Understanding Voice and Tone in UX Writing.
These are the challenges I worked on as a part of the course ‘Voice & Tone in UX Writing’ taught by Katharina Grim.
Challenge: A good friend of yours is planning to write a comic series in which the main character is a superhero dog. She asks you, as an expert, how this dog would communicate. Think of your dog, a dog that you know, or a dog you have seen on TV, and define its voice.
I thought of Secret, an Australian Shepard and Instagram sensation that goes by my_aussie_gal
Know your identity
The first step was to collect all the information I had about this dog’s personality. After briefly going through Instagram & Youtube I came up with these 👇🏽
The bubble in blue represents a direct quote (comment in this case from Instagram) from a user on Instagram.
Turn your identity into values
In order to translate the identity into values, I worked on removing irrelevant elements if any and clustering my finding into different groups that I labeled.
Describe your values
The next step was to describe the values to understand what that meant for my voice and tone. So I wrote down a summary of the dog, Secret’s most identifiable traits, and analyzed what that meant for the tone of voice.
1. Helpful: Secret loves helping her owner with chores, like doing the laundry, fetching the paper, assisting with gardening, and clearing up her toys after playtime. She is happy to be involved in tasks and likes helping people.
Secret’s voice is cooperative and happy to assist everybody.
2. Smart: Secret enjoys learning and trying out new things. She entertains herself and other people by starring in fun videos with her owner. She is great at understanding people and commands.
Secret’s voice is attentive, alert and up for any challenge.
3. Patient: Secret is a calm dog in most situations. She doesn’t bark loudly or too often and is more quiet and observant. She loves tackling challenging activities like yoga and even playing Jenga which requires composure and practice.
Secret’s voice is calm and patient.
4. Happy: Secret is excited about spending time with her owner, other people, and dogs. She is welcoming and enthusiastic and optimistic even in the most trying of situations.
Secret’s voice is enthusiastic and celebrates success.
Find matching real-life examples for your superhero dog’s voice.
Helpful
Railyatri’s message is a great play on words and on-brand. On reaching an error page it gives the user multiple ways to proceed further.
Notes
- Clear CTAs to help the user navigate back or to the homepage.
- It also provides other helpful links the user can check out like the live train status, seat availability, etc.
Lemonade’s help section instantly breaks the barrier of apprehension that users must have while looking for answers in the support section by saying ‘Ask us Anything’.
Notes
- The only change I would make here is to have separate headers and placeholders for all the form fields. Placeholders doubling up as headers is often confusing for users and decreases conversions.
ADP-List does a good job of easing the user onboarding.
Notes
- They specify the three steps a user must take to get started and cross off the steps as you finish them. This helps you start using the platform quickly.
Smart
Hinge sounds like an app that knows exactly what it's doing. Self-assured and confident.
Notes
- The copy uses social proof (A noble prize-winning algorithm) to establish trust.
- It is transparent about what will do for you.
- I also love their tagline, ‘Designed to be deleted’ which implies that it is an app that gets the job done, so well, that you won’t be needing it anymore.
Healthify-me greets users that open the app after a long break with a simple actionable message to encourage them to get back on track.
Notes
- The copy encourages users to get back on track by asking them to review their activity.
- It also reminds users about the app’s main offerings.
- The phrase “let’s take a minute” makes doing the task look easy and quick.
Patient
Khan Academy has an error mascot that displays error messages while learners use the tool.
Notes
- The tone of voice is friendly.
- It alerts the user of the error and patiently explains what could have gone wrong.
- The CTA ‘Show me where’ empowers the learner to find and resolve the error.
Swiggy’s confirmation message is helpful & explains the action with clarity.
Notes
- The tone of voice is clear and direct.
- It clearly emphasises the previous step and explains what confirming the next action will entail in detail.
Happy
Lemonade’s chatbot Maya is positive and optimistic.
Notes
- The tone of voice is conversational and optimistic which is especially great for assisting users new to the site.
- Another great addition here is the picture of a person above the conversation. It’s a good example of copy and design working in tandem.
- Including an image brings a much-needed human touch to the page. Buyers will be more inclined to trust you if they feel that they know you.
Grammarly's subtle encouragements make users feel good about their work and words.
Notes
- Nobody likes to be constantly corrected but Grammarly’s voice here makes you feel like you’ve achieved something. It makes you feel like a good writer.
- It encourages the user to continue on to the next suggestion.
Setting the voice rules
I haven’t attempted to set detailed rules here, these are inferences I gathered about each tone of voice based on the context.
Helpful
- Inform the user in clear simple language.
- Always highlight the benefit for the user.
- Avoid using jargons.
Smart
- Be clear and direct but not blunt.
- Choose to be concise when necessary.
- Keep the CTAs actionable.
Patient
- Adopt a friendly tone of voice but don’t be vague.
- Be detailed/descriptive when required.
- Guide the user towards the next step/solution.
Happy
- Be enthusiastic but not overly cheerful.
- Celebrate successes.
- Always motivate the user to continue.
