People Markets: messaging and editorial guide

Version 1.4 · 24 September 2026
Companion files: people-markets-design-system-v1.4.html and people-markets-ux-v1.4.md
Status: proposed customer copy and implementation guidance. This revision replaces the earlier first-visit messaging; it does not change the financial design or establish production availability.

Version 1.3: language beside icons

The introduction to People Markets remains unchanged in this revision. New controls should not turn a new financial concept back into an unexplained symbol.

Use specific action labels: Copy order reference, Close order review, Explain mark price and Show external reference. A decorative SVG has no separate spoken label. An icon-only button receives the action name on the button itself.

A Check means a selected option; it does not mean identity verification or that a trade is complete. Awaiting confirmation, Partially filled and Status not confirmed stay distinct. A status icon may accompany the words but must not replace them. Keep financial direction, value units and periods in text.

The watch control retains its star in both states. Use Watch and Watching consistently in the interface; do not substitute a verification-style badge. Do not attach rocket, fire or sparkle icons to trading actions or claims of likely returns.

The appearance setting is Use system scrollbars, with the explanation Restore the browser’s default width and controls. It is a reversible display preference, not an account change.

See people-markets-icons-v1.4.md for the complete mapping and interaction rules. The design reference applies the smaller marks without shortening or hiding their labels.

1. Start by introducing the product

Assume the reader knows who Tems or Eliud Kipchoge is but has never considered that there could be a market linked to a public person’s changing influence. They may know what a stock is without understanding derivatives, short positions, reference values or margin.

The opening has to establish a new concept. It cannot begin as though a familiar exchange already exists and the only question is whether the visitor has spotted a mispriced asset.

“Think the market has them wrong?” is therefore retired as the default first-visit headline. It asks a visitor to assess something we have not explained. “You know the people. Take a side.” can still work in a campaign whose audience already understands the product, but it is not a substitute for the explanation.

Recommended opening

Headline

A market for the people you follow.

Supporting copy

People Markets lets you trade on the changing public influence of artists, athletes and creators. Each listed person has a market with a price. You can trade on that price rising or falling.

Primary action

See how it works

Secondary action

Explore markets

Nearby explanation

You trade a financial contract, not ownership of the person or a share of their income.

Risk line

Trading can lose money. Costs and the market’s rules affect the result.

In the HTML reference, the second action is Explore examples, and the page has a persistent sample-data notice. Do not publish live-sounding market access when only a preview exists. In production, use only the action supported by actual availability.

The first action leads to an explanation on the same page, not to account creation. The second lets an already interested visitor explore immediately. Reading and exploration are useful outcomes on their own.

A named person should remain visible beside the explanation. This keeps the page connected to the people the visitor recognizes; it should not become a page of glossary cards. In this reference, the hero photograph and name are illustrative, with no implied endorsement or confirmed listing.

What the reader should understand after the opening

There are markets linked to public people. A trade concerns the market’s price, which can rise or fall. The trader is not purchasing the person, their work or their future earnings. The trade can lose money.

The reader does not yet need to explain funding, market-making or liquidation formulas. They do need to know that this is a financial trade, not a fan poll, donation, creator subscription or purchase of company shares.

A short explanation someone could say aloud

People Markets lets you trade on the changing influence of public people, such as artists and athletes. Each listed person has a market. You can make a trade based on its price going up, or one based on it going down. Your result depends on the trade’s price movement and costs, not on a payment from the person. You do not own a share of them, and you can lose money.

This is an explanation, not a script every channel must repeat word for word. Keep its meaning when shortening it.

Explain the reason for the product without making a promise

Suggested supporting paragraph:

You might think an artist’s audience is about to grow, or that a player will attract less attention after a move. People Markets gives you a way to express that view financially. Being right about the person is not enough by itself: the market may already expect the same thing, and the price can move against you.

The invitation is to understand and evaluate a market. It is not a claim that fandom, inside knowledge or good taste will reliably produce returns.

