I came across a term today that I haven’t seen before. At first I read it as WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get). But, it didn’t make sense and I read it again – WYLTIWLT. What is that?
First, we need to understand the context. I was researching the best way to write text for buttons within a user interface. For example, should you write an okay button as “OK” or “Ok” or “ok”?
In this context, I came across a post that said:
…the words on a button must make sense after both the interrogative “Would you like to…?” (where the publisher speaks) as well as the conditional “I would like to…” (where the user speaks). I call this the “Would you like to? / I would like to” test, or WYLTIWLT (pronounced “wilty-wilt” – a bit like WYSIWYG) for short.
There you have it. When creating a button, you should be able to ask yourself “Would you like to X?” and “I would like to X”, or WYLTIWLT.
Try it with these examples:
- ✓ Sign up
- ✓ Take a look
- x Go to my messages
- x Are you feeling lucky?
[Source: UX Booth]
Phlogtastic 