Welcome to the UX Content Style Guide

"Don’t use big words. They mean so little.”
-Oscar Wilde

Writing button language, error messages, dialogs, tooltips, hint text, or something else in the UI? You’ve come to the right place. From Voice and Tone to Style Standards, we encourage you to use the information in this guide to help you along the way.

This guide is just that, a set of guidelines, not rules. Consider your user’s needs, first and foremost, and use your judgment as you consult the guidelines.

If you’re writing any marketing material (think customer-facing media, newsletters, emails, etc.) feel free to visit our Branding Guidelines.

Audience

We wrote this guide for Workday designers, product managers, developers, and technical writers to help them write anything that appears in the Workday product. However, we encourage anyone to use our guide who intends to write (or review writing) in Workday.

Getting Started

Voice and Tone

This section covers how we want users to hear us. It's the character or personality that we want to portray to our audience.

Language and Style

Here you’ll find specifics on grammar used in the UI, from how to use “my” vs. “your” to when to use capitalization.

Numbers

In this section, you'll see how to consistently format everything related to numbers, from ages to dates.

UI Text

This section addresses product copy (the words we use to direct our users - button text, error messages, tooltips, and so on).

Tips and Tricks

The Content Checklist

Think of this as your toolbox for any new content you add to your design. Go through this checklist once you write your content, and before you ask for help from the Content team.

• Did you read it out loud?

• Is this how you would say it to a friend?

• Are there words you can cut?

• Is it in the proper capitalization (title, sentence)?

• Can you be more specific in any way?

• Has an uninvolved colleague read your copy, and do they understand it?

• Did you define a new term that could be included in the Content Style Guide?

Tips for Designing with Content on the Brain

Below are some things to keep in mind during your design process, especially when you’re first brought into a project and meeting with the stakeholders early on.

• Consider what existing pages, task flows, and fields will change from the existing design (if there is one), and how it’ll affect the content.

• Prepare any error messages or notifications that will need to be written.

• Think about how page headers and button labels can help improve the clarity of the user experience.

• Investigate if the content in the workflow shows up in other parts of the product. Make sure to stay consistent with existing content, or notify others if you make a change to improve it.