Content Style Guide
Nielsen’s marketing team has created documentation to align our company’s writing style and brand voice.
The Content Style Guide lists the company’s preferred style for copy, grammar usage, and industry terminology. We follow the Associated Press Stylebook and Merriam-Webster Collegiate Dictionary, 11th Edition. Explanations and exceptions are noted in the document.
Please read the Style Guide to better understand and adhere to our standards for communication and copywriting.
To learn about Nielsen’s brand voice, consult the Nielsen Brand Voice & Personality Guidelines.
Grammar and Style
Capitalization
Proper capitalization is a small but very important part of UX copywriting. Nearly all copy is either title case or sentence case and people often have strong opinions about which case should be chosen. The only exception where text is all caps is in table headings. This is to create more contrast between the column headings and table cell content.
Here are the strengths of each case:
- Visually more symmetrical
- Stands out more easily
- Feels more formal
- More readable
- Simpler capitalization rules compared to title case
- Makes it possible to recognize proper nouns
Title Case
Title case is a style of capitalization traditionally used for the titles of books, movies, songs, plays, and other works. All major words are capitalized, while minor words (like conjunctions and articles) are lowercase. The first and the last word are always capitalized.
- Navigation Items (Breadcrumbs, Steppers, etc)
- Buttons
- Page Titles, Page Headings, and Section Headings
- Form Labels
- Menus
- Tabs & Context Switchers
- List Headings
For help choosing correct title case usage consult
Sentence Case
In sentence case style, only the first word of a sentence or title and any proper nouns are capitalized. All other words are lowercase.
- All paragraph text
- Helper text
- Form placeholders
- Links
- Message and Empty state descriptions
Some components such as Chips, Checkboxes, Radios, Switches, can be either title or sentence case depending on the context of the element. Default to title case, but sentence case is acceptable.
Other Capitalization Rules
- For product names and objects, only capitalize products, brands, and sub-brands.
- Helper text
- File types are capitalized when talking about the kind of file, lowercase as the extension of a filename. (Example: CSV and text.csv)
- For list-like content, items in a list always start with a capital letter, even if the bullet is an incomplete sentence.
- The names of languages are always capitalized.
Dates and Times
There are two main ways to display date/time data: exact times and relative times. Use whichever best fits the data you’re trying to communicate.
- Exact dates/times refer to a point in time. (Example: September 15th, 2022 5:44PM)
- Relative dates/times communicate a sense of recency or urgency. (Example: 15m ago)
Most dates in our applications will be displayed as exact times. Relative times are usually best if the date is recent. They’re also best if the user action is required in a given timeframe.
Displaying Relative Times
- Less than one minute: Just now
- Less than one hour: 27 min ago or 27m
- Less than one day: 4 hours ago or 4h
- Less than one month: 12 days ago or 12d
- Less than one month: (Use the exact time: Sep 15th)
Displaying Exact Dates
Displaying exact dates and times can be confusing depending on the user’s location and background. For this reason, we’re consolidating the ways we display our dates and times into these standards:
- ISO 8601: 2022-08-15, 14:30 PM
- American formatting: 08/15/2022, 2:30 PM
- ISO 8601: 15th August 2022, 14:30 PM
- American formatting: August 15th 2022, 2:30 PM
ISO 8601 is an international standard that aligns very closely with how much of the world formats dates and time. ISO 8601 is very uncommon to most Americans so the American formatting is available where applicable. Whenever possible, these options should be configurable by user preference or localization.
Using the whole date or time is not required. Use the shortest data that meets your needs.
For more information on date formatting, check out
Numbers
Always use numerals in headlines, headings, and data visualizations. In body copy, use numerals for numbers greater than 10, percentages, or when numbers need to stand out from the text.
Whenever possible, abbreviate large numbers to single digits, especially in metrics or KPIs. This makes numbers more scannable, more understandable, and saves space.
- Substitute K for thousands ($2K for $2 thousand or $2,000)
- Substitute M for millions ($88M for $88 million, or $88,000,000)
- Substitute B for billions ($6.2B for $6.2 billion, or $6,200,000,000)
- Substitute T for trillions ($1T for $1 trillion, or $1,000,000,000,000)
Product Writing
Well written labels for actions usually contain a verb. Strive for conciseness. Using either a single verb or a verb and a noun if possible. For example, “Edit Campaign” is better than “Campaign Details”. In some cases, single nouns like “Views”, “Options” or “Layout” are acceptable too.
We prefer the verbs, Create, Open, Add, Edit, Exit, and Continue as the starting word for actions. Labels like “Create Scenario”, “Add to Selected”, “Edit Plan”, “Exit Report”, and “Continue Setup” are great labels. Use repetition to reinforce the action the user needs to take. In most cases, you should use the same verb throughout the whole user flow.
Actions and Decisions
Well written labels for actions usually contain a verb. Strive for conciseness. Using either a single verb or a verb and a noun if possible. For example, “Edit Campaign” is better than “Campaign Details”. In some cases, single nouns like “Views”, “Options” or “Layout” are acceptable too.
We prefer the verbs, Create, Open, Add, Edit, Exit, and Continue as the starting word for actions. Labels like “Create Scenario”, “Add to Selected”, “Edit Plan”, “Exit Report”, and “Continue Setup” are great labels. Use repetition to reinforce the action the user needs to take. In most cases, you should use the same verb throughout the whole user flow.
Titles and Headers
Page titles (H1’s) should almost always be nouns that describe the space, not the task. For example, “Report Options”, “Demographics”, or “Campaigns List” explain to the user where they are and what they’re viewing.
Subheadings (H2’s and smaller) mostly follow the same rule about describing a space. In some cases, it’s better to tell the task to be done. For example, “Select TV Input Method” or “Add ISCI Codes”. Alternatively, you can add helper text or information about the space to help the user complete their task.
Messages and Empty States
We have three different types of user triggered messages: banner, dialog, and toast. Each of them have slightly different requirements which you can find on their component pages.
An exercise you can use to write these messages is to mimic a conversation. Think about how you’d explain the action in a conversation and then only choose the key verbs and nouns. For example, “Are you sure you want me to delete this list?” would be “Are you sure you want to delete?” or just “Delete list?”. Sentence fragments are encouraged in this case copywriting as long as the intended action is clear.
When a task is completed successfully, try to convey a sense of completion. Be explicit about what was successful by referring to the object, file name, campaign, etc. Include helpful follow-on actions, where appropriate. Message titles should be sentence case and final punctuation should be omitted, unless the title is a question. Body copy should be sentence case and final punctuation should be included.
There are three main reasons for empty states: an error, lack of results, or because of user action. Use the title to explain the situation, and the body to provide a path forward. In addition, focus on the situation, not the user’s behavior. Use phrases like “there weren’t” and “it doesn’t.” Focus on what the user can do (versus what hasn't been done yet) by reiterating the value proposition of the feature.