Text should leave little room for question or doubt. Ideally a user could skim and grasp enough of the text to keep moving on with their work. And if they do read the text more closely, they should only have to read it once to understand. Text should be understandable to people with all levels of experience.

If the user is in a jam, our text should provide a way out. If it’s informational text, it should give useful, actionable instruction or info. Remember that your user may not have the same expertise as you, so they will not know the same technical info as you do.

Don’t be robotic or technical. Imagine you’re having a polite, professional conversation with your reader. Consider what state a user may be in. If they may be stressed, get to the point but with a softer tone. If they may be excited, write positively and a little more upbeat!

If you can cut out any words, do it! Fewer words are almost always better - except when it comes at the cost of losing clarity. Do not include unnecessary information. If you think there may be info that some users may be interested in knowing, add a “Show more” section.

Always check for similar terminology in CET and in the industry before naming a new tool. Consult the internet and/or subject matter experts to find out if a term is already used, or if it means something else in the industry.

Names should be used across the whole platform and community. So choose a good name early on that will get passed along all the way to users, so that everyone can be on the same page. As much as possible, we want to avoid having a developer name AND a user name for things.

Always keep our Design Principles in mind!