Principles of great product copy
Our product voice is friendly but to the point: conversational, concise, and correct.
- Conversational: write it as you'd say it.
- Concise: less is more.
- Correct: say what's true.
- Use plain language.
- Use contractions, unless they would sound silly or clunky.
- Use simpler, shorter words rather than excessively extended verbiage.
- Be helpful and informative.
- Explain errors calmly and tell users how they can fix it.
- Use numeral in UI copy to draw the users attention and save characters – "Must contain at least 8 characters..."
- We are confident but informal.
- We are on your side.
- We are making your task simpler.
- We are removing doubt and fear.
- All of our copy is gender neutral.
- Write in active tense. "You have not uploaded any documents". "The invitation was not sent".
- We write in English(US). #standarize
Things to avoid in copy
- Our products do not apologise, they inform you how to proceed. "The download could not be completed, please check your internet connection and try again"
- Never say "click here" - use words that describe what the link does or contains.
- Don't state the bleeding obvious.
- Don't turn friendly into cloying, cheesy or creepy.
- Don't leave the user in a dead end - always give them a path to complete their task or resolve a problem.
Some helpful hints
- Is it a noun or verb? Are you naming or doing? Login is a noun. Log in is a verb.
- Read it out loud: does it sound right? How would make someone feel?
- If you're not sure about a contraction, say the words with the long form. This is great for its and it's - "the cat sat on its mat" vs "the cat sat on it is mat".
- Choose the word which relates to an emotion, rather than the word which is more formal.
- Make every word, every thought earn its place.
Ansarada talks to people.
...this means we say "we", "our", "you", "your" and "us".
- Your documents are ready to download.
- Your company is 56% ready.
- Call us if you need help.
- (There is no "My Ansarada", although there is "Your Room").
Captialisation
As a general rule Ansarada uses sentence case for all our copy. The exceptions to this are listed below.
| Entity | Rule | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Ansarada | Title case | I work at Ansarada |
| Room/s (when referring to the product Rooms) | Title case | Create a new Room |
| Material Information Platform | Title case | Welcome to the Material Information Platform |
| Ansarada Intelligent Deal Assistant | Title case | Ansarada Intelligent Deal Assistant |
| Bidder Engagement Score | Title case | Introducing the world's first AI Bidder Enagagment Score |
| Naming external products | Title case | ...tracks saving and printing in Microsoft Excel, Microsoft Word... |
| All of the room roles | Title case | Change the room role of these 9 people to 'Publisher' |
| All of the Q&A roles | Title case | John Citizen is a Question Approver |
| Q&A | Capitalised | Go to the page named 'Q&A' |
| AiDA | Mixed captialisation | AiDA is available on the App store |
| Question and answer | Sentence case | Approve question and disclose answer |
| Day, week, month etc. | Sentence case | ...this week, this month or date range... |
| Full name | Sentence case | Enter your full name |
| Job title | Sentence case | Select your job title |
| Team/Sub-team | Sentence case | Create a new sell side team |
| Buy side/sell side | Sentence case | Create a new buy side team |
| Document index/manage documents | Sentence case | All enabled documents are shown on the document index. |
| Question submission limits | Sentence case | Customise question submission limits for each buy side team |
| Document security settings | Sentence case | Document security is currently set to print, copy, edit on |
| Folder/document | Sentence case | ...allows you to bulk upload folers and documents... |
| A string of text in parentheses (like this) | Sentence case | question title (awaiting approval by Q&A Administrator) |
| Team | Sentence case | Create a team |
| Sub-team | Sentence case | There are 4 people in this sub-team |
Ansarada specific terms and their usage
| Word | Definition/Usage | We do not say | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Person/people | Anyone who uses an Ansarada product | User/s | Ansarada has customers. |
| Login (no space) | The screen you use to log in | "Log in" as a noun, that's the verb | |
| Profile | Personal information for a user, like their name | Accout | |
| Ansarada account | Your authentication, used across all Ansarada products | Room account, MIP account | |
| Company | An entity that is using Ansarada to manage their material information | Client (this is from the narrow perspective of an advisor) | |
| Team | A collection or group of people | People, users, user group | |
| Sub-team | A sub section of a team | ||
| Scorecard | A collection of topics to help companies prepare for material events. "Take the scorecard" | Checklist | |
| Topic | A subject that a company must prepare for to become deal ready | Document | Completing a topic currently results in a document being created, uploaded, and verified; but in the future this will be broader. |
| Area | A collection of related topics; a subset of a scorecard. | ||
| Requirement | Something that must be satisfied in order to complete a topic. Requirements are unmet until they're satisfied. | Incomplete requirements/complete requirements, checklist | |
| Invitation | What we send to people to enable them to create their Ansarada account | Invite (as a noun), request | |
| Invite | Send some form of invitation to a person who needs to access/log in to an Ansarada product. | ||
| Sign up | Sign up for an account to access a system | ||
| Log in (two words) | Log out (two words) | ||
| Create your account | When a user accepts an invitation and is setting up their account | ||
| Choose a password | A step when creating an account | ||
| Set password | Committing a new password to an account (e.g. when resetting a forgotten password) |
VERBS
| Term | Task | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Create | Making something that doesn't currently exist | Create scorecard |
| Add | Add an existing item to a set of items | Add people |
| Schedule | Setting an action to happen in the future | Schedule when to disable Room |
| Select | Making a choice between options | Select a watermark |
| Upload | Upload a document onto the platform | Upload documents |
| Continue | Keep going through a set of actions | |
| Previous & Next | Used to move through a linear sequence. These terms are usually suffixed with a noun. E.g. "previous area" | |
| Save | Save something to a system without generating a local artefact (file) | |
| Print to a device that creates a physical artefact | ||
| Download | Retrieve something from a system to a local artefact (file) | |
| Remove | Remove an item from a set (non-destrictive) | |
| Edit | Modify an existing item or set | |
| Delete | Destroy an item or set (it's gone) | |
| Disable | Render this item or set inctive without removing it. We do not disable people, although we may disable their access. | |
| Activate | Enable an inanimate object that is disabled (Room, account) | |
| Deactiveate | Disable an inanimate object that is enabled (Room, account) | |
| Help | Resouces to help people do something autonomously | |
| Support | We help people do something, usually on the phone | |
| Close | To remove a modal operation from view | |
| Cancel | To exit from a current action without proceeding with a change | |
| Ask | ||
| Answer | ||
| Comment | ||
| Disclose | ||
| Approve | ||
| Forward |
Person's feelings
Bad:
- Anger
- Annoyance
- Apprehension
- Boredom
- Confusion
- Criticism
- Fear
- Frustration
- Helplessness
- Shock (negative)
- Skepticism
- Stress
Good:
- Anticipation
- Confidence
- Exhilaration
- Interest
- Joy
- Pride
- Relief
- Surprise (positive)
- Trust
Neutral:
- Curiosity/Interest
- Determination
- Optimism
Areas:
- Buttons
- Error messages
- Empty states
- Success messages
Writing informative errors
For generic errors, say "We were unable to (action that failed)"
- Does not mention "problem" or "error"
- Implies we tried