Writing guide

Language is very powerful, it can easily shape how a population of people behave and think. At Lightspeed, we strive to not only create a shared language throughout the community of our users but throughout the retailing community as a whole. 

Abbreviations and Acronyms

For uncommon abbreviations and acronyms,  spell it out for the user. For example: PC and PIN are fairly standard so they don’t need to be spelt out. Whereas something like End of Day (EOD) or Unique Selling Point/Proposition (USP) is less common.

Active voice & Tone

Lightspeed’s product documentation voice is clean and casual.  Our tone is generally informal and friendly.

We always use the active voice and avoid the passive voice. In active voice, the subject of the sentence does the action. Compared to passive voice, where the subject of the sentence has the action done to it.

ACTIVE - Enter your Facebook shop ID.

PASSIVE - The Facebook shop ID can be entered here.

Write in plain, consistent language, avoiding any slang or overly-technical jargon.  

PLAIN LANGUAGE - Mobile responsive design.

OVERLY-TECHNCIAL - Mobile first UI/UX.

We also strive to use positive language.

POSITIVE - Provide your API key before proceeding.

NEGATIVE - Don't configure your settings until your API key is entered.

Capitalization and Casing

We use two main forms of capitalization: title case and sentence case. We don’t capitalize proper nouns, like names and places.

Title case (or “capital case”) is when the first letter of every word is capitalized. We really only use this in interface copy for action items (buttons) and section titles. Do not use this for theme settings.

EXAMPLE - Device Settings

With sentence case, we only capitalize the first letter of the first word (except brand names). This is what we use for all Help Center headings. Use sentence case for theme settings.

EXAMPLE - Featured products title

Exclamation points

We’re careful not to overuse exclamation points, it can get annoying for the reader! We typically don’t use them in the Help Center articles and only sparingly in the interface copy.

EXAMPLE - Check out what’s new!

Lightspeed

Our company’s name is Lightspeed, short and sweet. Sometimes you’ll see Lightspeed POS, but that’s more for the marketing side of things.  Remember to always capitalize the L, and only the L.

Here’s how we write our company products and their components.

Numbers

Numbers from one through ten should be spelled out. Numbers 11 and over should be written in numeric form. When a sentence starts with a number, spell it out.

EXAMPLE - Four buttons are located in the navigation bar.

Numbers over three digits should use a comma and be written out in full.

EXAMPLE - 1,000

Other Companies

Refer to other companies (and their products) how they refer to themselves. When in doubt, look them up.

EXAMPLE - YouTube

Word list

Just for the record, this is how we write these words. Partners must use the same words.

Words to avoid

• bug - use problem, condition, issue or situation instead.
• crash - use quits unexpectedly, doesn’t respond, or stops responding instead.
• exit - use quit instead when referring to quitting an open app.
• iDevice - use iOS device or simply device instead.
• Important - use Note instead.
• log on/log off - use log in and log out instead.
• long-press - use touch and hold instead.
• monitor - use display instead.
• User guide, user manual - use Help Center instead.
• uncheck - use deselect instead.
• Workstation - use desktop computer instead.