Better Words Make Better Products
The case for style guides and making technology easier to understand
With all this talk of machine learning, augmented reality, and artificial intelligence, everyone’s focus is usually on the technology itself. Which makes sense, given that someone has to actually build those experiences. But your experience as a user of this world-changing tech hinges on whether or not you know how to use it.
That’s where my team comes in. We’re a mix of former journalists, playwrights, teachers, and novelists (amongst a variety of other professions) who write the content you see on your Microsoft devices — the UX copy, the support content — anywhere you see words in your Microsoft experience, someone from my team or discipline has helped craft them.
Across Microsoft, there are thousands of UX writers, technical writers, support documentation writers, developer documentation writers, marketers, and communicators.
When you have that many people writing for ONE single brand, how do you make sure that no matter where you interact with Microsoft, the words feel like they were written by the same team?
Enter the latest version of the Microsoft Style Guide
Style guides aren’t be-all-end-all rule books that result in a trip to the principal’s office if something isn’t followed. They don’t remove emotion or feeling or authenticity from your words. Rather, they help everyone here at Microsoft (and beyond) use similar terms to keep consistency across the brand — from Xbox to Azure to Windows, we all use it.
It’s not something we keep carefully tucked under our pillows at night (wouldn’t that be a hoot), but we do reference it regularly. It’s not just what terms to use or when to capitalize things, but also provides guidance for how we talk. It gets updated all the time, to keep up with the way we, as humans, talk to each other. In fact, the latest version came out last month.
Stop me if you’ve read this
If you’ve used Microsoft products for a while, you probably remember seeing an error message like this:
“The end-user manually generated the crashdump.” That’s what you’re left with as a customer — most likely without an understanding of why your computer blue screened, and an even smaller chance to know what a crash dump is. *Sad trombone sound playing* *potentially followed with tables flipping*
As Microsoft has evolved, so has our voice. We’re friendlier, understanding that not everyone who uses Microsoft devices and software has a computer science degree or understands how to use run-commands. I’ve been here for over a year and still feel that tingle of anxiety when I press Win+R — “Oh god, I hope I don’t press the wrong thing and accidentally reset something” — trust me, we’ve all been there.
So how do we make our experiences with technology easier to understand?
Words. It’s that simple.
Yes, repeat after me.
Better words make better products.
Our new blue screen looks more like this:
It’s still not fun to get that message, but we hope you’ll understand that something went wrong with your device, we’ll restart it to see if that fixes it, and we’re collecting data to make your future experiences better.
So why should you care about the Microsoft Style Guide?
As a customer, you should know that you’re the reason we talk the way we do. We want to make your experiences make sense. If you’re creating apps using Microsoft tools, it helps to know how to talk to your customers (and potential users) in ways they understand.
Technology can do so much — like narrate the world around you, help reduce the tremors of Parkinson’s patients, and help veterans continue to give back in emergencies.
But at the end of the day, technology is incomplete without the right words. If you take away anything from the Microsoft Style Guide, let it be these four things:
· Be warm and relaxed.
· Be crisp and clear.
· Be ready to lend a hand.
· We use the Oxford comma to make lists, share data, and tell stories.
We’re all humans. Let’s talk to each other that way.
For additional tips and tricks, check out our top 10 tips for Microsoft style.
Bonus points
If you’re into the nitty-gritty about style guides and the people who make them, check out this podcast with Catherine Minden, who has been shaping our style guides for the past 25 years.
