Text
To keep a consistent writing and spelling style, you will find a quick reference here.
It is based on the EUAA Writing Guide and adapted for user interfaces.
Capitalisation
Consistent text formatting helps users read and interpret information quickly and easily.
In UI design there are two main ways to capitalise words, and these are title style capitalisation and sentence style capitalisation.
Title style capitalisation
- Conjunctions such as 'and', 'but', 'for' and 'or'
- Prepositions such as 'of', 'with' and 'to'
- Articles such as 'a', 'an' and 'the'
When to use title style capitalisation:
- Accordion titles
- Action modal titles
- Action modal links
- Badges text
- Breadcrumbs
- Button labels
- Text links used for actions or navigation
- Menu item titles
- Page titles
- Step by step process titles
- Tab titles
- Table titles
- Table column headers
Sentence style capitalisation
- Always capitalise the first word of a new sentence,
- capitalise proper nouns,
- use lower case for everything else.
When to use sentence style capitalisation:
- Checkbox labels
- Drop down lists
- Field labels
- File names
- Headings
- Hover help text
- Message boxes text
- Page instructions or descriptions
- Radio button labels
Spelling
Follow British spelling rules
Follow standard British spelling rules. Refer to the English Style Guide
for guidance
Country names and codes
For the spelling of country names and country codes, please check this link
Punctuation and general typography
The main punctuation being used throughout the application are the following
- Full stop .
Every sentence should end with a full stop.
- Ellipses ...
The ellipses are mainly used to indicate the omission of text.
- Colon :
Colons are used between the hours and minutes in the time format hh:mm
- Asterisk *
The asterisk is used to show required fields.
Other text considerations - Usage
Sign up and login process
Always use 'Log In' for logging into an account and 'Sign Up' for creating a new account.
Email
Use Email and not e-mail.
Gender
Always use gender and not sex.
Date and time
Using the 12-hour time format
- Date formatting:
dd/mm/yyyy
- Date and time formatting:
dd/mm/yyyy 00:00 AM or PM
- Time formatting:
00:00 AM or PM
There will always be a blank space between the date and time and another blank space between the time and the AM/PM indicator.
There is no need to display the seconds, unless it is specifically requested.
Using 24-hour time format
If a 24-hour time format is used, omit the AM ad PM from the time format.
- Time formatting:
13:00 or 20:00
Date and time ranges
To display date or time ranges, add a dash between a range of dates or times.
- Date range samples:
09:00 AM - 08:00 PM
04/08/2020 - 06/08/2020