Adding a new course export feature to Canvas
UX writing, 2026
Microcopy, a UX mockup, and a launch announcement for a course export feature in Canvas, written as if it were shipping.
- Purpose
- Show how I’d write for a new feature end to end: in the interface itself, and in telling users it exists.
- Audience
- Teachers who use Canvas, the learning platform, and want to take their courses with them.
- Format
- Microcopy, a mockup, and an announcement
What I delivered
Microcopy
The buttons, labels, messages, and errors a teacher meets while exporting a course.
UX mockup
The export flow, screen by screen, with the microcopy in place.
Feature announcement
The launch post that tells teachers what the feature does and how to find it.
Outcomes
- Covers a feature from first click to finished export, including what happens when it fails.
- Keeps one vocabulary throughout, so the button, the messages, and the announcement name things the same way.
- Shows interface writing and announcement writing for the same feature, side by side.
Challenges
An export can take a while, and a teacher can’t tell whether it’s working.
Wrote progress and completion messages that say what’s happening and what to do next.
Export errors usually blame the user or say nothing useful.
Wrote each error to say what went wrong and how to fix it, in plain words.
Teachers ignore announcements that read like marketing.
Led the announcement with the problem it solves, then the three steps to use it.