2. Product truth before tone

The financial design guide establishes the working product as a continuous, cash-settled contract tied to a governed measure of changing public relevance. It does not confer ownership or income rights. It also distinguishes person markets, pairs, event contracts and a broader index; the first release should prove person markets before other products pass their own launch controls. [P1, “What People Markets Is,” “The Four Product Types”]

For the introduction, public influence is the plain-language expression of the working guide’s changing public relevance. It describes the category to a new reader. It must not replace the precise contract definition in market terms or suggest that the platform measures someone’s total worth.

Do not collapse attention, achievement, sentiment and popularity into the same thing. They can be different kinds of information. A negative news story can generate attention without improving reputation. The approved reference methodology determines how information is treated; marketing must not invent that treatment.

Use the following distinctions in every brief:

The guide distinguishes External Reference, Event-aware Reference, Market Fair Estimate, Last Traded Price, Safety Price / Mark Price, and Final Closing Price. It specifically warns against collapsing them into one ambiguous “price.” [P1, “Pricing Strategy”]

Do not publish the old three-signal percentages as a functioning price formula. The guide treats external data, trader activity and event information as distinct inputs with separate roles and launch gates. [P1, “Information Sources,” “Decisions to adopt as the working direction”]

Statements requiring verification before publication

Any claim about live markets, supported regions, deposits, withdrawals, fees, leverage, audited contracts, licensed operation, settlement speed, partner relationships, data providers, reference update frequency or historical returns needs an owner and evidence. A good-looking screen is not evidence.

Do not put provider logos below “Powered by” merely because a prototype lists a possible integration. Do not publish precise user counts, volumes or testimonials without a traceable source and date.

The design system and these documents use examples, not assertions about the current deployed service.

3. What a newcomer needs to learn, and when

The page should answer questions in the order in which they arise. Do not make the reader assemble the concept from a headline, a chart legend, a footnote and a later help article.

Three levels of explanation

First visit: introduce the person market. Use a familiar example, a price direction and the ownership boundary. Avoid leading with “perpetual,” “oracle,” “open interest,” “funding rate” or “mispricing.”

Exploration: introduce the actual names of displayed values and actions. “Mark price” should have an adjacent explanation, not be renamed “price” when that would make it ambiguous. A “watchlist” should be described as saved markets when needed.

Trading: retain the full financial terms and consequences. Introduce them plainly, but do not replace exact fields with friendly words that describe a different thing. A welcoming interface is not permission to hide collateral, costs or forced-closure conditions.

This is progressive explanation, not progressive withholding. Ownership, financial risk and the meaning of a trade belong early. Detailed order terms belong at the decision point and must remain accessible beforehand.

Introduce the ordinary meaning before the term

These are introductory explanations. The implemented instrument still needs its approved definitions, calculation rules and exceptions. Do not use a short helper line as the entire legal or risk explanation.

Comparisons: use them only as a starting point

A comparison with a stock market may help establish that a price can move and that people can trade different views. It breaks down at ownership: a person-market contract is not equity in a human, their brand or their future earnings.

Do not make “buy shares in your favorite people” the headline and rely on a disclaimer to undo it. Do not call the product a fan club when no membership benefit is provided. Do not present a continuous person market as a yes/no event prediction. Describe the actual object as soon as an analogy stops being accurate.

Change the tone with the task

The first visit should be explanatory and inviting. Discovery should be specific and current. Order review should be literal. Errors should state what is known and what to do next. A loss or an uncertain submission should not receive a joke, a slogan or an encouraging retry prompt.

4. Writing rules

Headings name the content

Use Music markets, Your watchlist, How trading works, Market data, Order details, Fees and funding, Market rules and Related markets when those are the actual contents.

Avoid An exchange for cultural relevance, Where culture meets capital, Your next conviction starts here, One name. Two views. and similar labels. They do not help a person predict what is below them.

A first-visit headline must introduce the product, not depend on a reader already knowing it. Its section titles should name the next explanation or task. Do not make a simple explanation feel like a manifesto.

Specificity comes before cleverness

A person’s name, the name of an event, a source, a time window or an exact action often provides more character than a slogan. “Tems” can be a perfectly good feature title when the context beneath it earns the space.

Do not invent developments to make a demonstration feel timely. In production, an editorial feature needs a verified subject, a source, a publication time and an explanation of why it is relevant. When those are absent, show a neutral profile or an explicitly illustrative content example.

