Evaluate against standards

Establish clear criteria to measure content against your existing style and quality standards. Check each content piece against grammar, punctuation, capitalization, and formatting, as well as your voice and tone guidelines. Evaluate whether it supports the user experience: Does this error message help users recover from mistakes without being confusing or patronizing? Do button labels clearly communicate actions while reflecting your brand personality? Create a checklist mapping voice attributes (clear, confident, human) to measurable content qualities, and score each item not just on style, but also on clarity, usefulness, and consistency for the user.

Set technical criteria based on platform constraints and research. Define character limits for each component type like button labels, error messages, tooltips. These limits ensure content displays properly across devices and maintains scanability. Document where limits come from, iOS truncation, research on cognitive load, or accessibility requirements, so teams understand the rationale behind your decisions.

Align evaluation with broader content strategy goals. If your strategy prioritizes self-service support reduction, evaluate whether help content truly prevents errors. If internationalization matters, check for cultural idioms or text expansion issues.