Voice and Tone

Who will use our Guidelines and Principles?

Difference between Voice and Tone

Voice

Tone

Example: Add an image to a blank section to start building your website.

Example:

• A slight celebration, the delivery action is complete: the file has been uploaded.
• A heavier celebration, suitable for completing complex tasks and giving users a sense of accomplishment: congratulations! You are a member of AnyWeb

Example: The URL is not available. Contact the site administrator for help.

Example: Ready to create your first website? Get started with a 3-step trick.

Example: Your site "Daily Coffee News" has been removed for policy violations.

Writing principles

• Avoid coding languages
• Talk like a real person and avoid jargon

• using terminology

• Use consistent nouns and verbs Using different nouns, then the user will not be sure if the new word refers to the same thing. With different verbs, users may be unsure if a click will lead to the same result. Teams can sort out nouns or verbs that mean the same thing and choose one

• Try to avoid using the tone of pleading and apology to communicate with users, and only use 'sorry' or type of sorry language in very serious cases, such as the user's information is permanently and irreversibly deleted by the system. Under normal circumstances, simply explain why you are sorry and possible solutions

• At the same time, avoid using the tone of education, accusation and complaining to communicate with users

• Do not use words such as "overseas" to distinguish regions

• Do not use blacklists or whitelists

• Consider color blind people

• Don't use sensory verbs, focus on the end goal of the task, not the method to accomplish it

Grammar and Mechanics

1. Abbreviations

2. Acronyms

• If an abbreviation with a business attribute is used for the first time in a text paragraph, it can be directly explained through the text
  • Example: Service Level Agreement (also known as SLA)
• If it is used in a component, it can be explained in the form of interaction of the component
  • Example: Machine translation acronym for Starling

• Capitalize all letters

• Special scene: When displayed as an extended word, use lowercase letters for display

3. Active vs. Passive Voice

• Active voice emphasizes who or what is doing the action
• Passive voice emphasizes the object being manipulated

4. Articles

5. Capitalization

• When the person's name follows the job title and title, the first letter of the word must be capitalized, such as UX Writer, Jackie, Headmaster Li, etc.

• proper noun need to be capitalized anywhere in the interface
• a, an, prepositions such as on, to, in, up, down, of, for, etc., and, but, or, not, yet, etc., do not need to be capitalized at any time except at the first letter of the segment
• For multiple words connected by hyphens, the first letter of each content word is capitalized, and the first letter of function words is lowercase, such as Starling-in-Context
• For file names suffixed with .xlsx, underscore is used to separate each word in English, and Title Case rules are used for capitalization, such as Salary_Data_Repair_Template.xlsx
• If the English in parentheses is a complete sentence, the first letter is capitalized; if it is not a complete sentence, the first letter is lowercase

6. Contractions

• Abbreviations are recommended as they make the content more conversational
• Don't use informal abbreviations like: ain't, y'all
• Don't use less common abbreviations like: would've, could've, it'll
• Be careful when abbreviating "is," "does," "has," "was," because their abbreviations are similar to possessives (such as "John's shirt"), making the information less readable. For example👇

• For some sensitive or serious information, such as error information or account closure information, try to avoid using abbreviated forms, but put the clarity of the information and the respect for the situation first

7. Emoji

8. Date and Time

• Use 24-hour clock to represent time, such as 07:00, 21:00, do not use am, pm

Example: Jan 1, 2018, 2018–01–01

• If there is enough space, write the date in full. Such as: March 12, 2020
• If space is limited, the month can be abbreviated. Such as: Mar 12, 2020
• Use dashes – (Option and -) to connect year, month and day, do not use / , such as: en: 03/01/2022; zh: 2022-03-01
• Month abbreviations use three letters, Jan, Feb, Mar, Apr
• Months cannot be abbreviated when not used to represent a date. Such as: Registered at Septemter
• Avoid using numeric abbreviations for dates, such as "first" "1st" "23rd"
• A module can only use one time format
• The calendar starts on Monday, which is the custom in most parts of the world

Example: 2020-02-06 ~ 2020-02-08

• If the timing is displayed in the middle of a sentence (such as in a banner), use the form to display the specific time unit
• If the countdown unit exceeds 24 hours, display the day and hour, such as "2 days 1:50"
• If the duration is up to days, display the hours, such as "1 hour 50 minutes"
• If the maximum time is up to points, display the points, such as "50 points"

9. e.g., i.e, etc.

