One of my recent clients is an AI unicorn company, valued at over US$1 billion. This article shares a highlight from my consulting project with them, along with suggestions on how you can apply Avoid + Verify to your work to create clear, consistent content.
The work focuses on documenting and standardizing common terminology in a language style guide.
In this article:
- What is a content style guide?
- What does the Little Language Models content style guide process include?
- How does the client benefit from a content style guide?
- How is the content style guide structured?
- Why are Avoid + Verify worth highlighting as content style guide sections?
- How to apply Avoid + Verify to your work to create clear, consistent content
What is a content style guide?
“A UX content style guide is more than just a set of writing rules. It’s a product team’s shared playbook for how content should look, feel, and function across the entire user experience.
How to create a UX content style guide by UX Content Collective
Unlike brand style guides – which usually focus on visual identity or marketing voice – UX content guides go deep into the product interface. That means they cover everything from punctuation and tone to how to write an error message or label a button.”
What does the Little Language Models content style guide process include?
- auditing product content for consistency, clarity, and findability
- interviewing stakeholders (internal employees)
- reviewing product analytics (Amplitude)
- creating a prioritized action plan with guidelines and example revisions
How does the client benefit from a content style guide?
- Save time for design and writing teams
- Ensure a quicker transition to engineering readiness
- Increase user satisfaction through clear, consistent content
Content style guides (also known as language style guides or content design systems) are meant for internal employee usage. To me, the most impactful sections in the content style guide are:
- Avoid – what we don’t say
- Verify – what we often get wrong
How is the content style guide structured?
I’ve divided the client’s language style guide into 6 parts.
- Best practices
- Structuring specific UI elements
- Tone and grammar rules
- Avoid
- Verify
- Information architecture
While the content style guide includes thorough guidelines for numbers (time, ranges, rows, file names, money), button copy, capitalization, contractions, using “Your” vs “My” in the interface, Avoid + Verify are 2 of the most important sections.
Why are Avoid + Verify worth highlighting as content style guide sections?
These 2 sections are:
- findable (in the table of contents and through page search)
- clear (no technical jargon or redundant explanations)
- relevant (some users will only be double-checking)
- timely (give an overview of common “dangerous” terms for instant reference)
I’ve included examples of what can go into these style guide sections.
Avoid
- ‘instantly’ (not compliant)
- ‘abort’ (may trigger anxiety or stress in users)
- ‘in the app’ (may confuse LLMs in the case of a chatbot assistant)
Verify
Verify the accurate and standardized versions of frequently inconsistently used terms listed below:
- Accepted values (instead of Valid values, Value criteria, or Allowed values)
- Capitalize user roles like Creator, Viewer, Owner (instead of creator, viewer, owner)
- Recent actions show the time; earlier than a week ago, only the date. For timestamps and access details, use Created by ______ | Date added ______ | Date modified ______
How to apply Avoid + Verify to your work
Avoid + Verify works because the sections are:
- findable (in the table of contents and through page search)
- clear (no technical jargon or redundant explanations)
- relevant (some users will only be double-checking)
- timely (give an overview of common “dangerous” terms for instant reference)
Including these 2 sections in your content guidelines will minimize back-and-forths over common disagreements.
You will also ensure a quicker transition to engineering readiness and increase user satisfaction through clear, consistent content.
How can you identify and prevent important terminology from turning into a costly mistake? The resources below may help:
- Is consistency in product content that important?
- The word that put at stake $200 million
- Dos and don’ts of building a business glossary (and where to start)
What would you want to see included in your company’s content style guide?