Use complete, ordinary sentences

Favor concrete verbs: open, compare, save, search, review, submit, cancel, close, check. Avoid inflated verbs such as unlock, empower, elevate, revolutionize in customer copy.

Avoid repetitive constructions: “Not X. Y.”; “More than X”; “From X to Y”; “Your X. Your Y.”; three short slogans in a row; questions that answer themselves. These can occur naturally in writing, but they should not become the product’s default cadence.

Do not run an automatic word blacklist as the final editorial test. Ask whether the sentence adds information, whether it is true in this location, and whether a person would actually say it.

Do not manufacture urgency

No countdown unless there is a real, stated deadline. No “before everyone else,” “don’t miss the move,” “last chance to get in,” artificial scarcity or celebratory prompts after a deposit or position.

A rise in a chart does not establish that the next movement will be up. A verified release announcement does not establish why a market price changed.

Keep notation consistent

Use sentence case. Keep all caps for established tickers and short technical identifiers. Reserve monospaced typography for structured values rather than paragraphs. Avoid decorative emoji, repeated exclamation marks and em-dash-heavy prose.

Use an actual minus sign for negative displayed values. State a percentage’s period and basis. Use 24h change only when the calculation truly covers that period; for younger markets, use Change since listing with its start time.

Do not write a bare dollar sign before an index level. 1,084.20 pts is a point value; 100.00 USDC is a settlement-asset amount. An instrument ticker such as $TEMS must remain visually separate from both.

Reference notes, notices and quotations

Do not present ordinary product guidance as an inspirational quotation. Choose a treatment according to what the text does.

A reference note has a short topic label and a concrete instruction or example. It can sit between thin horizontal rules without a colored side rail. For example:

Label: Price change

Copy: Show +4.12% over 24 hours, not “4.12%”. Use the same price series for the value and its change.

Label: Funding

Copy: State which side pays the other. A positive sign alone does not explain whether the person reading it pays or receives.

Label: First visit

Copy: Explain what the contract represents before asking someone whether the price is wrong.

These replace directive slogans such as “Keep financial meaning explicit.” The note should contain something a reader or designer can use immediately, not a principle they must translate into an interface.

An operational notice names the actual state, its implication and the available next step. Reserve prominent caution treatment for a real condition affecting the user. For example, when an order service has not confirmed the result:

Title: Order status is not confirmed

Body: We have not received a final status for this request. Check it before placing another order.

Action: Check order status

Reference: The actual order or intent reference, when available.

This wording is conditional. Show it only when it describes the known state and an actual status-check action exists. The standalone reference uses an explicitly labeled example and opens reconciliation guidance; it does not imply a working order service.

A quotation contains someone’s actual words. Use modest body typography and attach the speaker/source, date, context and source link. Do not fabricate a trader, creator testimonial or usability finding to demonstrate credibility. The HTML’s “I recognise the person. What does the number mean?” line is expressly invented for layout and must not be relabeled as user research.

Do not add oversized opening quotation marks, floating quotation bubbles or italicized manifesto statements around ordinary help text. A blockquote denotes quoted content, not importance.

Control labels and responses

Name the value being changed, rather than saying “Select an option” above every field. Keep the persistent field label separate from its chosen value. Label disabled values with a useful reason, and keep an error beside the field until it is corrected. [W1]

Do not silently turn a checkbox into a single-choice control, call a list of values an action menu, or use a switch for an irreversible action. When a control changes only a demonstration, say so near the example rather than implying an account setting was saved.

Copy at smaller widths

At 1,024 CSS px and below, introduce market records as cards rather than asking the reader to scroll sideways. Repeat the field labels beside their values, keep the same units and status language, and do not describe a card collection as a table. The full-size view labels remain Cards and Table; the smaller-screen alternative is Compact cards. This is a presentation change, not a change to what a trade represents.

Keep the principal identity, financial label, unit, period, ownership boundary and current restriction. Shorten nonessential framing, not the meaning. “Show external reference” can wrap; replacing it with an unexplained icon loses useful information.

Separate a layout instruction from customer copy. “Below 640 px, stack the order form” belongs in the specification. It should not appear on a customer’s phone. Conversely, a missing-price explanation belongs beside the missing price at every width.

