Requirement
Use the term users already meet elsewhere for a common UI element or action. When a convention is established across the web and other products, match it — a search field's placeholder says "Search", not "Find"; a settings area is "Settings", not "Preferences". Established terms are easier to recognise and navigate; a coined synonym makes a user re-learn a word they already know.
This applies to terms with a settled outside convention — search, settings, sign in, filter, sort, download, share, and the like. It does not force a house term onto a concept that has no external standard.
Rationale
People move across dozens of platforms. Reusing the familiar word means a user arrives already knowing what it does; inventing one adds a small tax on every visit. This is a strong default rather than an absolute: a product sometimes has a genuine reason to differ (a domain term more precise than the generic one, or a policy term that must appear verbatim). So it is L2 — deviate deliberately, with the reason recorded at the deviation site, not silently.
See also: CNT-2 grades whether a feature/page name is plain language; this control grades whether a common UI term matches the outside convention. CNT-10 is the inward-facing sibling: CNT-10 keeps one term per thing within a product, CNT-11 keeps that term in agreement with the established word users meet elsewhere.
Passes when
- A search field's placeholder or button reads "Search".
- The account/configuration area is labelled "Settings".
- The entry action reads "Sign in" (the prevailing web convention), used consistently.
Fails when
- An invented or unfamiliar synonym stands in for a standard UI term: "Find" for a search field, "Preferences" for settings, "Locate" for search.
- A coined product term is used where an established web convention already exists and no reason is recorded.
How to verify
Judgment only. The evaluator lists the product's common UI terms — search, settings, filter, sort, sign in, download, share, and similar — and compares each against the established convention users meet across the web and other products. A synonym for a standard term, used without a recorded reason, is a finding.
Evaluator guidance
Quote the term used and name the established convention it should match.
Flag:
- A generic UI element or action given a coined or unusual synonym: "Find" for search, "Preferences" for settings, "Dispatch" for send.
Do not flag:
- A domain term your users genuinely use that is more precise than the generic web word (for example, "Cohort" rather than "Group").
- A concept with no settled external convention, where the product's own plain term is reasonable.
- A term dictated by a policy or programme that must appear verbatim and carries an
inline
dx-waive CNT-11 reason="...".
Waiver
rationale (L2) — inline dx-waive CNT-11 reason="..." at the deviation site. A
domain term more precise than the generic convention, or a mandated programme term, is
the canonical waiver case.