Our voice is how our brand personality (driven, grounded, and lighthearted) comes through in our writing. Use these attributes to help as you write and edit:
Driven
- Create a vision and give them something to aspire to.
- Use direct, short, compelling language.
- Challenge the status quo.
Grounded
- Use familiar, natural language.
- Keep it practical and approachable.
- Anchor your writing in real-world results.
- Do the work to get in the mindset of the audience.
Lighthearted
- Look for opportunities to be clever but don’t force it.
- Aim for amusing, not “lol” funny.
- Don’t be overly serious.
A few additional rules for UI content:
- Concision is usually better, but when it doubt, go for clarity.
- All products do not have the same tone. Humor that might be welcome when talking about the inbox may not be appreciated by Payments customers when you’re talking about their finances.
- It’s not about us and what we’ve launched. It’s about how the customer can use the feature or product to help their business.
For more information on our company’s tone and style, please see the 2020 edition of the brand guide.