A scaled screenshot cannot prove that copy fits. Test the actual responsive component with long names, larger text and a real input keyboard. If text collides, change its layout before deleting important words. [W3]

5. The homepage and first explanation

The sequence is deliberate: introduce the idea, teach one trade, explain the data at a high level, then offer markets to explore. Visitors can bypass the teaching section using the opening’s secondary action. Do not require a tutorial before allowing browsing.

A. Navigation

Use the approved People Markets logo when it is available. Until then, reserve its position with the product name; the reference does not approve a replacement wordmark.

A first-visit website can use How it works · Explore markets · Market rules. Product workspaces can use Discover · Markets · Watchlist with a persistent How it works route. Do not promote a wallet or advanced trading metric as the first explanation of the category.

Show Sign in only when the account flow exists. In a preview, label examples as examples rather than simulating availability.

B. Opening

Use the headline, definition and actions in section 1. Place a familiar person beside them, with a clear example or listing status. A hero does not need multiple prices, a sparkline, badges and a funding rate to look like a financial product.

Do not turn the hero into a glossary. The supporting paragraph establishes the new thing; the next section demonstrates it.

C. One worked example

Heading

How a trade works

Setup

Imagine you follow an artist whose audience is growing. You think their market price could rise. That is a view you can trade on, but it can be wrong.

Example label

Hypothetical example · Price starts at 100 points

Direction prompt

Choose a direction to see both outcomes

Choices

Price rises — Long
Price falls — Short

In the interface, put the ordinary phrase on the first line and the term on the second. The long example may be selected in this teaching component. That choice must never preselect a real order, amount or leverage setting.

When the long example is selected

You choose a long trade because you expect the price to rise.

When the short example is selected

You choose a short trade because you expect the price to fall.

Visible qualification

A 10-point move is not a 10% return on your money. The financial result depends on the contract, trade size, entry and exit prices, and costs. This example assumes the trade stays open; it does not model a forced closure.

Use the same starting value for both outcomes. Give gains and losses equal visual space. Do not add a fictional cash return without defining the full contract and calculations. Avoid a return calculator in the introductory section: it would shift attention from understanding the trade to imagining profits.

Follow-up question

Does more attention always mean a higher price?

Answer

No. Traders may already expect the change, disagree about its importance or respond to other information. Public attention is one part of the picture; a headline or a growing audience does not guarantee a profitable trade.

Use a hypothetical artist here instead of inventing a development about a real person. Actual news examples require sources and dates.

D. Where the numbers come from

Heading

Where the numbers come from

Suggested explanation

Outside data provides a reference for changing public relevance. Traders also influence the prices at which contracts change hands. The reference and the market price are shown separately.

The relevant data can differ by category. A music market might use listening activity; a sport market might use performance data. Each market’s methodology should explain which sources it uses and how they are combined.

The second paragraph illustrates possible data categories. Publish exact provider names, logos, weights, refresh rates or feeds only when their use is approved and evidenced. The production version should link to the actual methodology rather than promise one that has not been published.

Do not use a simple three-arrow graphic to imply that every increase in streams immediately increases the trade price. The financial design distinguishes data references, market prices and risk prices. [P1, “Pricing Strategy”]

E. What the trade represents

Heading

What you are trading

Copy

A financial contract linked to changing public relevance. Profit or loss comes from the contract’s price movement and terms, not from a payment by the person.

The contract normally has no fixed expiry date. You can seek to close a trade under the market’s rules; execution and price are not guaranteed.

This explanation can sit beside the data explanation. It does not replace the shorter ownership statement in the opening. Explain normal continuity without promising that a market can never pause, settle exceptionally or close.

F. Markets to explore

Heading

Explore people

Supporting copy, when needed

Open a name to see its market, the information behind it and the trading rules.

For the reference file:

Open a name to see how its market is presented. The people are real; these listings, prices and charts are examples.

Let the names, photos and categories provide recognition. Do not put another motivational slogan below every person. A market card is not a recommendation, and a listing does not establish the person’s participation.

G. Questions before starting

Am I buying a share of someone?

