Intro (optional)

The most popular article I have written to date is this one, which is a UI copy guide about Remove vs Delete & Add vs Create. Even though this was the second article I ever wrote (and was published way before I took my first UX class) it garnered more praise and attention than my later, more-polished articles. This is a clear testament that specific UI copy guides (or “cheat sheets”) are in huge demand.

Globally-recognized design systems (like HIG and Material) do a great job providing best practices for the general topic of UX writing, but when the tire hits the road and designers need to know exactly what word to use for e.g. a button, they are left with one option, which is to check their favorite apps to see what they do.

In an effort to avoid duplicative research, I took a deep dive into microcopy for application access and came up with the following suggestions:

Microcopy suggestions for application access

1 — Create Account vs Sign Up

I would go with Create Account.

Reasoning:

• Create Account is simply more indicative of what action is being presented.
• Using the word “Account” sets yourself up for features like Account Settings that tie back to the fact that users have their own account.
• This action is usually tied to the hip with Log In / Sign In functionality, and if you decide to go with Sign In then you are creating two buttons that look almost identical, as seen below.

A recipe for an unconscious slip in the top-right corner of dribbble’s landing page.Another example with apartments.com.

Final notes:

• Don’t use Register, as this is usually for one time events held by a group within an app. Think Meetup.
• Don’t use Join as this is usually used for adding yourself to a group within an app. Think Meetup again.

2 — Log In vs Sign In

I would go with Log In.

Reasoning:

• The noun version of Sign In is Sign-in, which is pretty weird. When would you need the noun version? Well in documentation of course.

Documentation from Google Identity.

Final notes:

• As you can see here, the debate is pretty 50/50 between Log In vs Sign In, so my suggestion is not super strong.
• As mentioned above, if you chose Create Account then you are more free to go with either Sign In or Log In but if you believe you will ever ask your users to Sign Up for a promotion, newsletter, etc. then I would avoid using Sign In.

3 — Log Out vs Sign Out

Match it with whatever you picked for #2. If you chose Log In then do Log Out. If you chose Sign In then do Sign Out.

Reasoning:

• Nothing is more telling of an inconsistent UI than having users Log In but then Sign Out. Will it confuse / aggravate most of your users? Probably not. But you are setting a pretty low standard for your company and at the very least annoying the QA and Documentation teams.

Simply google searching for login pages provides some pretty funny examples. I see 3 inconsistencies here :)

4 — Delete Account vs Remove Account

I would go with Delete Account.

Reasoning:

• As mentioned in my other article, Delete is synonymous with Create, which is what we chose in #1
• By definition you are deleting your account, since you can never get it back.

5 — Final thoughts

• Capitalizing the second word for the applicable verbs (Sign In vs Sign in) is 100% a personal choice, but stay consistent. Usually there is a set casing for buttons so I would just follow what was already decided on. If you have not decided on anything then I would do that first :)
• Remember, “Log In” is a verb and “Login” is a noun. Buttons names should be verbs, while referencing the login experience should be a noun. Below is a quick cheatsheet of the other examples

Conclusion

Would love to hear any and all feedback on my suggestions as they are simply my (albeit well-informed) opinions!