I Hate Short Beats Good

I’m probably going to get some pushback from the UX Writing community, but this rant is a pet peeve of mine. So buckle up, buttercup!

In UX Writing there is a much used saying, “Short beats good.” Most of the time it’s attributed to John Saito, who I’ve never met and certainly don’t hate. But that saying drives me nuts.

For one thing, it’s so bad it actually disproves itself.

“Short beats good.” I mean, if you didn’t know what it was supposed to mean, would it make any sense to you? Short what? Good what? Are short people suddenly attacking good people? Is it a judgement of someone’s physical qualities vs mental qualities? Just what the heck does it mean? It certainly doesn’t tell you.

Short beats good also requires you to define “good” as “bad.” Good content tells the user what they need to know, and no more. Back in the day we used the phrase, “Eschew surplusage.” Mark Twain came up with it, so you know it’s old. These days we don’t use it as much because no one knows what the words mean.

So good content is also short. How can short beat short? BAM!

Content should be as short as possible to tell the whole story.

Examples of short NOT beating good

You’re walking down a path and you see a sign. Which is more useful:

“WARNING”

or

“WARNING: Minefield ahead”

The first one is shorter, but what can you take away from it? Is it reminding you of existential dread and the worsening environment? Will snakes drop from the trees? Did you leave the water running at home?

But the second one tells you that if you keep walking you’ll walk into a freaking minefield. That’s important information.

Let’s try another one.

You’re listening to a song. Which one do you think will be more popular?

“STOP”

or

“STOP, in the name of Love.”

Conclusion

I should rest my case here, but I’ll go a little further and belabor the point. There’s a reason people buy books and not book titles. It’s because short doesn’t beat good.

Next I’ll discuss the proper pronunciation of gif. Stay tuned.