Capitalization & punctuation
Rules for display prompts, text in visuals, and chips.
Capitalization
Use sentence case (capitalizing only the first word of titles, headings, labels, and menu items). Research shows that sentence case is easier to scan than title case.
Do.
Don't.
Contractions
Use contractions. Messaging without contractions sounds stilted and robotic, rather than natural and conversational.
Do.
Don't.
Commas
Use the serial comma in a list of 3 or more items. Serial commas add clarity.
Without the serial comma, individual items in your list may be incorrectly heard or read as groups (e.g., “daisies and sunflowers” sound like they come together, while “daisies, and sunflowers” are clearly separate).
Do.
Don't.
Exclamation points
Avoid exclamation points as they can be perceived as shouting.
Do.
Use common terminology that is familiar to most people (like "sign up as a member").
Don't.
Numerals
Use numerals instead of text. Numerals make visual content more glanceable.
Do.
Don't.
Symbols
Use specialized symbols instead of text. Symbols make visual content more glanceable.
Do.
Don't.
Time
Use the format "AM" or "PM".
Do.
Don't.