Lark / Content design
Finding the friction in everyday interface copy, then making the language clearer, calmer, and easier to act on.
Docs / changing your own role
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ChangeThe brief
Across Lark’s product ecosystem, small pieces of interface copy were asking users to do unnecessary interpretive work. My role was to identify those friction points and refine the language so it became clearer, calmer, and easier to act on.
Maximum usefulness, minimum clutter. The best line of product copy should make the next step feel obvious, not perform a little monologue about itself.
The product
Lark brings messaging, meetings, docs, calendar, email, and workflows into one connected workplace. A small language decision can therefore travel across very different product contexts—and across markets.
See Lark’s product overviewHow I led it
I led the project across a team of content designers, each embedded in different Lark features. My job was to gather their feature-level knowledge, lead the discussions, and make the final decisions so the system worked across the product while still feeling consistent.
That meant many rounds of discussion with designers, product managers, researchers, engineers, and localization teams. Product behavior, deployment constraints, and cultural references all shaped the language—not only what sounded best in English.
Audit, test, release, repeat
The content audit invited internal Lark users based around the world who used the product in different languages. We showed participants the old and new versions through A/B testing, then compared reaction time and satisfaction.
The project ran for about a year. Changes were released gradually through Lark’s weekly product versions, which gave the team room to learn and refine instead of treating the work as a single rewrite.
A mini cabinet of micro-decisions
Use the word that describes the action—and the context
“Terminate” can imply ending someone’s employment and had received negative feedback from overseas users. “Delete” is more neutral, operationally accurate, and aligned with how this setting actually works.
Terminate
Delete
Make the next step feel like an invitation
The original wording sounded demanding and missed its article. “Try another device” gives the same instruction in a more natural, encouraging voice.
No, test next device
No, try another device
Name the change that is actually happening
A user changing their own role is not removing themselves from a document. This revision matches the real action, preserves accurate context, and uses a clear verb-led button.
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ChangeMake menu items complete thoughts
In a dropdown, “I requested” reads like the start of a sentence. Placing the task first makes the options scannable and grammatically complete.
Say only what the icon hasn’t already said
A familiar calendar icon already signals the action, so “View” is extra furniture. The shorter label avoids repeating what users can see.
Leave room for time to do its thing
Different time formats need different prepositions. “Created” stays correct whether the detail is followed by a date, a time, or both.
Plain English is a kindness
PSTN is technically precise but not commonly understood. “Phone Call” asks less of the user and tells them exactly what they are selecting.
PSTN
Phone Call
Choose the word for this job, not a nearby one
“Newest” describes submission dates more precisely; “latest” can suggest what is fashionable or recent in a broader sense. The revision also follows the English style guide’s sentence-case convention.
The editing lens I used
What I learned
Product language works at the scale of a single verb, preposition, or menu label. The work is minute; the accumulated effect is not. Each adjustment helps an interface step back, so the person using it can step forward.
The work streamlined language across product lines and established a more consistent foundation for the product. It also led into the next project: defining Lark’s voice and tone so the product could feel more personal, coherent, and fully formed.
