(Personas for JobPay app were supplied by UXCC)
| Kelly Chan, web developer (freelancer) | |
 “Work hard, but have fun doing it.”Age: 24Work: FreelancerFamily: Single, no kidsLocation: Fresno, CAProblem-solving  | Goals: Work for herself and save money. Pay off student loans. Learn how to run a business. Frustrations: Kelly is a digital native and sometimes forgets that other people aren’t as technical. She doesn’t like when her parents or her friends hit her up for tech support. Freelancing is new to her but she loves the flexible hours. She fears complicated legal paperwork and tax forms. Kelly is good with money and budgeting but worries she’s not charging enough for her services, especially after working at unpaid internships in college. She’s received excellent feedback on her writing and design work but still worries that clients might not like what she creates for them. Bio: Kelly moved back with her parents in Fresno after graduating with a degree in Web Development from California Academy of the Arts. Kelly doesn’t want to work for a big corporation until later in life. For now, she wants to save up more money to travel before getting serious or settling down. She has a lot of friends and a busy social life. Freelancing suits her. She’s a night owl and doesn’t like to get up before about 10:00 a.m. Developing websites is easy for her, so It’s a great way to make money. Her boyfriend, James, is a house painter. James met Kelly’s first client, Tom, on a job site. Tom called Kelly the next day to ask if she could help with his website redesign. Kelly had just completed a project for another big client and had some hours available to work for Tom. She discovered the JobPay app because her sister used it to track and bill clients for her catering business. |
| Tom Stewart, small business owner (SBO) | |
 “Running a business is crazy.”Age: 62Work: Owner, Stewart HVACFamily: Married, 3 kids, 2 grandkidsLocation: Fresno, CAProblem-solving  | Goals: Have an up-to-date business website that clients can find. Get the website updates done soon, but get it right. Get reliable leads from the website (people keep calling him for plumbing but he’s a heating and air conditioning contractor).Frustrations: When he hires subcontractors, he likes to keep up on their progress. He doesn’t like slackers or people who don’t get their work done on time. He’d like a simple tool for tracking hours and progress that isn’t complicated and doesn’t require much time. He’d much rather that his workers reported In on progress so he wouldn’t have to call them or go physically check the work.He can learn anything with enough time, but he also doesn’t like to focus on administrative or bureaucratic tasks (his job is installing heating and cooling systems). Tom manages money pretty well, but sometimes his funds run low, like when he has to pay for a lot of materials before he gets paid at the end of a job. Bio: Tom grew up in the Midwest and moved to California after learning his trade as an apprentice. His dad was a carpenter and his mom was a homemaker. His current wife retired from teaching when their kids were born. One of his sons is now a business partner running the commercial side of the business while he runs residential services.Tom’s wife does the bookkeeping using QuickBooks. He’s good with money, but doesn’t like to press clients to pay late bills. He prefers a gentleman’s handshake over a lengthy legal contract for work. |
JobPay Style Guide by Anisa Alamia
These content principles will help make the user experience helpful and simple for our users.
When writing for users, you should:
Remove friction. Make sure user questions are answered with tool tips or microcopy.
Keep terms basic,not academic or full of jargon. Do not abbreviate unnecessarily-remember there may be language barriers or reading comprehension issues (ex: SBO for small business owner).
It’s more important that the user knows what to do than it is to use a shorter word or slang, even if slang feels more true to our voice.
Keep terms consistent to avoid confusion. Different terms to complete the same action will create uncertainty and a fear of mistakes.
A button or tip should do what the user thinks it should, and that is reinforced by consistent terminology. This also reduces comprehension fatigue.
Guide users through their process–they shouldn’t wonder what the next best step is for their task- or how to find it.
The next logical step should be laid out for them immediately following an action. If they send an invoice and have not set up a way to receive money, we will redirect them to set up their financial account before allowing the invoice to be sent.
Supporting the user along the way will engender trust using the app- JobPay won’t let them miss a crucial step.
Accessibility is a top priority, so the user never feels they are missing key information. For example, keep screen readers in mind. How are the visual elements going to be described, is it clear how the info hierarchy is set up- are all the buttons in the same place each screen so it is read in the same order?
Keep vocabulary in line with local reading levels. In the US the reading level is Grade 8 or roughly age 14, up to Grade 10 for professionals. Consider there are many English as a Second language users as well.
If you are unsure of your reading level, enter your text here and the site will alert you to the number of years of education needed for readability on Online Utility or Hemingway
Voice & terminology
When we write for the JobPay app, we want to use a consistent voice and terms.
