to something I've written about before. If you've worked in your industry for a decade, you have a vocabulary that feels natural to you. But the person using your app might not know those terms. They might not know the difference between a "permit" and a "clearance." Or between "RSVP" and "confirmation." Or between "vendor" and "supplier."
The fix isn't to dumb everything down. It's to test. Ask five people what they think a label means. If three of them get it wrong, change the label. It doesn't matter if the original was technically correct. What matters is whether people can use the app without instructions.
Copy should be locked before development starts
One thing this client taught me is that copy decisions need to happen during design, not after. If the wording changes after the developer has built the screen, you're paying for rework. Layout shifts. Character count issues. Buttons that were sized for a short label now need to accommodate a longer one.
Lock your copy before handoff. Every label. Every button. Every placeholder. Every error message. Treat the words as seriously as the colour palette or the spacing. Because to the user, they're just as visible.
If you're building your first app and you haven't thought about what the buttons say, you're designing half the interface.
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