Graphic Designers
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Motion Designers
3d Designers
For use in websites and apps
For use as tags and highlight
For use in websites and apps
For use in printing only
We use Associated Press (AP) style for in-product UX writing. Any exceptions will be specifically spelled out.
Exception: We use the Oxford comma. It increases clarity.
We should use the American Dictionary by Merriam-Webster
Write for all readers. Help everyone read better by grouping related ideas together and using descriptive headers and subheaders. Write for skimmers and scanners.
Focus your message. Create a hierarchy of information. Lead with the main point. Use short words and sentences. Avoid unnecessary modifiers. Avoid vague language.
Write like you talk. Write in a conversational voice—like you’re talking one-on-one.
Every word must have a purpose. You should be able to explain the rationale for the words you choose and how you structure them. Never sacrifice clarity for brevity.
Reduce cognitive load. Punctuations and pair copy with illustrations wherever possible. Focus your message. Create a hierarchy of information. Lead with the main point or the most important content, in sentences, paragraphs, sections, and pages.
Be consistent. Stick to the copy patterns and style points outlined in this guide.
Be purposeful. What the user should or can do to meet their goals must be clear. Business goals should be met.
Use active voice as much as possible. Active voice emphasizes the subject performing the action, making your content more dynamic and compelling. This is especially true when giving bad news. We tend to slip into a ‘passive' voice, which means we don't say who's responsible for something.
Like this:
“A decision has been made to close your account”
That's not great for readers for a couple of reasons:
(1) Firstly, it looks like we're avoiding responsibility. We decided to do it, so the fair thing is to own that decision.
(2) Second, it's ambiguous — we haven't actually said who made that decision. Was it us? Was it our regulators?
Here's the ‘active' version:
“We've decided to close your account”
Here’s another examples:
Passive:
“This bug will be fixed in the next update.”
Active:
“We'll fix this bug in the next update.”
When you write in present tense, you address user needs and your solution as the reality today.
"We have served companies all over the world.”
“We serve companies from all over the world.”
Write in simple tenses—past, present, and future. They’re direct, clear, and short. Use progressive tenses only to convey an ongoing action.
Past:
(1) You were getting a discount on your Ledger. (past progressive)
(2) You had gotten a discount for months. (past perfect)
(3) You had been getting a discount for months. (past perfect progressive)
Past:
(1) “You got a discount on your Ledger.”
Present:
(1) You’re getting a discount. (present progressive)
(2) You’ve gotten a discount since January. (present perfect)
(3) You’ve been getting a discount since January. (present perfect progressive)
Present:
”You get a discount on your Ledger.”
Future:
(1) You’ll be getting a discount next year. (future progressive)
(2) You’ll have gotten a discount all year. (future perfect)
(3) You’ll have been getting a discount for months when you unsubscribe. (future perfect progressive)
Future:
“You’ll get a discount.”
If any of the following comes before the verb in a sentence, it’s not simple tense:
(1) Was/wasn’t, were, weren’t
(2) Has/hasn’t, have/haven’t
(3) Is/isn’t, are/aren’t
(4) Be
If the verb in a sentence ends in “-ing,” it’s not simple tense.
Use sentence case for all aspects of designing Ledger product experiences, including titles and UI elements (e.g., tooltips, tabs, menu items).
Stick with sentence case pretty much everywhere. For proper nouns, use title case.
When to use sentence case:
(1) Only capitalize the first word in a phrase, title, or UI reference (e.g., Adjust borders tool)
(2) Always capitalize proper nouns and branded terms (e.g., Ledger Support, Ledger Donjon)
(3) Capitalize acronyms (e.g., XD, AEM)
Title case is often a marker of formality in English, and overuse can cause users stress by implying formality or officialness where it doesn’t exist.
Use second person to address our users. Our product experiences are a conversation with customers. Writing as though you’re speaking to someone supports a friendly, human tone and helps avoid passive voice by focusing the conversation on the reader.
CTAs sometimes represent the customer’s side of the conversation, so it’s OK to use first-person there to represent the customer’s voice. First-person in buttons is an option, not a mandate.
Use first person (me, I, my) only in these situations:
(1) Someone responds to the interface or answers a question they've been asked directly
(2) When additional sensitivity is necessary, or to indicate privacy
(3) When there's a legal need to use first person to ask for consent (e.g., “I agree to these terms and conditions”)
Use “we”, “our”, and “us” when you write as Ledger.In most situations, Ledger doesn't need to know or assume the gender of our users. So when we refer to users, we use “singular they”. We don’t use “he/she” or “(s)he” — those exclude users who identify outside of the male/female binary.
Use any of these variants of they in their proper grammatical contexts:
(1) They
(2) Them
(3) Their
(4) Theirs
(5) Themselves
(6) Themself
Use contractions to sound more conversational and natural, but not at the expense of clarity. When there’s a need to take a serious tone (warnings, errors) don’t use contractions.
