Why the style guide is a content designer’s best friend

A lot of us have best friends outside of work. And if you’re lucky enough, you may have even have some friends at work too. But not a lot of us look to style guides as our best friends.

But as a content designer, the style guide is one of our most trusted and reliable friends. It’s always there, (definitely pinned to my browser toolbar) and always provides the answers to I need to content queries when I’m stuck.

When all else seems up in the air, I know I can rely on the style guide to point me in the right direction.

What’s a style guide?

So you’re probably asking what a style guide is, and how it might be different from the familiar style guides (like AP Style Guide and Chicago Style Manual) that contain all of the grammar rules and formatting styles that most major publications follow.

A style guide within a company is the same, but more catered toward what the company represents and how it presents itself (referenced as the “brand,” which is a much bigger discussion). It’s a set of rules to follow based on the type of content you’re writing (and for who), which closely mirrors the company’s branding and principles.

To steal a quote from one of the mainstays in the writing world, Grammarly says that a style guide is, “a document that contains rules and guidelines for a company.”

What’s included in a style guide?

Style guides can contain a lot of rules related to the written word, including:

• A word list (from A-Z)
• Voice and tone guidelines (who is saying it and how they say it)
• Jargon and company terms (when to use or avoid it)
• Formatting (bold, italics, underlines, etc.)
• Accessibility (rules for how to make copy inclusive)
• UI component guidelines (creating copy for certain components in a design)
• Patterns (how content is written for repeated scenarios, like failing to log in to a site)

All of these things might seem trivial on the surface, but they play a key role in creating copy for a company. That’s because they ensure that all copy (whether marketing, product, or documentation) sounds the same despite the fact that different writers are writing it.

Imagine an entire writing department going rogue and writing whatever they wanted, however they wanted, because they thought their way was the best way. Sounds dangerous. A brand style guide can wrangle all of these writers in.

Looks like writers mostly use it. So how do content designers use the style guide?

Content designers adhere to the style guide because we want to make sure we’re all speaking the same language as we work. We want to make sure that what we’re providing in product (whether that be microcopy, error messages, or additional information) syncs up across all screens and products.

If we were super conversational in one product, but very direct and informative in another, that could definitely cause some confusion with a customer.

We also look to the style guide for familiar patterns. Oftentimes, content will follow a specific pattern, and we can reuse these patterns to stay consistent and help us work faster. We’re not trying to come up with new ways to solve a problem that already has a solution.

Why should I live by my brand style guide?

Anyone who is writing or working with content should know the power of their brand style guide.

Now it sounds extreme, but as a content designer the brand style guide is my best friend at work (sorry other actual people friends).

Content designers should live and breathe the brand style guide because:

• It is a source of truth that can be pointed back to, with rules vetted by the content design team
• It helps get things done, faster
• It’s a place to send people for their content questions
• It creates consistency across the copy, and consistency = familiarity = trust

A brand style guide contains all of the things that you will need to rely on as you make content decisions moving forward.

How do we label buttons for confirmation modals? What do we say in banner alerts? Do we use italicized formatting or no? All of these things can be answered with the style guide.

A style guide ensures that you and your team align on the same language used throughout each product so that everything sounds the same. Otherwise, it’ll sound like a bunch of different writers trying to mesh things together.

How to create your style guide

Everyone has different models for creating style guides, and honestly my ways have been a bit haphazard (a sort of “add as you grow” mentality).

I would suggest the following process for creating a style guide:

1. Create an outline – plan out the sections and what they should include
2. Create the content – describe in plain language the what, when, why, and how
3. Capture examples – live examples or mockups can help add context
4. Fill it out and vet it with the team – its important that everyone is on board with the rules

Additionally, here are some tips to consider when you create a style guide:

1. Keep notes on terminology as you design — you’ll find yourself forgetting what certain terms mean in a certain context or to a specific experience if you don’t
2. Record reusable content patterns to help other team members create content — templatize the content, explain the parts, and mention how it can be adjusted
3. Capture design decisions you made, and why — for instance, why an email is preferred over an alert for a scenario
4. Record how standard flows work (like a log in flow) — this way, every product can have the same standard interactions

The style guide may get manipulated

Remember that each project uses different language and designs, so it can be difficult to align every single project with rigid style guide decisions.

However, you can still align each project to the basics of the style guide, but bend them slightly. That way, the core principles are aligned but you still have the ability to manipulate them slightly based on different use cases.

To help keep track of these different changes, consider creating individual project style guides to supplement the main style guide. These help any new content designers (and other design partners) understand how to create content for a specific product.

Additionally, consider revisiting your style guide every now and then to check it and make revisions. You’ll likely not get it right on the first (or fifth) pass, and there are always new scenarios that challenge the established rules.

Stay true to the style guide

Now this might seem like a lot of words dedicated to something that seems like a dusty, inflexible document. But truth be told the style guide is an important artifact, and an often-used tool in the content designer’s toolkit.

Remember to always use the style guide as your foundation; and if you don’t have one, actively create one to give yourself some solid ground to stand on. It will save you a lot of time, effort, and difficult discussions.