No. You do not own the person, control their work or receive a share of their income. Your trade is a financial contract with its own price and rules.

Is this a prediction about one event?

A person market continues over time. It is different from an event contract that resolves against a specific question and deadline. Pair and event markets are separate products.

Mention availability only when verified. Do not market a complete product universe merely because the design contains previews.

Can I lose money even when I know the person’s work well?

Yes. Knowing an artist or athlete does not tell you how other traders will price their market. Prices can move against you, and trading costs affect the result. A trade may be forcibly closed if it no longer meets the required financial backing.

Does a listing mean the person is involved?

No. A listed market does not, by itself, establish endorsement, partnership or participation by that person.

H. Closing action

Use Explore markets when markets can genuinely be explored. In the preview, use Explore examples. An account action can follow once the visitor knows what they are entering and the account flow is available.

Do not repeat the headline as a closing manifesto. At this point the useful action is sufficient.

6. Discovery and editorial content

Screen-level copy

Page title: Discover.
Search label: Search people.
Search placeholder: Name or ticker.
Category labels: All · Music · Sport in the current example. Add only populated, approved categories.
Watchlist title: Your watchlist.
Table heading: Markets.

Do not label something “For you” unless personalization is actually operating and the user has meaningful control over it. Do not label a static selection “Trending.” Use Featured for a disclosed editorial selection, Most active for a defined activity measure, and Largest changes for a named price-change period.

For an unauthenticated user, do not imply that the watchlist is synchronized. Use Saved in this example in the reference, because its watchlist is held in memory and resets when the example is reopened. Use Saved in this browser only when browser persistence actually exists. In production, state where saved preferences live.

A production context item

Use the following content structure rather than pretending the bracketed placeholders are publishable copy:

[Person’s name]
[Verified development, stated in one sentence]
[Publisher or primary source] · [Published date and time]
Read source

The data model should separately store the subject, source URL, published time, verification status, attribution and correction history. An editor should be able to revise the context without modifying a quote.

Illustration of a complete context item

The following is fictional and should remain labeled that way in a design example:

Studio album announced
The artist’s official site lists a new studio album for 18 October.
Fictional example · Not about a named person

A real version would link the actual announcement and name its author or publisher. It would not say the announcement “sent the market soaring” unless that causal claim had credible support.

Price and context must remain separate

Prefer Relevant developments over Why the price moved when the evidence does not establish causation. A timestamped development beside a chart is useful; an invented causal explanation is not.

Do not auto-generate investment theses from headlines and present them as reporting. Analysis should identify its author, evidence, assumptions and uncertainty. Public allegations must not be converted into engagement-led market prompts.

First-visit help

Use New to People Markets? for an optional explanation near the discovery heading:

Each person below has a market. Open a name to see its price and what a trade represents. You can also save a market to a watchlist without placing a trade.

A trade can be based on the price rising or falling. It does not give you ownership of the person or their income.

Use example market in a preview. A link labeled See a trade example should lead to the worked example, not a sign-up modal.

7. Market-detail copy

Identity

Tems
$TEMS · Music · Person market

In the design system, add Illustrative market. A name in a mockup is not an approved listing.

Price hierarchy

These labels follow the working guide, not an independently verified production API contract. Engineering and risk must approve the field mapping before release. [P1, “Pricing Strategy”]

Suggested tabs or anchored sections

Overview · Market data · Trading rules.

The overview explains the contract and relevant developments. Market data explains values, sources and update times. Trading rules covers fees, funding, margin, order types, interruptions and exceptional closure. Critical charges and risk do not disappear into the last tab; repeat the relevant information at the decision point.

Watchlist feedback

Action before saving: Watch Tems.
Action after saving: Watching Tems.
Removal feedback: Tems removed from your watchlist.

A star-only control needs an equivalent accessible name. Avoid a toast that says only “Done.”

8. Pair and event language

Pairs

Title: Kendrick Lamar / Drake.
Type: Pair market or Pair preview according to actual status.

Explanation:

This market compares the two contracts. Choosing Kendrick over Drake opens the defined long Kendrick / short Drake position. The result depends on relative price movement, the pair’s sizing rules and trading costs.