Here’s how to sound like JobPay: we’re as trustworthy as a bank, but not as impersonal. We’re the colleagues they’ve known for years; professional, but we have camaraderie.
| VOICE CHARACTERISTIC | HOW IT SOUNDS (EXAMPLE) |
| Encouraging but not condescending | “Excellent job, Stacey! All of your invoices have been sent.” NOT “wahoo, you did it!!” We are specific about their achievement. |
| Friendly but not unprofessional. | “Kelly, Tom Stewart paid invoice 123.” NOT: “You got money/your got paid!” The user was paid money they were owed for work they completed in a professional setting. It’s expected, not a prize won or a gift. Use their name, not “you” unless clarity is compromised. |
| Efficient, clear, and forward- looking. | “Send invoice?” NOT “You haven’t sent an invoice. Send now?” We’re not here to remind the user what they haven’t done, especially in a wordy sentence. We’re the subtle assistant that gives them “unseen” help. |
Preferred terms & word choice
Eight relevant terms that describe what your team should use when writing for JobPay.
| DO USE THIS WORD | DON’T USE THESE ALTERNATIVES | SAY WHY (RATIONALE) |
| Create | Generate | Generate or build is stilted and dry, almost robotic. Create implies the user is in control, not our app. “Create more revenue with our bid template” “Create a budget for this project” |
| Pause | Suspend | Pausing is easily undone, giving confidence to users to change their mind later, whereas suspend feels permanent and punitive. “A Net30 reminder posts to Business X tomorrow. Pause, send, or reschedule?”, “Pause update?” |
| Project | Job | Job can be used for a career title, or an unending responsibility. Project allows for the separation of clients- all projects in our app comprise a freelancer’s job, but each project is individual to a client. Project also conveys creativity and an end date. |
| Edit | Correct | Edit reminds business owners and freelancers that changes can always be made, and in fact are likely to happen. Correct implies a mistake that never should have happened. “The budget forecast is heading over the limit. Edit or continue?” |
| Invite | Add (for a person or company) | INVITE is a personal, collaborative action, regardless of what side they’re using the app from. “Invite Client Z to project Web Redesign?” Invite Kelly Chan to join project Web Chat?” ADD is ok for non-person or non-company entities (like folders, payments, hours, invoices, numbers) |
| Payment | Money | Payment is preferred over money as it is a professional term that is common and flexible. Common words & phrasing are what makes our copy conversational. “Tom Stewart sent a partial payment” is logical, while “partial money” is not. |
| Net30, Net60, Net90 plus due date | Only a due date or only net30/60/90 | These are common terms for invoicing in larger companies “Invoice7450 is Net30.” while freelancers are more likely to specify a date. Including a date AND a net range is helpful no matter which the user typically uses, thereby reducing cognitive fatigue. |
| Finish, Complete, Send | All good, looks ok, looks good, I understand, yes | All confirmation buttons should indicate a clear action. “Looks ok” or “yes” does not indicate any subsequent action. |
Tone
When writing for JobPay, make sure the tone of your writing sounds like:
● Confirmation screens are celebratory in moderation. A good rule of thumb is that the user is celebrated when milestones are hit- not for simply sending an invoice or paying an invoice.
Ask how often this action is being taken if you’re unsure. If it’s very common (sending or paying an invoice) then overt praise comes off condescending. For example, “Congratulations! You’ve hit your income goal for this month” or “Well done, you’ve added five new clients this quarter” “Stellar work, all end-of-year tax forms completed earlier than the deadline”
If we celebrate, we must add what the user has done, or we risk sounding like a child’s praise sticker. Avoid terms “Sweet!”, “Yay!”, or “Hurray!” – these are too youthful.
● Welcome screens are friendly and describe what we do. Use direct information with specific calls to action when possible: “Easier workflows ahead, keep going!” works because ‘Keep going’ is a call to action (we need them to log in to their new account), and it’s friendly.
“Your business in the palm of your hand” is describing how Jobpay is convenient – we aren’t saying they can’t do their job without us or that it wasn’t getting done before we were involved (“Look who is improving their business with Jobpay” implies their business would suffer without us).
