WRITING STYLE GUIDE
Design Systems | Thumbtack | 2025
The problem...
Thumbtack had four known style guides—all of which contradicted each other (and none of which spoke to accessibility and inclusivity).
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I partnered with the head of design systems to create a single and comprehensive writing style guide.
The solution...
I turned to the content guides (and gods) from Content Design London, Gusto, Mailchimp, Microsoft, Shopify, W3C, and 18F for inspiration. From there, I used AI to cross-reference and compare their guides with Thumbtack's existing documentation. I worked across teams and with stakeholders to settle discrepancies and fill in gaps. Once completed, we incorporated the new style guide into our Thumbprint Design System, and I built a custom GPT that employees can use to ask questions, create new copy, and edit their own.
The results....
The guide now serves as a single source of truth across the company. It includes robust guidelines for grammar, accessibility, preferred terms, and more.
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Since launching the guide, I've hosted workshops to help product designers use it to craft their own UX copy. I'm also using Claude Code to build a Figma plugin. This way, designers will be able to incorporate the content guidance directly in their workflows.
I've included a few screenshots of the style guide. To review the full guide, send me an email.
Table of contents
Accessibility and inclusion
Grammar and mechanics
