In the fast-paced world of UX design, consistency is not just a buzzword—it's a necessity. Consistency in design and content ensures a seamless user experience, builds trust, and enhances brand identity. But how do you maintain this consistency, especially when your team is juggling multiple projects? The answer lies in integrating your design system with content guidelines. In this blog post, we'll explore why content guidelines are important and how Frontitude's UX Writer Assistant can help you maintain consistency using its Team Guidelines feature.
The Importance of Content Guidelines
Before diving into the technicalities, let's understand why content guidelines are so important. Gathered into a content style guide, they serve as a rulebook for your content, outlining the tone, voice, and language to be used. They ensure that no matter who is writing, the content remains consistent across all user touchpoints. This is particularly important for UX content, where even a slight variation can disrupt the user flow and create confusion.
Content guidelines go a step further by providing context-specific rules. For example, an error message might require a different tone than a welcome message, even though both are part of the same product. By adhering to these guidelines, you ensure that the content not only aligns with the brand but also serves its specific purpose effectively.
The Problem With Traditional Content Style Guides
While content style guides are essential for maintaining a unified voice and tone, they often exist in isolation, separate from the design system. From what we've heard from design teams through the recent years, this disconnect can lead to inconsistencies, as designers and writers find it hard and time-consuming to use as part of their writing process. Recently, more teams embed their content guidelines next to their design system components in Figma, which works better but the process still remains cumbersome.
Frontitude's Upcoming Team Guidelines
In contrast to the traditional methods of maintaining content guidelines, Frontitude's Team Guidelines feature revolutionizes way content guidelines are maintained and governed by offering deep integration between your guidelines and design system, all powered by AI.
How To Embed Content Guidelines In Your Design System
Defining Your Guidelines
Firstly, you'll need to define your content guidelines within Frontitude. Each guideline includes the following properties:
- Universal (Scope): Turn this on to automatically load the guideline for every text rewrite.
- Tone: Set the tone to enforce the content voice.
- Length: Limit suggestions to a specific number of words or sentences.
- Element: Add context about the UI element for better suggestions.
- Case: Enforce a specific casing on the content suggestions.
- Examples: Provide examples to help the assistant understand the desired output.
Linking Guidelines to Design System
A unique feature is the ability to link your guidelines to your design system components. For instance, if you're using Figma, you can select a text in a main component, create a guideline, and save it. This guideline will then be automatically loaded whenever a rewrite is performed on that specific text in the component’s instances.
…if you're using Figma, you can select a text in a main component, create a guideline, and save it. This guideline will then be automatically loaded whenever a rewrite is performed on that specific text in the component’s instances.
AI-Powered Content Suggestions
Once your guidelines are set, Frontitude's Model (powered by Open AI) interprets these rules to generate content suggestions that align with your guidelines. This ensures that the content is not just grammatically correct but also adheres to your specific brand and context requirements.
Team Collaboration
The Team Guidelines feature is designed for team-level implementation. Once a guideline is created, it becomes available for all team members, ensuring that everyone is on the same page.
Implement Team Guidelines In Four Steps
- Create Guidelines: Fill in the guideline’s properties and save all of them in a single place, under the Style tab.
- Link Guidelines with the Design System: Select design system components in Figma, then link the right content guidelines.
- Invite Team Members: To share guidelines with your team and write as one, invite team members to the same team account over email.
- Use in Rewrite: Every team member will get the relevant content guidelines loaded automatically when writing copy for instances of the covered components.
The Outcome
Incorporating Frontitude's Team Guidelines feature into your workflow bridges the gap between your design system and content guidelines. It not only ensures consistency but also streamlines the content creation process, making it easier for design and product teams to collaborate effectively. So, if you're looking to elevate your UX content, Frontitude's Team Guidelines is the tool you've been waiting for.
Get Early Access Now!
Excited about the Team Guidelines feature and working in a large design team? It's currently in private beta, and we're offering exclusive early access. Book an onboarding call with us to unlock this game-changing feature on your account and start experimenting with it! Elevate your UX design and content strategy now.