Don’t use regional contractions like ain’t, shan’t, y’all, mustn’t, and so on. Don’t turn nouns into contractions. Be aware that contractions get tricky when it comes to translation.
List of contractions that are acceptable to use:Aren't, can’t, couldn’t, didn’t, doesn’t, don’t hasn’t, haven’t, isn’t, it’s, let’s shouldn’t, that’s, there’s, they’re, they’ve, wasn’t, we’ll, we’re, weren’t, what’s, where’s, won’t, you’ll, you’re, you’ve.
Contraction considerations:
(1) Avoid contracting nouns with is, does, has, or was. This might make it look like the noun is possessive.
(2) Don’t use uncommon or old-fashioned contractions (e.g., would’ve or tweren't).
(3) Don’t use colloquial contractions (e.g., ain't, y'all, yinz).
(4) Be mindful of how many contractions you use in a sentence. Too many contractions can make things difficult to read.
(4) Avoid using contractions when dealing with legal concerns, payment processing, and account security. Casual isn’t always the best style when handling sensitive information.
Keep the following in mind when you’re writing, to help the greatest number of people understand what you write.
Layout
(1) Left-align running text (this will be mirrored along with the UI for right-to-left languages)
(2) Avoid switching alignments in a single view.
(3) Have line lengths at a maximum of 50-75 characters.
(4) Use one column per page.
Interactions
(1) Avoid “clear” and ”reset” actions on forms. Someone could select these by accident and erase a lot of painstaking work.
(2) Let people save forms so that they can leave and come back.
(3) Provide keywords before or inside links.
Localization
(1) Explain branded or technical terms before using them.
(2) When using an uncommon abbreviation or acronym, write out the full term on first use and follow it with the shortened version in parentheses.
Using double negatives can make sentences confusing and harder to understand. We deal with sensitive and complex topics surrounding security and finance so clear communication is crucial. Avoiding double negatives enhances the clarity, professionalism, and credibility of Ledger’s communication.
Examples
(1) Double negative: "It isn’t uncommon for security breaches to not happen.
"Clear: "It’s common for security breaches to happen.
(2) "Double negative: "There’s no reason not to use two-factor authentication.
"Clear: "There’s every reason to use two-factor authentication."
There is no hard and fast rule to know what text needs vetting by Ledger’s legal team. However, a special amount of scrutiny should be applied to copy used for marketing. All marketing copy should be signed off by Legal. For in-product copy, have Legal review the overall user flows to make sure the regulatory and compliance checklist is fully met. But, any text propositioned by legal must be further simplified and should aligns with Ledger’s voice principles.
(1) When an acronym appears for the first time, spell it out and include the acronym in parentheses—unless it’s commonly known, like OS, ZIP code, No., PIN, HODL.
(2) For plurals, use a lowercase ”s” without an apostrophe. Use standard abbreviations; don’t just abbreviate words at random.
🗣 Example: Acronym: NFTs
Abbreviate: Inc.
Don't use Latin abbreviations, such as i.e., and e.g. To abbreviate “example”, use “Ex.” instead.
(1) Use bold to emphasize something important, but if overused, it can have the opposite effect, making a screen look chaotic. Use bold content sparingly.
(2) Here are some things you might want to present in bold:
User actions, buttons, navigation labels, or steps mentioned in instructional content.
🗣 Example:
- On the left panel, click on Accounts.
- If the Accounts button is greyed out, click on Portfolio.
- Click the Add account button.
- Type or click the drop-down list to choose the crypto asset of the account to add. Click Continue.
- Connect and unlock your device,
- Open the crypto asset app. Click Continue.
Ledger Live will look for existing accounts in the blockchain. These are then displayed one by one.
Names of UI elements.
Terms that need emphasis to make the content easier to scan.
🗣 Example:
(1) Use sentence case (also for headings and titles). Sentence case is casual and friendly.
(2) Don’t capitalize the names of features.
(3) Avoid using ALL CAPITAL LETTERS as much as possible. It presents an additional difficulty for users with dyslexia and other reading challenges or vision impairments.
(4) We can occasionally display all capital letters in headings on marketing pages, tags (such as FREE or NEW), navigation labels, and table headers.
(1) Don’t use italics for referencing. Use it sparingly to bring emphasis.
(2) Only use one type-treatment (color, bold, indentation) to emphasize text.
Bulleted lists:
- Use a bulleted list to display content in a way that makes it easy to scan.
- Keep bullet lists and the bulleted items short (not more than 5 points, unless it’s for a blog).
- Avoid having more than one bulleted list on a screen.
- Use parallel construction. If one item starts with a verb, every item should start with a verb. If one item ends in punctuation, every item should end in punctuation.
