UX Booth Style Guide

Below is UX Booth’s style guide. It covers the important bits and it’s far from comprehensive; refer to the Chicago Manual of Style for further details (as that’s where we get most of our style ideas). Our guide is magical: using it will make you a better writer.

Also included here in our guide are short sections on grammar/punctuation and general advice. It’s worth mentioning that well-written articles will stand a much better chance for publication than one riddled with grammatical errors or rife with clichés.

Back to topHouse Style

Titles: Use initial capitalization. For instance: “How to Design for the User.” Note that “to,” “for,” and “the” are lowercase.
Subtitles/Section Headers: Style subtitles and headers as if they were normal sentences (sentence case). For instance: “Considering your audience.”
Citations: Surround book and article references with a <span> element, with the class reference-title. For example: <span class="reference-title">Don't Make me Think!</span>
Images: See posting template for image sizes.
Author bio: Include a 2-3-sentence bio with a link or two (your website or Twitter, for instance). Photo size requirements can be found in the posting template.
Posting Template: Did we mention that the posting template takes care of most of the style for you?

Back to topPunctuation/Grammar—Important notes

Dashes: Em-dashes (denoted in your markup as —) place a pregnant emphasis on whatever follows them. Use them sparingly. En-dashes should primarily be used within a date-range.
Hyphens: They should not be used after an –ly word. For instance, while “high-class” SHOULD be hyphenated, “highly regarded” should NOT be.
Semi-colons: These are used to connect two closely related independent clauses. In other words, semi-colons join complete sentences together. Semi-colons can also be used to separate complex items in a list.
List punctuation: If a list has complete sentences, make sure to use sentence case and proper punctuation. If the list contains fragments (or single words), don’t worry about punctuation or capitalization. Just stay consistent.
Quotation marks: All punctuation goes INSIDE the quotation mark, whether the marks are being used to quote or to emphasize. Remember: period in the quotes.
Exclamation points: Avoid these for the most part. Exclamation points can be invasive and distracting when overused in articles. Sentences can pop without an exclamation point.
Their, there, and they’re: Their = denoting possession (their car); there = denoting a place or existence (there is another way); and they’re = they + are (they’re not here).
To, too, and two: To = in a direction (going to bed); too = also (I’m tired too); and two = 2 (It’s two in the morning).

Back to topTips for better articles

Be an authority: Avoid using phrases like “I think,” and “In my opinion” too much. They are clunky and suggest a weak stance in the argument.
Cliches suck: Some cliches are inevitable and unavoidable. Be aware of cliches in your writing, and edit them down as much as possible. Obnoxious cliches include: anything “101,” “outside the box” statements, calling anything a “labor of love,” “calm before the storm,” “this day and age,” etc. Don’t overuse any of these.
Tell them why: If you’re presenting tips to your readers, make it clear to them why what you’re writing about is important to them. If possible, enumerate the ways to incorporate your advice into practice.
Keep it simple: Don’t go thesaurus-crazy. Using unnecessary, big words not only alienates a lot of readers, but also puts you at risk for using them incorrectly. Write simply and write effectively.
Avoid heavy jargon: Articles at UX Booth are rated G—intended for a general audience, that is. If you need to use an obscure jargon term, define it for the readers.
Flow: This elusive idea can be explained rather simply: vary your sentence structure and keep readers interested through cadence. In other words, avoid writing subject-verb, subject-verb, subject-verb articles: My cat ate my radio. It now plays classical music after 11. I can’t sleep anymore. See? That’s boring to read (even though the cat is cool).
Audience: As a contributor to UX Booth, you are writing for everyone. Keep that in mind while writing and editing.
Active voice: Avoid passive voice. For example, instead of saying: “The couch was being torn apart by an overactive mastiff,” say: “The mastiff tore the coach apart.” The latter sentence has more impact, as will all active-voice sentences.
Metaphors, similes, and imagery: These literary devices can add a wonderful dimension to any article…as long as they’re used appropriately and sparingly. We encourage creatively written articles, but don’t go too crazy. Meaning should be magnified—not obscured—by these devices.
Point-of-view: Feel free to write in first-person. Just make sure your post isn’t overly opinionated. We would rather not be your soap-box.

Back to topArticles we want

Site usability reviews: Thorough and comprehensive website reviews are always welcome here.
Tutorials: People love tutorials; if you know how to do something and you’d like to share, we’d love to hear it.
Interviews: Do you know or have you recently talked to a prominent someone in the design community? If so, interview them and write it up.
Theory: The UX world is still fresh and ill defined. We welcome posts that rouse ideas permeating the community and invite discussion from readers. Just keep your language general.

Back to topArticles we don’t want

Rants and raves: This isn’t a Livejournal. We don’t want to know how angry or in love you are with issues or ideas. If something is upsetting to you, look at it objectively and approach it from that kind of perspective.
Single-product reviews: Reviews of individual products can come off as advertisements. We don’t want that. If you’d like to review something, compare it to similar products.
Textbook-style posts: As mentioned above, our audience is broad. We don’t want to see jargon-heavy submissions. They alienate a large number of readers.

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