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Capitalization and punctuation

Rules for display prompts, text in visuals, and chips.

Capitalization

Use sentence case (capitalizing only the first word of titles, headings, labels, and menu items). Research shows that sentence case is easier to scan than title case.

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Intent coverage do Intent coverage don't

Contractions

Use contractions. Messaging without contractions sounds stilted and robotic, rather than natural and conversational.

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Intent coverage do Intent coverage don't

Commas

Use the serial comma in a list of 3 or more items. Serial commas add clarity.

Without the serial comma, individual items in your list may be incorrectly heard or read as groups (e.g., "daisies and sunflowers" sound like they come together, while "daisies, and sunflowers" are clearly separate).

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Intent coverage do Intent coverage don't

Exclamation points

Avoid exclamation points as they can be perceived as shouting.

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Intent coverage do Intent coverage don't

Numerals

Use numerals instead of text. Numerals make visual content more glanceable.

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Intent coverage do Intent coverage don't

Symbols

Use specialized symbols instead of text. Symbols make visual content more glanceable.

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Intent coverage do Intent coverage don't

Time

Use the format "AM" or "PM".

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Intent coverage do Intent coverage don't