January 22, 2026
By Marcus Feldt
4 min read
Writing for screens people actually read on
Interface copy is design work. Shorter is not always better — clearer always is.
Interface copy is design work, and it is usually the last thing anyone budgets for. The result is a beautiful page that asks you to "leverage our solutions" when it means "see the price".
Shorter is not the goal — clearer is
The advice to cut words is half right. Cutting a sentence in half helps only if what remains says the same thing. "Submit" is shorter than "Send my enquiry", and worse: it tells you about the form instead of about what happens next.
Write the label from the reader's side of the screen. They are not submitting anything; they are asking you a question.
Three passes that catch most of it
Read every label aloud and cut anything you would not say to a person. Replace every abstract noun with the thing it stands for. Then hand the page to someone who has never seen it and watch where they hesitate — hesitation is the copy telling you it did not work, and it is a cheaper signal than any test.