Let’s Clarify “Style Guide”

I just want to rant for a minute about the term “style guide.” It gets thrown around to loosely mean a set of standards to establish a consistent look, tone, phrasing, etc. The style guide is the bible of designers, developers and content writers. Or at least, it should be.

Each organization defines style guide differently, with some focusing on where to use certain colors, while others dictate the structures of CSS stylesheets. Famous style guides, like the AP Stylebook, limit their focus to primarily grammar and word usage. We can’t even seem to decide if “style guide” is one or two words (Google it and you’ll see the disagreement between the top entries and the majority of entries).

Guides are either defined by what they tell you or who they’re for, and I think it’s time we start getting more specific with our titles. “Style guide” is just too broad a term to consistently define what you’ll find inside. While researching style guides recently, I found a range of things from how to use a logo to how to phrase answers to customers. There is no constant between style guides, and the audience for each type of content is going to be different.

We need to be splitting these resources up not by content, which IS all related to style, but by user type. Take for example MailChimp, whose public style guide is actually split into different guides that can be accessed from the more general style guide. MailChimp utilizes their style guide to introduce broad concepts and direct users to the information that applies to them. Writers will visit the Tone & Voice site. Designers will find the brand assets. Developers will utilize the UX resources. Not only does this cut out the information users may not need, it gives a quick glance into what content you have.

I’ve been searching for content style guides to compare and contrast, but too often find myself knee deep in branding guidelines. Why are we using the same term to mean any combination of different things?

I don’t think we need to abolish “style guides,” but we need to do a better job clarifying what that actually means. Instead of pretending people care about every facet of our style, let’s step out of the way and help our users find what they’re looking for. I just hope we don’t start creating style guides for our style guides (although, it might not hurt).