Plug-in design

General design guidelines

To support a native UI/UX, every plug-in should follow Haiilo's general design guidelines: https://design.haiilo.com/

Tonality & UX writing

Thoughtful, consistent interface content is a core element of a well-designed user experience.

Our content guidelines aim to give you clear, tactical suggestions designed to help you use language to craft better experiences.

Use plain language

Writing using plain language doesn’t mean dumbing content down. It’s about making sure language is straightforward and communicates concepts as efficiently as possible.

Tips

• Write short sentences (no more than 15–20 words).
• Use headings and bullets to make your content easier to scan.
• Avoid jargon and always choose a short, simple word over a long and complicated one.
• Only use industry-standard terminology when you have reason to believe it will improve understanding.
• Write for small screens first. Constraints can help you focus on the most important message.
• Read your content out loud. If you get tripped up or it doesn’t sound like something a human would say, your content needs to be edited

Be consistent

To help your audience understand key concepts and actions they can take, use consistent nouns (words used to identify people, places, or things) and verbs (action words) wherever possible.

Tips

• Get in the habit of making a list of all the most important verbs and nouns in the experience you’re building.
• Look at your word list. Does each word clearly describe the object or action it represents in the simplest way possible?
• Identify synonyms (a word or phrase that means exactly or nearly the same as another word or phrase in the same language), and eliminate them. Each important object and action should have a single word to represent it.

Know your surroundings

Give additional guidance by using a contextual coherent language to help your audience maintain a sense of direction and understand more specific concepts and actions.

Tips

• Check if there are already commonly used phrases and words to convey what you want to say
• If the user benefits from adjustments in the choice of words, make sure to keep these changes at a minimum
• Make sure each action is clearly stating what is happening after it is performed
• Make your language fits the situation the user is in and its impact it may have.

Perspective

Our product is build for people, not alongside them. This reflects in writings from the users point of view. An example would be "My files" instead of "Your files". Make sure to always respect the point of view for your interfaces you are developing.

Respect system defaults

You should avoid using wordings which are pre-defined by the system, explaining core functionalities of the main product. This includes labels such as, "Pages", "Communities", or "Events".