Numbered lists:
- Introduce the list with a lead-in sentence, heading, or question (use a question mark).
- Begin each numbered item with an initial capital letter.
- Don’t use and, or, or and/or at the beginning of any list item.
- Use parallel construction for your list items. If one item starts with a verb, every item should start with a verb.
Make sure each step includes only one action or two closely related actions (like go to the menu and select Apps). That helps us keep the steps simple
- Write all items in the same voice (usually active) and tense (usually present).
Use a period at the end of each list item and keep punctuation consistent.
- Don’t use commas or semicolons at the end of list items.
🗣 Example:
- Click Receive in the menu on the left-hand side.
- Type or use the drop-down list to choose the account to credit.
- Click Continue.
- Pair and unlock your Ledger device.
- Open the crypto asset app as instructed and click Continue.
(1) Mathematical symbols (+, -, x, /, ÷, =) and equations can be used but should not substitute words.
(2) For accessibility, explain the equation first. Not all screen readers will read these symbols. Explaining the equation helps all users understand it.
🗣 Example:
(1) Your maximum transaction fee is equal to the gas price multiplied by the gas limit.
(1) By default, align paragraphs and text longer than 2 lines to the left. Since our eyes jump fast down left-aligned content, it's easier and quicker to read.
(2) When reading center-aligned content, our eyes have to scan both sides of the text. This takes us longer than reading left-aligned text since we have to find where the next line begins.
(3) Center alignment is best for headlines and short, scannable lines. Keep content 1–2 lines in length. Any longer and you sacrifice readability for the sake of visual aesthetics.
Never use justified alignment.
🗣 Example:
(1) Don't underline copy unless it's for links.
(2) Inline links should be underlined (or some other non-color visual distinction) for accessibility. They're surrounded by text and need an underline to be recognizable as an interactive element.
(3) Links that stand alone do not need to be underlined because they have ample white space to be recognizable as interactive. However, the colour contrast must be enough to make it distinguishable.
🗣 Example:
URLs
(1) In digital experiences, a descriptive link is usually a better way to direct users to another page.
(2) When we do spell out a universal resource locator, use lowercase, even if it refers to a product name.
(3) Leave out the scheme/protocol (http, https) and the www part. .
🗣 Example:
(1)Start learning at ledgeracademy.com
Don’t use ampersands in body text or most headings, unless they’re part of a proper noun.
Use apostrophes to form contractions, possessives, and, in rare cases, plurals.
🗣 Example:
(2) Possessive: Ledger Stax’s accessories, Do’s and don’ts
(3) Contraction: Let’s
(4) Plurals: Customers’ assets
(1) Avoid using asterisks as much as possible, since they imply conditionality and hamper the trust that’s been built with the customer.
(2) If there’s a need to reference some term, condition, or clause, do so directly, through a subtext. Asterisks also tend to slow readers down.
(3) You’re interrupting their train of thought and asking them to hunt for secondary information.
(4) Exception: Legal disclaimers.
Do not use angle brackets < >. Don’t use the angle brackets > to indicate the next step. Instead, use the word select.
🗣 Example:
Go to ‘My Ledger’ > your hardware.
Go to My Ledger and select your Ledger hardware.
(2) Do not use square brackets ‘[]’.
(3) Use “( )” for clarifying. If brackets are used at the end of a sentence, the period should be placed outside, as the final punctuation.
(1) Use a colon to provide emphasis, and to introduce a list.
(2) When using an abbreviation with a colon, include the period (E.g.:).
(3) Capitalize the first word after the colon only if it is a proper noun or the start of a complete sentence.
(4) Don’t use colons in headings and subheadings, even when you’re introducing a list. If you feel like you need a colon in a heading, see if there’s a possibility for a subheading instead.
(1) Use the serial (or Oxford) comma when using it in a list of three or more items.
(2) Use the comma to eliminate the misreading of a sentence, even if a comma would not normally be called for. (3) Use the comma as you see fit to compose a melodic sentence.
🗣 Tip:
If you’re not sure where to add a comma, say the sentence out loud and notice when you’re naturally taking a pause to sound as eloquent as possible. Run it by a native-level English speaker, just in case.
(1) Commas in dates
(2) Use a comma after the year when starting a phrase or clause with a date.
(3) Use commas when writing the month, day, and year. Don’t use commas for only the month and year or the month and day.
🗣 Example:
(1) The year starts on January, 1.
(2) January, 2021 was a busy month.
(3) They were born on June 2 1984.
(4) Your taxes are due April 15 2020.
(1) On January 5, 2022, Ledger Nano S Plus was launched.
(2) Starting January 5, 2022, we are increasing the price of premium services.
(3) Your taxes are due January 5, 2022,.
(1) Use a comma between two clauses that can stand alone and are linked by a conjunction. You can use “then” as coordinating conjunction (even though technically it’s not) when it makes the sentence a quicker read.
