Writing
Help people understand what happened, what is known and what they can do next.
Voice and responsibility
Use calm, direct language. Put the task or result first and explain consequences at the point of decision. MobTranslate serves language learning and source discovery; its interface must distinguish source-attested text, editorial interpretation, review status and unavailable evidence. Pleasant copy must never turn uncertainty into authority.
- Use everyday verbs and sentence case for interface labels. Keep actual language entries in their source spelling.
- Address the action rather than blaming the person. Explain why a field needs a different value.
- Avoid treating a community, Country or language as a decorative brand element. Follow the relevant cultural authority and publication permissions.
- Do not promise that a model output is a translation, a source match is exact or a review is qualified unless the underlying record supports that statement.
Content design resources and ownership
Material’s Content design overview concerns UX writing and information design and points to AP Style unless its guidance says otherwise. This workspace’s Content Conventions guide records concrete project choices, first-person roles and source-text exceptions; it does not reproduce or claim to supply the full AP Stylebook.
Keep authored interface copy separate from quoted source text and attested spellings. Agree decision ownership and provide translation context, variable definitions and review scope at handoff. Accessible text, truncation and resizing are covered separately in Accessibility, rather than being silently treated as the same subject as UX voice.
Message anatomy
| Part | Job | Example in English |
|---|---|---|
| Heading | Name the event or decision | Search did not finish |
| Explanation | Describe what remains true | Your search text is still here. |
| Recovery | Offer an action the product supports | Check your connection and try again. |
| Action | Name the immediate operation | Try again |
| Consequence | Explain a risky or irreversible result | This changes the published entry for readers. |
Editable message lab
Search did not finish
Your search text is still here. Check your connection and try again.
Edit and assess the copy yourself. This is a layout preview, not automated language review or an actual failed request.
Labels, help and errors
- Use a persistent field label. A placeholder is an example or hint, not the field name.
- Place formatting requirements before entry and connect help/error text with aria-describedby.
- For validation, name the field and the needed correction. Preserve the entered value.
- For failures, separate an invalid value from a failed request. A timeout does not prove an entry does not exist.
- Use specific action labels such as Save draft or Retry search rather than Yes or OK when the consequence is unclear.
Content states
| State | Explain | Avoid |
|---|---|---|
| Loading | What is being retrieved; cancellation when available | Unbounded reassurance that a request is progressing |
| Empty | Which scope or filter produced no results; a useful next step | Claiming there are no words in a language |
| Unavailable evidence | Which source or verification is missing | Inventing a likely word or hiding uncertainty |
| Success | What actually completed and where it is visible | Calling a queued request a completed publication |
| Consent | Purpose, audience, retention and meaningful options | Vague agreement bundled with unrelated permissions |
Implementation
Store interface messages separately from source records. Supply translators with context, variable definitions, plural rules and screenshots. Never construct translated sentences by joining fragments.
<label htmlFor="source-url">Source URL</label>
<input id="source-url" name="sourceUrl" type="url"
aria-describedby="source-help" />
<p id="source-help">Link to the record that supports this entry.</p>
<button type="submit">Save draft</button>Failure cases and review
- Avoid jokes, blame or celebratory language in errors and sensitive permission decisions.
- Avoid all caps, punctuation repeated for emphasis and unexplained technical error codes.
- Do not shorten attribution or remove review qualifications to fit a button-sized surface.
- Review the real rendered copy in all task states with product owners and relevant qualified language/cultural reviewers. Automated lint cannot approve cultural authority.
Verification
- Read each message without surrounding context: can a person tell what happened and what to do?
- Trigger failures, empty searches, pending requests and successful saves; compare the wording to the actual outcome.
- Check that visible action wording occurs in the accessible name and status changes are announced without stealing focus.
- Test longer translations and text enlargement. A concise English label is not proof that every locale fits.