Voice and writing style

Our Voice represents the personality we want to convey through the UI copy in our products. The following principles define the foundation of our voice.

Conversational

Real people, talking to real people.

✔️ Be...	How?
User-focused	Address users directly. Don't abuse possessive markers like "yours".[1]
Plainspoken	Be conversational, yet professional. Write close to how you'd talk. Use contractions and active voice.
Inclusive	Write for all audiences. Our users are from everywhere. Don't use terms that might discriminate or offend and avoid complex language for non-native English speakers such as phrasal verbs.
Empathetic	Write what matters to users. Use words that you normally use.

[1] Sometimes, we give the user full ownership of an action. In that case, it's acceptable to use "I" and "my". For example, for a legal agreement checkbox "I agree to follow the terms of service". We can also use "We" when talking about actions Elastic takes for users.

Practical

Get the user's job done.

✔️ Be...	How?
Timely	Help users when it's needed. Not everything is critical to describe in more details or at once. Make information discovery progress at the same pace as the user.
Informative	Ensure all content serves a purpose and is not just decoration. Be straight to the point. It's not mandatory to have help text and descriptions for everything.
Precise	Avoid using verbs or determiners alone without a noun in buttons and action menus to add clarity. For example, prefer "Save dashboard" over "Save". Or "this setting" over "this".
Succinct	Shorten the content to something meaningful and scannable, without sacrificing clarity. Delete unnecessary or vague wording like most adverbs.

Authentic

Inspire trust.

✔️ Be...	How?
Optimistic	Help users progress and succeed with what they are doing right now. Do not blame them in case of errors and instead let them know what to do and encourage actions.
Confident	Encourage best practices but let users choose their path. Provide them with just enough information to help them make informed decisions.
Transparent	Help users connect the dots without jargon or vague statements. Provide values or realistic ranges to set the right expectations. For example "This operation can take up to 5 minutes" instead of "Wait a few minutes while we get you set up".