Preferences and settings

Write labels in the affirmative

Preferences and settings should always be written in the affirmative—even if the preference is meant to disable a feature. When a user checks a feature preference, they should be getting that feature.

Don’t	Do
Disable sticky header	Enable sticky header
Disable left navigation	Enable left navigation
Disable light mode	Enable dark mode
Disallow advertising	Allow advertising
Hide your real name	Show your real name

Use descriptions to explain

Descriptions are optional and can supplement a label in a few ways:

Further define a label
Explain how the input will be used
Show an example a valid input

Avoid using tooltips.

Don’t	Do
Site name	Site name Describes the site in the product, emails, integrations, and logs.
App descriptor	App descriptor This is automatically generated. You only need to manually set this if you’re reinstalling the app.
Industries	Industries Add up to 4.

Don’t rely on placeholder text

Placeholder text can be used to show an example of a valid input.

Placeholder text disappears once a character is typed in the input, so the user should be able to complete their task without placeholder text always visible.

Don’t	Do
Single sign-on Service Url	Single sign-on Service Url Must be https
Role	Role Add up to 2 roles