Voice
How 53° sounds, in the product and everywhere else. We're inspirational, helpful and optimistic. The personality stays the same. The tone changes with the channel.
Purpose
Why we write the way we do.
We give founders the space to think and the tools to move their business forward, so they can achieve their big ambitions.
Everything we write works towards that. A founder should finish reading with a clearer idea of where they're going, and more confidence that they'll get there.
Personality
The voice has three qualities, and three rules keep them grounded. Each trait sits close to a failure, and the table shows where the line is.
Our voice
How a founder should feel after reading anything from us.
Keeping it grounded
Inspiration only earns trust when it's clear and specific. These three rules keep it that way.
We are, we aren't
Every good trait has a failure next to it. Aim for the left column without sliding into the right.
| We are | We aren't |
|---|---|
| Inspirational | Hype, grandiose or vague |
| Helpful | Preachy, or doing their thinking for them |
| Optimistic | Naive, or glossing over real problems |
| Knowledgeable | Jargon-heavy or superior |
| Direct | Blunt or curt |
| Warm | Gushing or matey |
Tone by channel
The same voice, turned up or down for where the reader is and what they need.
| Channel | Tone | Sounds like |
|---|---|---|
| Product | Quiet and precise mid-task. Encouraging when something starts or finishes. | No projects yet. Start one and your tasks, files and notes have somewhere to live. |
| Website and marketing | Inspirational and concrete. Lead with the ambition, then show how we help. | Space to think about what's next, and the tools to get there. |
| Social media | Optimistic and conversational. One idea per post. Share progress, never a sales pitch. | Less chasing, more building. Proposals are now faster to send. |
| Support | Helpful above all. Acknowledge, fix, explain, then get them moving again. | Sorry about that. It's fixed now. The sync had stalled on one calendar. |
| Proposals and sales | Clear and confident about where the work will take them. Facts over adjectives. | Here's the scope, the timeline and the price. Reply with any questions. |
Words
The terms we use, and the rules a spellchecker can hold us to.
Vocabulary
Use the product's own names for things, everywhere, so marketing and the app never describe the same thing two ways.
| Say | Not |
|---|---|
| Contact (a person or a company) | Customer, client, account, lead (unless it's a lifecycle or pipeline stage) |
| Person, people | Individual, contact person |
| Organisation | Workspace, tenant, company account |
| Project, deal, proposal, task | Job, ticket, opportunity, item |
| 53° | 53 Degrees (except in our registered name, 53 Degrees App LTD), 53D, Fifty-Three Degrees |
| Sign in, sign up | Log in, login (as a verb), register |
| Brain Space (the area), brain dump (getting ideas into it) | Ideas hub, idea board, backlog |
| Simple, quick, clear | Seamless, revolutionary, leverage, synergy |
Mechanics
- British English: organisation, colour, cancelled. cspell enforces it in the codebase.
- Sentence case for titles, headlines, buttons and menu items.
- Name the thing in errors: "Couldn't update the colour."
- Use the ellipsis character (…) for "in progress" and for menu items that open more.
- Write numbers as digits, with the currency symbol: £1,200.
- Title Case Buttons or ALL-CAPS words (eyebrows are the only uppercase).
- Exclamation marks, "Oops" or jokes in errors. Optimism is steady, not shouty.
- "Please", "simply" or "just". They pad the sentence, or imply the task was easy.
- Technical detail (codes, stack traces) in anything a customer reads.
- Ending labels, buttons or titles with a full stop.
Patterns
The same moment, written the same way everywhere.
| Moment | Write | Not |
|---|---|---|
| Save failed | Couldn't rename the tag. | Error: tag update failed! |
| Save succeeded | Invitation resent to sam@example.com. | Success!! |
| Empty state | No automations yet. Set one up and let the routine work run itself. | Nothing to see here |
| Loading | Loading… | Please wait while we load your data... |
| Plan limit reached | Your plan allows 5 open deals at a time. Close one, or upgrade your plan to add more. | Limit exceeded. Upgrade now! |
| No plan | Your plan has ended, and everything is still here. Choose a plan to get back to it. | Your account has been suspended |
| Destructive confirm | Delete this contact? | Are you sure? |
| Button | Add contact | Click here to add a new contact |
| Social post | Proposals now track when they're opened. | BIG NEWS 🚀🚀 |
Before you publish
Four checks for anything with our name on it: a screen, a post, a proposal or an email.