Overview

This UX copy style guide covers the standards and rules for all UX copy written for Standard Life.

It’s not a tone of voice guide or a guide to UX writing – these have already been created separately and should be used alongside this guide.

This guide is a living, breathing document that should be updated regularly. But if you want to make any changes, or add a new word or rule, it should be discussed and agreed on first.

If something is not covered here, you can take a look at GOV.UK’s style guide or the Guardian and Observer style guide.

A

abbreviations and acronyms

If you’re planning to use an abbreviation or acronym more than once on a single page or screen, you should write it out in full first with the shortened version in brackets, like this:

• Financial Conduct Authority (FCA)

Once you’ve introduced the abbreviation or acronym in brackets, you can then use the shortened version moving forward.

If the abbreviation or acronym is well known to our users, like HMRC or VAT, you can use the shortened version immediately instead – there’s no need to spell it out first.

If you only plan to use the term once on a page or screen, there’s no need to introduce the abbreviation or acronym.

Active Money Personal Pension

Our Active Money Personal Pension product should always be capitalised.

If you’re planning to talk about the product more than once on a single page or screen, you should write it out in full first, followed by ‘AMPP’ in brackets, like this:

• Active Money Personal Pension (AMPP)

Once you’ve introduced the acronym in brackets, you can then use AMPP moving forward.

If you only plan to talk about our Active Money Personal Pension once on a page or screen, there’s no need to add ‘AMPP’ in brackets.

active voice

Always aim to use the active voice rather than the passive voice. Writing in the active voice helps us write clear, concise copy that sounds more direct and proactive.

For example, instead of saying 'Your documents will be sent out', we would say 'We'll send out your documents' instead.

adviser

Always with an ‘e’ – not ‘advisor’ with an ‘o’.

ampersand

Always use ‘and’ instead of the ampersand (&) – unless the ampersand is officially part of a product or company name.

annual allowance

Lower case – no need to capitalise.

auto-enrolment

Lower case and hyphenated. Also known as automatic enrolment.

B

Bacs

This electronic payment system is no longer all caps. Unlike some other abbreviations and acronyms, there’s no need to explain what Bacs stands for.

bank details

If we ever display bank details on screen, we should show the sort code first, and use the following format:

• Sort code: 12-34-56 (hyphenated)
• Account number: 12345678 (no spaces or hyphens)

bond

No need to capitalise ‘bond’ or ‘bonds’ unless it’s part of a product name, like the Tailored Investment Bond.

brackets

If you need to show additional information in brackets, use round brackets (like this) rather than square brackets [like this].

If there’s ever a situation where there may be more than one of something, for example pension(s), avoid the brackets and simply go with the plural instead.

bullet points

Bullet points are an effective way of breaking up information into readable chunks that are quick and easy to understand.

There are lots of different ways to present a list of bullet points – but the most important thing is to maintain consistency.

Here at Standard Life, bullet points should:

• Always use a lead-in line (like the one above)
• Be listed in alphabetical order (or by level of importance)
• Make sense following on from the lead-in line
• Not have more than one sentence – you can use an en-dash if you want to break up a point
• Never finish with a comma, semicolon or full stop
• Start with a capital letter

but

Our UX copy should always be short, succinct and conversational. So you should mostly always use ‘but’ rather than ‘however’.

buttons and call-to-actions

In most cases, the copy on a call-to-action or button should:

• Be clear and concise (a few words should be more than enough)
• Be specific and clearly communicate the action a user will take when they hit the link or button (things like ‘Find out more’ or ‘Learn more’ are fine if used sparingly)
• Be written in sentence case
• Use the active voice and action verbs to encourage the user to take action (‘Get started’, ‘Watch video’, ‘Sign up’)

C

capital gains tax

GOV.UK capitalises taxes and benefits. But most prominent style guides recommend keeping these lower case – so we should do the same.

capital redemption

Lower case – no need to capitalise.

capital letters

Some financial services organisations have a habit of capitalising everything. But we should only capitalise proper nouns and the names of products, tools and companies.

In all other cases, including headings, subheadings and buttons, we should use sentence case.

cash in

No need to hyphenate.

CHAPS

This electronic payment system is always upper case. In most cases, there’s no need to explain what CHAPS stands for (it’s Clearing House Automated Payment System).

checkbox

Not check box or check-box.

child benefit

GOV.UK capitalises taxes and benefits. But most prominent style guides recommend keeping these lower case – so we should do the same.

click

A large percentage of our users will be using mobile devices, so they won’t actually click on links or buttons.

So instead of saying ‘click’, we should say ‘tap’, ‘hit’ or ‘select’ instead. And of course, we should always avoid using ‘click here’ as link text.

company names

Make sure we always use the exact name and style that companies use themselves.

contractions

Contractions (like you’ll and we’re) make us sound less formal and more conversational – so feel free to use them throughout your copy.

Keep to commonly used ones though. Less common contractions like shouldnt’ve and couldnt’ve can sound clunky or awkward to read.

corporation tax

GOV.UK capitalises taxes and benefits. But most prominent style guides recommend keeping these lower case – so we should do the same.

council tax

GOV.UK capitalises taxes and benefits. But most prominent style guides recommend keeping these lower case – so we should do the same.