Captions

The line beneath the name is a narrow bridge between recognition and action. It should tell the reader something the icon cannot.

Name the use, not the ambition

“A better everyday” could belong to almost anything. “A tea timer that knows the leaf” gives an object, a task and one difference. The invented Steepwell line is seven words long, but the useful constraint is clarity, not a magic word count.

Three ways to take a line

• Describe: “High water, low water, nothing else.”
• Promise: “Knows where the box is before you ask.”
• Set a scene: “Rain on a window, set to forty minutes.”

These are captions for invented apps, not endorsements or download invitations.

Cut the duplicated word

Read the name, the icon and the line together. If the name already says timer, the caption may be able to spend its space on the kind of timing. Remove one adjective and see whether a useful verb can take its place.

Return to the square or look at the frames around the line.