content-designlisted

# Content design The interface is mostly words. Words written last, by whoever was implementing, are the ones users actually read. ## Buttons and labels - **A button says what happens when you press it.** `Save changes`, not `OK`. `Delete 3 photos`, not `Confirm`. - **A destructive button names what is destroyed and whether it comes back.** "This cannot be undone" belongs in the dialog, not in the button. - Sentence case throughout. Never end a button label with a full stop. - `Cancel` means "nothing happens". Never label a button `Cancel` when something happens. ## Errors — three parts, always 1. **What happened**, in the user's terms, not the system's. 2. **Whether their data is safe.** This is the question they are actually asking. 3. **What to do next**, as an action they can take right now. `Something went wrong` fails all three. `Couldn't save — your note is still here. Retry when you're back online.` passes all three in one line. **Never show an error code without also showing prose**, and never show raw exception text. ## Empty states An empty state is not a blank screen with an apology. It says what belongs here, why it is empty (new, filtered, or failed — three different states, three different messages), and the one action that fills it. ## Permission prompts Ask *at the moment of need*, never at launch. The prompt says what the user gets, not what the app wants. The system string (`NSCameraUsageDescription` etc.) is written by you, not by an engineer