● Error messages are serious but do not add unnecessary urgency (no uh-oh!) “Please enter a 10-digit Tax ID Number” We should already have hint text, but they may have forgotten a digit. If it’s a problem on our end; “JobPay didn’t find that tax ID number. Manually add it here or try again”
Avoid the word Incorrect or Wrong; we don’t want to blame the user. Verb-forward instructions – don’t leave them in the dark on next steps: “Connect to the internet”, “Update bank information”.
App errors: acknowledge our end of the problem and give instructions: “We’re experiencing difficulties, please close and restart JobPay”.StylesFollow these style rules when writing for the JobPay app interface.Page (screen) headings
● Capitalization: Sentence case
● Punctuation: No punctuation for Header 1 or on bulleted lists (unless there’s more than onesentence under a single bullet). “Budget” , “Client D – Project Zed” , “Accounts receivable”
● The exception to zero punctuation in a header is when you are guiding the user to “hear” ourtext in a certain tone. For example, “Billing? Handled.” leads the user to read “Handled” in a downward inflection, to indicate the item being easily executed, whereas otherwise it would read as if we drifted off without finishing our sentence.
Invoice sent!/Budget sent! Project complete! are tone regulating punctuations. Without the !, it can sound dour. An exception is on the business owner side– we do not celebrate basic duties such as paying invoices, approving budgets, and accepting invites. The only celebration for business owners is completing a project.
● Style: Nouns, 2 words maximum. If more information is necessary, use a subheading.Subheadings or form labels
● Capitalize: Sentence case
● Punctuation- none, except for multiple sentences. Success messages can have a singleexclamation mark- never two or more. If there is more than one sentence, do not use anexclamation point on both.
● Keep the language simple and avoid jargon or abbreviations unless that’s how the noun isfrequently referred to on standard forms and space is an issue, such as SSN (social security number) or OT (overtime).
Don’t abbreviate just because you can- there must be a reason. We want to be helpful, not ambiguous or confusing. An exception would be CVV – this credit card security code abbreviation is very common across the internet.
● Style: Verbs if it is actionable. Nouns if informational dialogue is confirming a choice made
(such as choosing a financial institution)
Onscreen instructions (text below headings)
● Capitalize: Sentence case
● Punctuation: None unless there is a second sentence, a question, or if followed by a closelyrelated sentence, a semicolon and then a period. If your sentence is long enough to require a semicolon, however, check for conciseness. Commas and periods always go inside quotation marks; dashes, colons, and semicolons almost always go outside.
Use commas in addresses (Los Angeles, CA) dates, and large numbers. Commas separate clauses, both dependent and independent. This would likely only be necessary off-app on the website interface. There is an exception for commas and periods under Currency.
● Style: Verb first. Enter, Add, Invite.Tooltips
● Capitalization: Sentence case for tips. All lower case for hint text like email format, excluding abbreviations like SSN. However, abbreviate sparingly – SSN is common, but TIN is not.
● Punctuation: None unless it is more than one sentence, then periods at the end of sentences. There should not be any ? or ! in a tooltip.
● Tone: You’re talking to your favorite work buddy who had a quick question.
● Always add a tooltip for any tax forms- rules change frequently for taxes and we want to guideusers as much as possible. We don’t want them to navigate away from the app to find theanswer if we could have provided it.
● Style: Commands, beginning with a verb – Set, Add, Pause, InviteButton text
● Sentence case EXCLUDING the fixed navigation menu (PROJECT, TIME, INVOICES, MESSAGES). We don’t want to “shout” at every turn, but we do want some items, like the fixed navigation bar, to stand out.
● Punctuation: None
● Avoid slang or ambiguity, and stick to verbs. For example, “Finish, Complete, Send” Vs. “AllGood”, “OK” or “Looks good.”
“All good” or “Looks good” could mean it’s only been reviewed for accuracy and no action is wanted. “OK” is vague- the user will remain uncertain as to what action they’ve completed, if any.
● Style: Verb first
Date formats
● Jul/08/23. Using the first three letters of a month eliminates any international confusion (Europe usually has the day before the month). Two digit year instead of four saves space.
Currency formats
● USD is standard unless the user switches currencies under settings. This is where a tool tip would appear when setting up budgets or invoices.
● Currency will have a decimal and display all cent values to the 100th (2 digits after the decimal point) even if it is zero (for USD). Some currencies do not have this.
JP¥50 has no decimals and CN¥50 has two decimal places.
USD Examples: $50.00, $5.00. Never $50 . Commas for thousand, million, etc.
Example: $34,000.00 with the exception of European currency formats. 357€ can be written without the zeros and 357,99€ in the EU format if there are cents.