2014 samples
Opera style guide
I pride myself on maintaining consistent style, terminology and voice throughout all communications in the companies I help to grow.
When I began at Opera, there were inklings of how the company hoped to wrangle its external and internal messaging. The company exploded in size quickly and the most obvious growing pain was a lack of consistency between new branches and new employees.
My first mission was to help collect all of these messaging ideas and put them into a single, easily accessible, easily navigable resource.
The Opera Style Guide contains guidelines on writing for almost every branch of the company: technical writing, copywriting, legal writing, blog writing, public relation writing, etc.
At the time, Opera was an international company and these guidelines were used throughout 13 offices worldwide. They helped direct and maintain the way Opera talked about their business and their products throughout the world.
Who knows? They might still be in use.
Opera Coast
My close friend and colleague Rik van den Munckhof was the primary user-interface designer for Opera Coast. I worked closely with him and the marketing managers, designers, and engineers of this modern, minimal wonder app to make sure all of their points of view were incorporated into the interface and advertising copy. We were in the unique position to be challenging and casual, shrugging off the typical corporate style. After translation, we had huge successes in downloads for Russia and France. Twitter was abuzz in France, especially, and Opera Coast's App Store text was a Twitter topic for some.
Here are some samples from that body of work.
From Opera Coast's homepage:
Go ahead and relax; we won't tell.
We don't care what you do with your time. We just want to make sure that if you decide to waste a little, you do it well. And, there's no better browser to help you pass some free time.
Opera Coast has your back. It's a damned cool browser that will knock your socks off and leave you wondering why you've never seen anything like it before. So, throw away your expectations and stumble all the way out to the edge of the net.
From the App Store description for Opera Coast:
"Download the revolutionary web browser built for your iPhone and iPad. Discover a new, free way to waste away some idle moments. Get fresh, fast content from the web with this easy-to-use browser from Opera."
OK, now that we've got the marketing fluff out of the way, we can be straight with you.
Our app won't change your life forever. It won't buy you a new car or make sure your best friend doesn't fall for your girl. But, that's not all that life is about. It's about the details, the fleeting moments that can make or break your day, and there's no better browser to help you pass the time at the bus stop or escape for a little longer to the restroom. Opera Coast looks great, it feels great and it delivers the content you want.
Listen, we don't care what you do with your time. Spend it any way you want. Hell, go ahead and waste it. We advocate taking breaks and will defend precious downtime at all costs. We just want to make sure that when you waste time you waste it well.
Opera Coast has your back. It's extremely easy to use, fast, secure, stable and all those other big buzzwords we like. And, it's an entirely new experience for browsing the web.
Twitter praise for Opera Coast's App Store copy:
Ethan Lee. @thatethanlee
I don't know if this has been said before, but @opera_coast has the best app description ever, hands down.
6:36 PM - 24 Apr 2014
Opera Mini for iOS
This browser remains Opera's flagship money-making machine. I was privileged to work on crafting advertisement and product copy for its first appearance on iOS. Sorting through 10 years of mangled, Norwegian-first, engineer-written copy, I worked to put our customers' benefits in the lime light, create strong and competitive search-engine keywords, and maintain the spirit of Opera's workhorse.
From the App Store description of Opera Mini:
Download Opera Mini and get going with one of the world's most popular browsers on iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch. Save up to 90% of your data and speed up slow connections for free.
This isn't just another browser. Opera Mini compresses the pages you browse so you can roam without worry. We keep you connected with choice online content at break-neck speeds.
You bought an Apple device for fancy graphics and high-power video. But, your data plan didn't suddenly get bigger and your network didn't magically get faster just because you shelled out cash for a nice piece of tech.
Opera Mini crunches down the size of the websites you visit. It compresses images and text, making websites lighter. So, stop caring about roaming fees. Quit being frustrated at slow-loading pages. We want to be sure you connect to the web instantly and access sites super-fast without paying any extra coin.
With the support of more than 300 million users, Opera Mini has been thoroughly tested to give you a great browsing experience. More and more people depend on Opera Mini to free them from lagging and stalling so they can fly through their web favorites on congested and sluggish networks.
Opera Max for Android
Writing up to the deadline happens often in the tech industry. Opera Max was still in the development phase and unsure to be released when I crafted its advertisement copy. As a brand new product for the company, I had the chance to work especially hard on the tagline used to promote it. "Feel unlimited" came out of 60 pages of free writing. I hoped that it encapsulates the emotion a person gets when they stick it to the phone company and stay online longer without penalties or fees.
From Opera Max's product page:
Feel unlimited.
Opera Max is a data-savings app for your phone that extends the life of your data plan. Get 50% more out of your data plan for free.
It's all about video.
Vine, Instagram, YouTube…you name it – it's all about video these days. Video costs a lot of data, and ultimately data is money. We make videos lighter. We can make a 10 MB video become 3 MB. For you, that means you can watch more video and get faster loading times.
Auto-detect expensive data.
We save you the most when data costs more, and we stay out of the way when it's free. You can set Opera Max to detect when you are roaming or out of your network and prevent apps from using expensive data. You can easily block any app from using mobile data and restrict it to use Wi-Fi only.
Tame your phone.
Your phone's sneaky little apps may use data without you knowing. Opera Max lets you track how apps consume your data. Opera Max summarizes your phone's activity to tell you which apps hog your data and how much you've saved.
Protect your privacy.
Opera Max doesn't touch any data that goes through secure connections and we never log any details about your data. If you want more information, you can read about how Opera Max works in our FAQ. Have peace of mind knowing that your email, bank or other secure apps are still secure.
Sound too good to be true?
See for yourself.
Opera Max squeezes photos and videos, taking out the parts you won't miss. You may notice a slight difference in quality, but the savings means more Vine or more Instagram.
Opera Max is a free way to save a ton of data on your phone.