(2) Compound sentences tend to be longer and add a layer of complexity. Don’t overdo them.
(3) A comma is not used before a coordinating conjunction when the conjunction joins two words or phrases or two clauses that are not independent clauses.
Use a comma after a salutation or direct address ("Hello, Harita"). But if the salutation is a simple “Hi,” you can omit the comma ("Hi Harita").
Hyphens:
(1) A hyphen makes compound words.
(2) Don’t use a hyphen when writing terms like Sign in unless they’re an adjective describing a noun that follows (ex: sign-in screen).
(3) Never use a hyphen for verbs like set up when the noun version (setup) is a single word.
(4) For common prefixes, such as re-, pre-, non-, anti-, multi-, bi-, and so forth, don’t use the hyphen.
(5) Exceptions: e-commerce, e-file, e-pay, multi-user, sub-category.
(6) For more guidance on hyphenated words, refer to the AP Stylebook.
(7) Words that don't need hyphens: antibody, antitrust, antivirus, biannual, copay, coworker, multicolor, multicultural, multilevel, nonprofit, nontaxable, nonresident, online, preassigned, predefined, preexisting, preselected, unpaid.
Dashes:
En-dashes (-):
(1) An en dash (the shorter dash) expresses a range of values (times, years, fiat amounts). .
🗣 Example:
(1) $500–$800
(2) 7–9 PM
(3) 2004–2016
Em-dashes (—):
(1) An em dash creates a pause in a sentence. It’s stronger than a comma, but weaker than a period or semicolon.
🗣 Example:
(1) Sit back and learn — see our video.
(2) To estimate quarterly tax payments, you need a projection—an educated guess—of your yearly profit.
(1) Always use 3 dots (…) in ellipses. Use it to indicate an omission in the quoted text, to convey action in the background (like loading), to represent overflow text, or to indicate hesitation, faltering speech, or thoughts.
(2) Make sure there’s no space between the last letter and the first period. Don’t use ellipses for dramatic effect or in place of commas or dashes.
🗣 Example:
(1) Checking for updates…
(2) Loading…
(3) Updating…
(1) Use it to express enthusiasm, but make sure they sound like a natural reaction to the situation. Exclamation points communicate positive emotion and work best with single words and short phrases.
(2) However, use them sparingly. They’re not required with all interjections.
(3) Don’t follow an exclamation point with a question mark or other punctuation.
(4) Don’t use a double (!!) or triple (!!!) exclamation. If you’re that excited, use visual supplements like color, illustrations, and motion to amplify the excitement.
(5) Don’t use two or three exclamatory words in a row.
🗣 Example:
(1) Nice! Your Ledger is all set up.
(1) Use parentheses to enclose information that clarifies or is used as an aside, to give examples, or to introduce an abbreviation.
(2) The Parenthetical text can be a word, a fragment, or multiple sentences. Your sentence should make sense when you read it out loud without the parenthetical text.
(3) If a sentence ends with a parenthetical that’s only part of a larger sentence, the period goes outside the closing parenthesis. If the parenthetical itself is a whole sentence, the period goes inside the parenthesis.
🗣 Example:
(1) The only hardware that combines a Secure Element Chip (CC EAL5+).
(2) Ledger introduces the world's first curved E Ink touch screen (our largest display yet).
Use the percent symbol (%) with numbers. Use the word ’percent’ in other instances.
(1) Use periods to end a sentence, unless it ends with a question mark or exclamation point.
(2) Use a period at the end of an abbreviation.
(3) If a sentence ends with an abbreviation, you don’t need an additional period.
(4) Don’t use periods in headings, unless it’s the first sentence in a two-part heading.
(5) Headings should be crisp and digestible. Adding periods to headings may slow readers as they move down the page.
(1) Use a question mark at the end of a direct question.
(2) Don’t use more than one together (???) or pair it with an exclamation point (?!).
(1) We use double quotation marks and not single quotation marks since we use American English.
(2) Use quotation marks for spoken words or short quoted phrases. Use it to indicate to reference or cite.
(3) Put commas and periods inside closing quotation marks.
Other punctuation marks (colons, semicolons, question marks, exclamation points) go outside closing quotation marks unless they’re part of the quote.
(5) Avoid using quotation marks for emphasis. Instead, bold words or phrases you want to emphasize.
(6) Ex. To customize your lock screen, scan the QR code to open “My Ledger”.
(1) Don’t use semicolons. They’re a bit too formal for digital content.
(2) Instead, separate independent clauses with a period or with conjunctions like and, or, but, and so.
(1) Try to mitigate using the slash symbol as much as possible and use ’per’, ’and’, ‘or’ instead., unless there’s a character restriction. .
🗣 Example:
(1) $40 per month
(2) 2020/2021 fiscal year
(3) </aside>
