Do you understand the importance of language in your UI?
Updated by Brady Stroud [SSW] 5 months ago. See history
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The tone of your application speaks volumes about how users view it. Read this Google documentation on the voice of Android.
Language tips and examples
| Tips | ❌ Bad examples | ✅ Good examples |
| Keep text as short as possible. Avoid wordy, stilted text. | Consult the documentation that came with your phone for further instructions. | Read the instructions that came with your phone |
| Describe only what the user needs to know and don't provide unnecessary information. | Your phone needs to communicate with Google servers to sign in to your account. This may take up to five minutes. | Your phone is contacting Google. This can take up to 5 minutes. |
| Focus on the user's concern, not technical details | Manually control GPS to prevent other apps from using it. | To save power, switch Location mode to Battery saving |
| Put the most important thing first | 77 other people +1’d this, including Larry Page | Larry Page and 76 others +1’d this |
| Put the user's goal first | Touch Next to complete setup using a Wi-Fi connection | To finish setup using Wi-Fi, touch Next |
| Avoid being confusing or annoying | Sorry! Activity MyAppActivity (in application MyApp) is not responding. | MyApp isn’t responding. Do you want to close it? |
Words and terms examples
| ❌ Bad examples - Avoid | ✅ Good examples - Use |
| cannot, could not, do not, did not will not, you will | Contractions: can’t, couldn’t, don’t, didn’t, won’t, you’ll, and so on |
| okay, ok | OK |
| please, sorry, thank you | Attempts at politeness can annoy the user, especially in messages that say something has gone wrong. Exception: In Japanese, “please” is mandatory and imperative verbs should be localized accordingly (turn on -> please turn on). |
| fail, failed, negative language | In general, use positive phrasing (for example, “do” rather than “don’t,” except in cases such as “Don’t show again,” “Can’t connect,” and so on.) |
| me, I, my, mine | you, your, yours |
| Are you sure? Warning! | Tell user the consequence instead, for example, "You’ll lose all photos and media" |