Direction labels: Kendrick over Drake and Drake over Kendrick. On narrow screens, retain the full relationship; do not reduce the controls to an unlabeled green and red button.

For education, a simple unleveraged equal-notional example may compare a 4% rise on the long side with a 1% rise on the short side. Label the example as gross and exclude any suggestion that the 3-percentage-point difference is automatically the return on collateral. Actual results depend on sizing, execution, costs and the contract. Prefer the instrument’s approved worked example before publishing numerical pair education.

Preview notice:

Pair example. Real-money trading is not enabled here.

Do not claim atomic execution until the actual two-leg route and failure handling are verified. [P1, “Pair Market,” “What should not ship just to complete the story”]

Events

Question syntax: Will [named subject] [precisely defined action] by [date, time and timezone]?

Required supporting labels: Resolution source · Deadline · Resolution rules · Dispute period · Trading status.

Do not casually call a displayed event-contract price a probability without the approved explanation of the instrument and quotation convention. “Yes” and “No” should remain specific to event outcomes, not be reused for person-market directions.

9. Order, funding and risk vocabulary

Order entry

Prefer explicit controls: Price rises · Long and Price falls · Short. Put the ordinary phrase first and retain the financial term beside it. Explain that the selected side can lose money and that costs matter. Do not use “Support” as a synonym for opening a long; it can imply money reaches the person.

Use Collateral or Position collateral as the field label when that is the actual amount being committed. Explain it once: Money assigned to back the trade. Do not relabel collateral as “investment” or “stake” just to make it sound familiar.

The review heading should name the action: Review long order. The final button should be Place long order only when a real, authorized order will actually be submitted. In design examples use Inspect review layout and keep the execution action unavailable.

Funding

Label direction: Longs pay shorts or Shorts pay longs, paired with the rate, interval and estimated amount for the position. A signed percentage alone does not explain who pays.

Explanation:

Funding is a recurring payment between opposing positions. The amount and direction can change. Check the current rate and payment timing before keeping a position open.

Avoid “earn passive yield” as a description of receiving funding. Funding normally transfers value between opposing exposures; any retained protocol portion needs separate disclosure. [P1, “Funding”]

Liquidation

Explanation:

A position may be reduced or closed when its remaining collateral no longer meets the market’s margin requirement.

When displaying a liquidation estimate, identify the trigger basis and explain that the estimate can change. Do not promise an exact execution price or state that liquidation is equivalent to an ordinary stop order.

Do not promise a maximum loss until the actual collateral, fees, settlement and deficit rules support the statement. Isolated collateral is an accounting and risk structure, not a license for a blanket guarantee.

10. State-copy library

Production strings below are conditional templates. Use each only when the backend evidence supports it; replace placeholders with actual values.

“No funds moved,” “nothing was charged” and “your money is safe” are factual claims. Do not use them as generic reassurance when the actual outcome is uncertain.

11. Notification and outreach copy

Notifications should help users keep track of what they chose to follow, not pressure them to trade.

User-requested price alert

Tems reached your alert level of {value} points. Mark price as of {timestamp}. View market.

Saved-market status change

Trading in {market} is now close-only. Read the market notice before changing your position.

Order update

Order {reference} is partially filled. {quantity} filled; {quantity} remains open.

Email subject

Update to {market} trading rules

Email opening

The {rule name} for {market} changes on {effective date and timezone}. Here is what changes and how existing positions are affected.

Do not say “Your favorite artist is taking off. Get in.” Do not turn an adverse news story into a reactivation campaign. Do not infer sensitive interests from browsing to personalize political or other sensitive content.

12. Before and after

13. Bringing the writing closer to the audience

Make People Markets globally legible and locally familiar through the actual selection of people, the accuracy of their names, the relevance of the context and the quality of the explanations.

Names such as Tems and Eliud Kipchoge can sit naturally beside Kendrick Lamar and Drake in design examples. This does not need an “Africa” badge or a separate cultural theme. Market eligibility and imagery approval still apply before production.

Avoid imported trading slang, forced Nairobi slang and generic “for the culture” language. Familiarity should come from a credible choice of subject and a well-written explanation.

