Writing

Tonality

Our writing should reflect Funnel’s three personality traits:

Reliable

Be clear in writing:

• Straightforward and simple

• Direct and transparent

• Matter of fact

  ✅ Funnel brings you the data you need, when you need it.

  ❌ Funnel optimises the integration pipeline for tangible business benefit and increased ROI.

Friendly

• Our tone is friendly, personal and fun with the right balance of professionalism.

  ✅ At Funnel, we help you to get the very most from your data

  ❌ Funnel’s solutions are designed to create optimal usage of data

• We speak directly to the customer.

  ✅ You can import data from…

  ❌ One is able to import data from…

• We are relatable, displaying empathy and emotion.

  ✅ Hi

  ❌ To whom it may concern

Ambitious

We use empowering language:

• Stimulating, Forward-looking, Smart

• Look at old problems from a fresh perspective

• Driven to create innovative tools that are genuinely useful for customers

  ✅ Data without context is at best meaningless - at worst, misleading. -ready data lets you decide with total confidence.

  ❌ Funnel has developed solutions that enable business to access data from multiple sources for better analysis.

Grammar and mechanics

Adhering to certain rules of grammar and mechanics helps us keep our writing clear and consistent.

Write in American, not British English

✅ organization, analyze, color

❌ organisation, analyse, colour

Be concise

Use one word when applicable over several.

• Are able to 👉 can
• Instead of this 👉 try
• In the event that 👉 if
• at this point in time 👉 now
• during this time 👉 during
• in order to 👉 to
• as well as 👉 and
• of the upmost 👉 very
• reason being 👉 because
• reach out to 👉 contact
• in all likelihood 👉 likely
• with that being said 👉 therefore

Avoid adverbs

• Avoid words like extremely, definitely, truly, very, and really. Use strong adjectives or verbs for a concise and powerful copy.

  ✅ The dog raced to its owner.

  ❌ The dog ran quickly to its owner

Use the active voice

• We write in the active voice and avoid the passive; the subject does the action, not the object.

  ✅ Funnel collects, preps, and sends your data wherever you want it.

  ❌ Data is collected, transformed, and exported by Funnel.

Avoid abbreviations

• Don’t use abbreviations like sgtm, lol, imo, til.

• Do not use acronyms for 3rd-party products unless they do.

  ✅ Google Analytics, Amazon S3

  ❌ GA, Amazon Simple Storage Service

• Avoid internal acronyms.

  ✅ Data Explorer

  ❌ DE

• When referring to acronyms such as ROAS or CPC, spell them out first, for instance “return on advertising spend (ROAS)” and refer to ROAS in the subsequent text.

• Avoid contractions. Prefer the original words instead of the informal contraction, especially negative ones like can’t or won’t. At the same time, remember the friendly tone of voice.

  ✅ I cannot see your face.

  ❌ I can’t see your face

Refer to the product as Funnel and not Funnel.io

✅ Welcome to Funnel

❌ Welcome to Funnel.io

system status

• Provide information on what’s happening and not how something is happening.

Pronouns

• Use second person pronouns (you, your, you’re) to address users.

• Use first person pronouns only when you expect the user to answer a question directly, like agreeing to terms, privacy, or consent. Example: Yes, I agree to the terms of service.

• The product is not a person. When referring to Funnel the product, try to avoid using the 1st person. If you have to, refer to Funnel as ‘Funnel’, not ‘we’ or ‘I’.

  ✅ Running your query

  ❌ Funnel is running your query

  ❌ We are running your query

Capitalization

• Use sentence case everywhere (tooltips, tabs, menu items).

  ✅ The impact of iOS 14 on mobile advertising

  ❌ The Impact of iOS 14 on Mobile Advertising

• Capitalize product features and services in the navigation pane, for example Data Explorer, Dashboards, Portals. If the feature has several words, capitalize each word.

Exceptions:

• Some of the feature names are not Funnel-specific terms and are industry-wide terms. Use sentence case for such terms. Examples: Data sources, connector, dimension, metric

• Dimension and metrics should be in sentence case here:

  • When you are referring to an instance of the feature, use sentence case. Example: In the navigation pane, use Dashboards. In a CTA, use Create dashboard.
  • Capitalize acronyms. Example: CPA, ROAS
  • Use the same capitalization for 3rd-party products as the 3rd party themselves. Example: Looker Studio

Use numerals

• Use numerals instead of letters when writing numbers.

  ✅ You have 3 filters.

  ❌ You have three filters.

Best practices for CTAs

• Use strong verbs in your CTAs to be clear with what the user can do. Example: Create convention or Add convention instead of New Convention.

  Exceptions: You can use nouns for categories. Example: Columns, Filters, and so on.

• Use consistent words and formats for CTAs across all screens.

Example: If you use the term Create, use it consistently.

✅ Create dashboard, Create workspace

❌ Create dashboard, Add new workspace

• Be mindful of using plurals in your CTAs.

  ✅ Create workspace

  ❌ Create more workspaces

• Use sentence case.

  ✅ Create dashboard

  ❌ Create Dashboard,

Tooltips and instructions

• Every UI element that a user clicks for further actions should have a hover tooltip or a name. For example, the kebab menu for edit/settings should have a tooltip called “Edit settings”.

• Tooltips should be short and clear — absolutely no fluff allowed. Also consider: could we name or label this feature better, so we don’t need a tooltip?

• Remember to be positive, or, don’t start with a negative. This puts the user in a better frame of mind.

• When designing flows, think about how many steps to include. Can we tell the user, so that they know what to expect?

Screen names

• Avoid using the same name for different screens.

Drop-down lists

• Wherever there’s no logical connection between UI elements, like in drop-down lists or options, arrange the UI elements alphabetically.