Microcopy rarely gets noticed the way a headline does, but it makes up most of the actual experience — the hint under a field, the verb on a button, the one line an empty list shows.
Good microcopy answers "what, when, why" in a few words. "Enter text" answers none of them; "8+ characters — we'll save automatically" answers all three. The bar is information density, not length.
Watch the helper text in the demo: ✕ just restates what's already obvious (this is a text field), while ✓ tells you what happens next.
When to use
Every time you write helper text, a button, or an empty-state line, ask first whether this one line actually carries information.