Style Guide

Develop content that is clear, direct, and errs on the side of explaining what to do in each section rather than assuming the end user already knows. While the users understand the process and the underlying subject matter, they may not understand how to submit, award, monitor, review, and track grants using this interface.

Always remember that this app is elaborate and information-dense. If you find yourself with an unwieldy sentence, consider whether it might be better divided into two sentences. Keep paragraphs tightly focused on a single idea or theme.

• Acronyms and abbreviations: Spell out abbreviations on the first mention. Prepare a list of Acronyms If an abbreviation is used only once or twice on a page, or if what is abbreviated is very short, avoid using it.
• Capitalization: Use sentence case for titles, headings, page titles, and so on. Sentence case is easier to scan than title case, which promotes a piece of content’s readability. Capitalize proper nouns, but do not capitalize personal titles unless they precede a name.
• Conscious Guide: Avoid using gendered pronouns (use they instead). Use the public, users, people, or folks instead of citizens (wherever possible); not all folks who use government services or engage with federal agencies are U.S. citizens, and it’s important to acknowledge this fact. Avoid age-related descriptions of folks unless they’re absolutely necessary to the content. And, in cases where age descriptors are necessary, using older person instead of elderly or senior.
• Notifications: Include summary of what's happened as well as instructions or messages about what to do next All messages have an action associated with it.
• Numbers: Use numerals instead of spelling out numbers. Avoid putting a number at the beginning of a sentence or headline. The numbers in this app are large; avoid extra digits. Where possible, round dollar amounts to the nearest whole dollar. For summary information, k and M are useful abbreviations that protect visual simplicity. Use the % sign instead of spelling out percent.