Do not assume every reader has the same timezone, numerical convention or knowledge of US sports and entertainment. Show complete dates when a deadline matters. Keep the original name with appropriate accents. Search should be forgiving without rewriting the displayed identity.

14. Content operations and governance

Create a small copy registry. Every important string should carry an identifier, location, source of truth, constraints and owner.

id: order.submission_unknown.body
location: order_status_panel
text: "We have not confirmed whether this order was accepted. Check order {reference} before trying again."
owner: product_operations
requires: [order_reference, reconciliation_status]
severity: warning
must_not_say: ["Order failed", "No funds moved"]
review_when: [order_state_model_changes, submission_route_changes]

Keep critical status copy in structured application resources, not editable marketing fields. A marketer should not be able to replace “Order accepted” with “You’re in” and accidentally hide an unfilled order.

Suggested accountability: the founder/product lead approves positioning; design owns hierarchy; product owns journey strings; risk/engineering owns financial field mapping; operations owns incident states; counsel approves claims requiring legal review. These are responsibilities to assign, not statements about the current team structure.

15. Review and validation

Before approving a page, read only the headings and buttons. They should reveal what is on the page and what happens next. Then read the supporting copy without the imagery. The product should still be understandable.

Use these comprehension tasks with both culture-led newcomers and experienced traders:

1. Explain what a position gives you and what it does not.
2. Identify whether the displayed number is a quote, a mark, a reference or a point score.
3. Explain a long, a short and a pair in your own words.
4. Identify the relevant fees and funding direction in a review example.
5. Respond to an order whose submission status is unknown.
6. Find the source and date of an editorial claim.

Start with people who have never heard of People Markets. Show the opening without explanation from a founder, then ask them to describe it in their own words. Do not ask a leading question such as “You understand that you do not own the person, right?”

After the opening, test whether they understand the basic category, the two price directions, the absence of ownership or income rights, and the possibility of loss. After the worked example, ask what happens to a long trade when the price falls, and why a growing audience need not produce a profitable trade. Ask what they would do next; browsing is a valid answer.

Do not demand that the opening teach pairs, funding and every price type. Test those after the relevant explanation. Use the experience guide’s staged comprehension plan rather than administering a glossary quiz before exploration.

Compare candidate openings for correct understanding, not only curiosity or clicks. Repeated ownership, donation or guaranteed-profit interpretations require a rewrite even when click-through improves. No user research is claimed to have been completed for this revision.

16. Release checks

• [ ] No unsupported production, availability, partner or performance claims.
• [ ] Every illustrative value and hypothetical development is identified.
• [ ] No ownership, income-share or endorsement implication.
• [ ] Distinct fields retain their approved labels and units.
• [ ] Headings describe the content beneath them.
• [ ] Buttons describe the action they perform.
• [ ] Errors state the known outcome and an appropriate next step.
• [ ] Copy fits at 320 CSS px and at 200% text size without deletion.
• [ ] Long names, translated strings and meaningful dates are tested.
• [ ] Editorial facts have a source, timestamp and correction path.
• [ ] Financial explanations are checked against the implemented contract and risk model.
• [ ] Someone outside the founding team can explain the product after reading the opening screen.

Sources and scope

[P1] Internal product source: People Markets – Financial, Trading and Quant Design.docx, retrieved from the project-accessible Library on 24 September 2026. Relevant sections: “What People Markets Is,” “The Four Product Types,” “Pricing Strategy,” “Information Sources,” “Funding,” “What should not ship just to complete the story,” and “Decisions to adopt as the working direction.” This is the design brief’s financial reference, not proof of deployed implementation.

[W1] W3C, Understanding SC 3.3.2: Labels or Instructions. Supports explicit input instructions; the People Markets editorial choices above remain proposed product decisions.

[W2] W3C, Understanding SC 4.1.3: Status Messages. Supports programmatically available status feedback without unnecessary focus changes.

[W3] W3C, Understanding SC 1.4.10: Reflow. Supports narrow-view reading and the distinction between ordinary content and genuinely two-dimensional components.

This revision preserves the introduction and the earlier handoff’s product definitions. It adds reference-note, quotation and control-copy guidance, alongside responsive editorial rules. These remain product proposals; no claim is made that user research or a production accessibility audit has already passed.