Tone & Voice ✍️
Writing guidelines for all developers and team members in Flow.
Why we share our guidelines
These guidelines were originally created for our internal team of developers, designers, and engineers. However, in line with our commitment to transparency and openness, we’ve made them publicly available to show how we work.
Our aim is to make our products and services simply feel great to use for everyone, across all platforms, in our documentation, on our website and in social media.
Introduction
Aligned with our vision to make working with commerce both profitable and fun, our voice and tone will reflect this, by being concise, authentic and engaging, striking the right balance between fun and professional.
These core objectives—ensuring clarity, authenticity, and a positive user experience—should shape all our communications.
While our voice shall remain consistent across all communications, our tone will adjust to fit the context. For example, when an error occurs, it’s not the right moment to drive engagement and try to be funny, whereas when a new sale has been made, showing a tone of excitement is the way.
As part of this, it's important that we know who our users are; hard-working and down-to-earth individuals, who need efficient, easy-to-use tools to manage products and sales, and with little to no need for a formal method of communication.
Never stop experimenting
This guide is designed to serve as a basic framework, but remember, you are always free to experiment and try new approaches as long as they align with the core objectives.
Our copy principles
Be concise
Don't force users to think too much. Our minds are slow at thinking. Write with little to no room for assumption, and our systems will feel ten times faster.
“Save and close”
“Close” (Concise it is, but will it be saved?)
Be purposeful
Every word should serve a purpose. Avoid unnecessary words that don’t contribute to the meaning. What we have to say is infinitely more important than being admired for the way we say it.
“Serial number registered.”
"The serial number has been registered to the product."
Simplicity
Use simple, understandable language. Avoid jargon and complex expressions. Humans like it simple. Let’s keep it that way.
“Create delivery”
Create parcel dispatch process”
Be helpful
When sending the user down the rabbit hole to an error, be sure to always guide them back again with informative and helpful error messages. Our users shall never ever feel dumb when using our systems. If they do, we have failed.
“Sorry, couldn’t save the product. The SKU you entered is already in use on <link>this product</link>.”
“Error: Could not save product.”
Authentic and friendly
Be conversational
Write as if you are talking to a real person (because you are). Use the second-person point of view “you” to address the user. Be friendly and inviting.
“Oops, seems like we messed up, but our engineers are already working on fixing it. Give us a call if you need assistance navigating around the issue.”
“An error occured. We are sorry for the inconvenience. Our engineers are investigating the cause of the deviation. We will get back as soon as possible. Please contact our customer service for any further assistance.”
Be engaging
Add elements of joy and surprise where appropriate. Just make sure not to overdo it.
“On it! You will be notified once the report is ready.”
“Generation of report in progress. You will be notified as soon as the report is ready to download.”
Good example: “On it! You will be notified once the report is ready.”
Poor example: “Generation of report in progress. You will be notified as soon as the report is ready to download.”
Be situation-based
When users are in a neutral situation, be warm and get to the point. When users are satisfied after having accomplished something, sound enthusiastic, even playful. And when they are confused, stay helpful, concise, and direct.
Connect with our users
Build an emotional yet uncomplicated connection with our users through words.
“In case you haven’t heard it already, you’re doing great. Numbers are all up from yesterday.”
“We love sharing everything with everyone, but there are a few features we hold a bit closer. Please contact us for the full VIP experience.”
Focus on the benefits
Try explaining the benefits a specific feature gives the user, rather than just explaining the feature itself.
To sum it up:
Be concise, but not unnecessarily short. Be playful, but not childish. Enthusiastic, but not shouty. Confident, but not arrogant. Warm, but not over-familiar. And, be helpful, but not over-explanatory.
Writing style and language use
Avoid excessive exclamation points
Use them sparingly to avoid overemphasis.
Don’t scream
Avoid uppercase words in most places. Flow Retail is indoor software—screaming is for outdoors. No rules without exceptions, though. Short headlines above form fields and action button labels like “OK” are fine in uppercase.
Use inclusive language
Avoid slang, jargon, and references that are not universally understandable or anything else that might resonate with only a few people.
Do not use combinations such as he/she or his/hers.
Abbreviation
Don’t abbreviate uncommon acronyms like “PO” (Purchase Order) unless there is no real estate left for the full name. The same applies to short abbreviations that could easily be written in full, like “Addr.” (Address).
Headlines
Keep headlines short and concise enough that they don’t require punctuation. After all, they’re called headlines, not sentences, for a reason.
Spelling
As a rule of thumb, ask your friend ChatGPT or Copilot for any recommended spelling on both specific words and sentences. Give enough context for the AI to understand the meaning and to give the best possible suggestion.
Should the AI fail, fallback to the first entry in the Merriam-Webster dictionary, or follow the advice from the Norwegian Korrekturavdelingen.
Time and date
Time format
Use the 24-hour format for all communication. For example, use '15:00' instead of '3 p.m.'. The brits will need to follow at least some world-dominated standards.
Skip seconds unless in very special circumstances.
Date format
Use the internationally recognized date format ‘DD.MM.YYYY’. Sorry but not sorry United States, which is the only country in the world using MM.DD.YYYY.
Name of day and month
Use the full name of each day and month (“Monday” and “January”) unless limited real estate (then use “Mon” and “Jan”).
Note that in all English-speaking countries, both the name of day and month are treated as proper nouns, meaning they shall start with a capital letter even in sentences.
And last and most importantly, if unsure what to do, fallback to general common sense.
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