Redesigning Handshake’s UI Copy
While completing my certification at the UX Writers Collective, I was tasked with revising the copy and content strategy for a mobile app named Handshake. This product allows freelancers and their clients to track their progress, make payments, and manage deadlines all in one space.
Role: UX Writer and Content Strategist
Deliverables: Voice and Tone Guide, Content Strategy, Microcopy
The Problem
As a part of my final project at the UX Writer’s Collective I was given access to a Figma file with wireframe flows for a freelance workplace app called Handshake.
While Handshake’s wireframe placeholder UI copy fit the basic functionality needed for the user experience, it lacked any essence of the brand’s personality and voice. The copy also didn’t meet standards for usability and lacked consistency in the use of its terms.
For my redesign approach, I would need to use the content strategy I developed for Handshake to rewrite copy in a way that empathizes with users and welcomes them into this digital workplace. I needed to keep in mind the user’s emotions at every stage of their user journey in order to meet their immediate emotional needs.
Although I wasn’t required to change the visual design, I felt it necessary to reorganize some of the layout and visual hierarchy for clarity.
Handshake has a dual user base of both professional freelancers and clients who may be unfamiliar with the typical freelance process. Because of this, Handshake needed to adopt a voice that would feel helpful and familiar to both user types.
To accomplish this, I developed a basic voice and tone guide for Handshake, emphasizing the brand’s key attributes. Handshake’s goal was to effectively act as a contributing member of the project team.
Handshake needed to be:
Friendly without being unprofessional
Welcoming without being overwhelming
Affirming without being patronizing.
This meant keeping the copy light and conversational, avoiding unnecessary jargon, and adding helpful text to clarify concepts during onboarding for clients new to the freelance framework.
A big emphasis for the user journey was to choose strategic moments for affirmation, humor, and delight when completing a task, finishing sign up, or reaching a milestone.
Consistency in terminology was also crucial for this project. It was important that terms like “freelancer,” “client,” and “payment” remained consistent throughout the experience to avoid confusion. I also took usability and accessibility into account when rewriting forms, making sure inputs were clearly labeled and given hint text when necessary.
Consistency in formatting was also key for my UI rewrite. Since Handshake involves viewing a lot of numbers for payments and hour tracking, it was crucial to maintain the same standards for displaying these numbers. I also developed a design system of using sentence case for button text and labels, and title case for headings to reinforce hierarchy.
The end result of all of these changes is a user experience with a clear voice and much more consistency, creating a more intuitive app to navigate.
Wrapping Up
Because this project needed to be completed on a tight turnaround, my focus was on the implementation of Handshake’s brand personality and maintaining consistent formatting. If I had more time, I would have made user testing a priority to validate that the terms chosen for the app’s navigation felt familiar to Handshake’s target users with A/B testing.
Given more time, I also would have loved to develop error states and loading states for Handshake that use delight and humor to alleviate concerned users and give them helpful ways to move forward.