Messages

Product messages are a functional dialog between the software and the user and are intended to lead the user to solve a problem or use a feature.

A product message must be easy to understand, clear, short and incisive.

Therefore, in order for the communication to obtain the seal of quality from the eXA team, it is necessary to answer the following questions:

| Is it necessary?

| Is it short and simple?

| Is it direct and relevant?

| Is it instructive and clear?

| Isn’t it intrusive?

Message types

The first step when creating product messages is to look for similar messages in order to maintain coherence with the rest of the product’s content, since it is likely that one with a similar structure already exists.

If it is indeed necessary to create a new message, we go up a “text level” according to the purpose of the message:

Level	Purpose of the message	Scenario	Example
0	Notify – it may not even require text, with visual indicators being preferable.	Field not filled in. Process in progress.	[form border in red] [loading, skeleton screen, etc.]
1	Inform – give the user the absolutely necessary information.	Impossible to access the system.	Incorrect password.
2	Describe– briefly explain the program’s behavior, asking for user intervention. You may need a dedicated window.	An action was requested without a contract being selected.	At least one line must be selected.
3	Detail– provide advanced help in complex scenarios. It is displayed in a dedicated window and can redirect to help content.	For detailed information on the error, the user is redirected to that view.	An error occurred while trying to initialize the subscription. For more information, see the system messages.

Supported languages

Spelling and syntax vary according to the linguistic variant of each language. In order to maintain consistency, it is important to always consider that the supported variants are he following:

• PT-PT: European Portuguese after the orthographic agreement;
• ES-ES: European Spanish;
• EN_US: US English.

Here are some examples to help you understand what a simple, user-focused product message looks like.

Simple writing

Messages should use simple terminology and simple verbs that focus first on the action, then on the steps the user has to take.

The use of technical jargon or unnecessarily long words should be avoided. These increase the length and complexity of the message.

Focus on the user

The information contained in the messages should guide the human use of the product rather than explain the logic behind programming:

Human tone

It’s important to bear in mind that messages are a form of communication with the user, with the purpose of guiding them through the use of the product. For this reason, we should always maintain a human tone, using the active voice and positive constructions, directly addressing the user in a short, straightforward and natural way.