The Style Guide is one of the most important elements in the UX world. It provides understandable, universal guidelines that help prevent failures due to lack of consistency. Guide Style can be, among other things, a way to improve the authenticity of content. In addition, it helps to improve the user experience and give it a whole new dimension. So what exactly is a style guide and what does it mean for your site?
Style Guide — why do you need it?
Style Guide allows you to create a consistent design system. It facilitates communication in the team and allows you to increase productivity. Styleguide til set of standards, defining the brand. Correct style guide sTanna has a strong voice and brand personality, which makes it possible for recipients to establish close contact with it.
What should I include in the Style Guide?
What should be included in each section of the Style Guide?
Content section
The brand image is mainly the style of communication that it directs to the audience. Although the use of individual characters or numeric spelling do not seem to matter, they are one of the factors that makes the company recognizable by the audience. Every detail is therefore important, especially the consistency of the message, because without it it will be difficult to maintain credibility.
How to create the highest quality content?
- Base — let the existing style guide be the basis. At this stage, you can consider clarifying the differences and characteristics, e.g. the use of emoticons, etc.
- Formatting — is a section defining the formatting method, which will contain information on how to use bullet points, quotation marks or lists,
- Tone of speech — this is an extremely important element of the Style Guide — it describes the tone in which the brand will communicate. It is worth giving examples here, both incorrect and correct, in order to highlight the differences between them. It is also necessary to provide information on the structure of the sentence and to emphasize whether it should be simple or complex,
- Additional Information — in this case, specify the words to be avoided and other details relevant to the brand.
Visual section
The visual elements are just as important as the written part. In this section, it is worth focusing on:
Logotipo
The choice of logo colors is of course important, but remember to check how the whole thing will look in different environments. This will avoid errors, in the form of uncontrolled stretching and other unnecessary modifications.
It is worth considering all versions of the logo that have been approved and describe where to apply them - you can show visual examples for this purpose, which will avoid understatement.
- sizing — including the proportions of the logo,
- space — if the logo looks best, for example, with a white border around — it's good to write about it,
- colours — at this point it is worth including several color variants and inform when to use them,
- Invalid version This can make it easier for designers. It is a good practice to put a vision that does not fit the nature of the enterprise.
Brand color palette
The definition of the color palette of the brand will help create a consistent style and appearance. There should be a maximum of 4 main colors here. One option is to choose a light background on which dark text will appear and combine them with neutral and vibrant colors. Color samples, of course, should be in the Style Guide. It is important to remember about:
- General colors — name and PANTONE number,
- printing color — CMYK,
- digital colors — RGB and HEX codes.
Typography and fonts
Another important aspect of creating a Style Guide is the choice of font. You can choose one typeface or use several. However, it is not worth deciding on the same font that was used in the logo. It is good to bet on the contrast that will allow the whole to stand out.
The typography scheme should be used appropriately, according to the instructions for use:
- introduction — choice of font and what each of them is used for (headings, content, signatures, etc.).
- putting — Select whether the content should be aligned to the left, right or center.
- Spacing — taking into account the density of the composition and kerning, which will help to maintain consistency when changing the font. Keep a consistent style in mind when changing the font size.
Images
This section will inform everyone in which direction to go when choosing the right photo, without unnecessary questions about the acceptance of subsequent images. It is necessary to:
- show your vision, that is, examples of images that best reflect the brand,
- point out inspirations — if you can't find suitable examples — get inspired by the bigger brands and see what they have to offer
- whiteboard It is a good practice to collect photos, to collect everything that could potentially reflect the activity.
Style Guide — focus on precision and consistency
It must be remembered that a company and a brand are not only the services that the entrepreneur proposes or the products that he sells. There is power in the brand, which makes it possible to convince potential customers to use the services of this particular company. The competition in the market is huge, so you need to think carefully about actions aimed at consumers. A style guide is information for the team that will help employees maintain the highest level of consistency.
Creating a Style Guide involves paying attention to the opinion of the creative team that works on the products. The key to success is to make the guide available to everyone involved in the development of the brand.
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