10. Lists

• Use lists to increase the readability of information. If the list is a complete statement, use proper punctuation. Try to ensure that the list content is less than or equal to six. If the list contains more than six items, try dividing it into multiple lists
• To make your list more local, start with an introductory statement and end with a colon ":". Try to avoid repeating phrases, and if some word is relevant to all the list contents, try putting it in the introductory statement

• When writing list contents, use parallel statements. For example, if you're describing some behavior and begin with a verb, make sure the rest of the list follows the same pattern

• Keep the first letter of the first word of the list in uppercase
• Do not use any punctuation at the end of the list content, treat each list content as a separate message

11. Dropdown menus

12. Number

• Separate numbers with commas if they are four digits or more
  • Example：$2,353.56, 5,345 MB
• There will be some special cases where numbers do not need to be separated by commas
  • Example
    • Address：3515 Montgomery St
    • Page：page 1294
    • Year：2022
    • Resolution：1920 x 1080
• A space is required between the number and the unit
  • Example：5,345 MB, 7 lb

• When used in formal occasions (such as transaction details, order details), the complete currency format is displayed. It is recommended to use this display format by default

✅ Recommended usage	❌ Deprecated usage

• If necessary, the ISO code of the currency can be displayed for differentiation
  • Example：$12.00 CAD，$12.00 USD

• Use parentheses to show area codes
  • Example：(000) 000-0000

• Use a bar to separate the number range, and do not add spaces before and after the bar

13. Punctuation

• Use apostrophes to replace omitted letters and numbers:
  • Omitted number：'40s
  • Omitted letter：don't, isn't shouldn't
  • Abbreviation of verb：it's, you're, they're
• Use apostrophes to form ownership：
  • Add 's to singular nouns, even if the last letter of the noun ends in s: bus's, computer's
  • Plural nouns whose last letter does not end in s plus 's: women's, men's
  • Plural nouns ending in an s with the last letter just add the apostrophe, don't need s: boxes', bottles'

• Try to avoid using colons in sentences. If you want to use them, the first letter of the first word after the colon does not need to be capitalized, unless it is a technical term
• Use colons to import lists

• If there are multiple commas in a sentence, you can split the sentence into multiple shorter sentences
• Use the oxford comma, also known as the serial comma, which is the last comma before "and" or "or" in the list

• Do not use commas to separate bulleted or numbered list items

• Use dashes to show ranges of numbers without spaces before and after the numbers

• When two adjectives need to be combined to describe the following noun, use a hyphen

• For some common combined words, hyphens do not need to be used. For details on whether hyphens are required, please refer to the dictionary
  • Notebook
  • Bookstore
  • Fireman
  • Superman
• Concatenate prefixes with hyphens

• Use ellipses when an action is in progress
  • Example：uploading...
• When some components cannot display all the text under the limited width, use ellipsis to truncate

• If there are multiple sentences in a paragraph, use a period at the end of each sentence and add a space after the period
• Do not use periods in the following scenarios：
  • Button
  • Toast with one sentence
  • Placeholder
  • Title
  • Notice
  • Navigation bar menu
  • Tooltip
  • Radio
  • Checkbox

• The question (and question mark) can be shown when the answer to the question is not known
  • Example：Forget password?
• If it is a non-question sentence, do not use a question mark
  • Example：Reset password

• Use quotation marks to refer to defined nouns, and quotation marks to indicate user-entered information, such as titles and file names

• When there is enough space, use "or" instead of slashes to display, if there is not enough space, you can use slashes
• The letter after the slash does not need to be capitalized

14. Pronouns

• In most cases, use the second person ("you") to communicate with users
  • Example：When's your birthday?
• Avoid first-person pronouns ("I" or "my"), as using such pronouns can confuse users about who you are referring to, with the exception of some legal terms
• Avoid unnecessary pronouns (unless they affect the tone of the message)

15. Prefix

16. UI elements

Expamle：Remove from Saved

References

• Accessible-and-inclusive-language
• Atlassian design: Inclusive language
• Clarity Design Copywriting
• Microsoft's brand voice: Above all, simple and human
• Mailchimp Content Style Guide: Voice and Tone
• Hyphen Usage-Rules and Examples
• How to define your brand's Tone of Voice: Infigraphics & Examples?