Writing

Voice

• Plain and direct. “Enter the contact’s name.”, not “Contact name is a mandatory field.”
• Specific. “4 items will be removed from the order”, not “This action will affect your data.”
• Calm. No exclamation marks, no blame and no jokes in errors.
• People-first. Talk about the person’s task (“Save the document”), not the system (“Persist record”).
• Consistent. One name per thing across a product. Don’t call the same thing an order, a request and a ticket on different screens.

Capitalisation

Element	Style	Example
Buttons, menu items, action tooltips, segment and tab titles	Title Case	Save Document, Apply Filter…, Add Item
Page and sheet titles	Title Case	Team Members, Add Contact
Alert titles	Title Case question or statement	Delete This Project?
Labels, descriptions, messages, toasts, empty states	Sentence case	Email address · No saved drafts
Column headings	Sentence case, short nouns	Name · Qty · Amount

In Title Case, capitalise every word except articles, short conjunctions and short prepositions: “Save and Close”, “Add to Project”.

Buttons and menu items

• A verb, or a verb and a noun: Save, Add Contact, Duplicate.
• Add an ellipsis (…) when the control needs more input before acting, because it opens a sheet, a menu of options or a file chooser: Print…, Export…. No ellipsis when it acts immediately.
• No articles (“Add Item”, not “Add an Item”), no “please”, no “click here”.
• Paired choices say what each does: Cancel / Delete Project, Skip / Continue. Never OK / Cancel for a decision.

Messages

Errors say what happened and what to do, in one or two sentences:

• “Printer not connected. Check the cable and try again.”
• “Couldn’t save your changes. Check your connection, then save again.”
• Field errors are instructions: “Enter a price above zero.”

Confirmations state the consequence: “Its 4 tasks will be deleted too. You can’t undo this.”

Toasts confirm in a few words: “Document saved”, “3 people invited”, “Item removed”. Fragments don’t need a full stop.

Empty states name what goes here and how to add it: “No saved drafts. Drafts you save appear here.”

Labels and placeholders

• Labels are short nouns above the field: “Mobile number”, “Due date”.
• Placeholders show an example or a format, never the label: “e.g. Asha Patil”.
• Help text under a field explains consequences or rules: “Shown on invoices and statements.”
• Mark the exception: add “(optional)” to the few optional fields instead of marking every required one.

Numbers, money, dates and times

• Money follows the reader’s locale for symbol, grouping and decimals, with two decimals in tables and totals. In prose, round when exactness doesn’t matter.
• Quantities put the unit beside the number (“2 kg”, “12 pcs”), with tabular figures in columns.
• Dates follow the locale in fields and tables. In headings and sentences, write them out (“2 October 2026”) and use “Today” and “Yesterday” where it helps.
• Times follow the device’s 12- or 24-hour clock.
• Counts use numerals and agree in number: “1 item”, “4 items”, “No items”.
• Signs use “+12” and “−4” (a true minus) when change matters; colour is never the only signal.

Words for access

• Every icon-only control has an accessible label, with the same words as its tooltip.
• Links and buttons make sense out of context: “Open Settings”, not “Click here”.
• Avoid directional words alone (“the button on the right”) and colour alone (“the red items”).