Voice and Tone for Interfaces

Interface components like buttons, menus, errors, and confirmation messages are built with words, and it’s remarkable how much a consistent voice and tone matter. Are you using an efficient, informative voice, or do you sound more like a quirky, lovable goofball? The appropriate voice builds trust, increases retention, humanizes interactions, and ultimately drives conversions and other business goals.

Drawing on his experience writing and designing for digital products, Michael will teach you how to apply these concepts to your work.

I'm co-authoring a book with Andy Welfle that covers this topic and many more (due out later this year): https://rosenfeldmedia.com/books/writing-for-interfaces/

Transcript

1. VOICE & TONE FOR INTERFACES Michael J. Metts - @mjmetts | he/him Conversation Design Lead, Allstate
2. GO.MJMETTS.COM/UXLX19 Slides
3. WRITE DOWN THREE WORDS TO DESCRIBE EACH PICTURE. Warm-up
6. VOICE & TONE FOR INTERFACES Michael J. Metts - @mjmetts | he/him Conversation Design Lead, Allstate
7. Andy Welfle - @awelfle | he/him UX Content Strategy Manager, Adobe GO.MJMETTS.COM/BOOK We're writing a book! BIG THANKS TO THIS HUMAN
8. Intro - Why writing is design Talk - Voice: Discovering and developing identity Activities - Find the voice for your product -- Break -- Talk - Tone: Systems for situational awareness Activities: Design with voice and tone in mind TODAY'S AGENDA
9. SO. MANY. WORDS. Why writing is design
10. Inspiration: https://signalvnoise.com/posts/3404-reminder-design-is-still-about-words
11. Inspiration: https://signalvnoise.com/posts/3404-reminder-design-is-still-about-words
12. “We expect things to be digital, but also, in many cases, physical. We want things to feel auto-magic while retaining a human touch. We want to be safe, but not spied on. We use words at our whim.” Abby Covert How to Make Sense of Any Mess
14. APP STORE If you really want to know your company’s value proposition, try fitting it across the top of four screenshots in the app store.
15. ONBOARDING Do it again, but make it unique from the app store one while encouraging account creation.
16. ACCESS Log In, Sign In, Register, Create Account, Get Started, Sign Up, Connect, Username, User ID, Password, Passphrase, Recover, Reset, Email, Email Address
17. ERRORS Whoops, Sorry, Oops…, We broke something, Just a moment, Please wait, There was a problem, Something’s Wrong, Invalid, Incorrect, Don’t Worry
18. ADMIN AREAS Account, Profile, Settings, My Acount, Your Profile, Your Settings, Personal Details, Personal Information, Credit Cards, Payment Information, Payment Methods, Preferences
19. TRANSACTIONS Cart, Shopping Basket, Items, Payment, Renewal, Subscription, Recurring, Repeating, Pro-Rated, Discount, Initial Payment, Checkout, Buy, Complete Purchase, Burger Me!
20. MORE THINGS • SMS notifications • Push notifications • Email notifications • Confirmation emails • Account recovery emails • Email validation emails (emails about emails) • Re-engagement emails • Release notes (bug fixes and performance improvements) • Help content • Terms and conditions • Privacy policy • Contact forms • Contact form confirmation screens and emails
21. “I work on digital products and physical goods, so I’m deeply involved in the design process. But I also want to call out early that my process is the design process. I don’t write fiction or short stories; I use language to solve problems—whether that’s behind the scenes or in the product itself. I use words as material.” Nicole Fenton Co-author of Nicely Said Source: http://nicolefenton.com/words-as-material/
22. It's not a question of whether your interface has a voice or changes its tone. It's a question of how intentional you are about it.
23. “Customer Service Behavior included items that were related to the friendliness and politeness of the system, its speaking pace, and its use of familiar terms.” Melanie Polkosky, PhD Toward a Social-Cognitive Psychology of Speech Technology: Affective Responses to Speech-Based e-Service Source: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/33994535_Toward_a_social- cognitive_psychology_of_speech_technology_electronic_resource_affective_responses_to_speech-based_e-service In a study with 821 participants, customer service behavior was found to be one of the four most important usability factors out of 76 possibilities.
24. HOW DO WE FIND THE RIGHT APPROACH?
25. RESEARCH EVERYTHING
26. “If your audience doesn’t trust you, they won’t interact with you.” Sarah Richards Content Design
27. Learning more about your users is always a good thing, no matter how small or limited the effort.
28. TYPES OF RESEARCH: Looking at numbers - A/B tests, analytics research, surveys Talking to users - Interviews, conversations Understanding vocabulary - Forums, Google Trends Observing users - Usability testing, contextual inquiry
29. CRITIQUE EVERYTHING
30. What's the difference between feedback and critique? Feedback is a quick, one-way reaction often grounded in opinion. Critique is critical dialogue grounded in objectives that helps us understand design decisions. Mia Blume defines it this way:
31. DIG IN. ASK QUESTIONS.
32. VOICE Discovering and developing identity
33. A QUICK PRIMER ON VOICE VS. TONE (using a few GIFs from The Little Mermaid)
36. Voice is who you are. Tone is how we respond to different situations. — Michael Haggerty-Villa, Intuit
37. BE HUMAN. NOT BAE. Human vs. Colloquial
40. HOW DO WE KEEP IT CONSISTENT?
41. Documentation
42. Source: MailChimp Content Style Guide: http://styleguide.mailchimp.com
43. Source: MailChimp Content Style Guide: http://styleguide.mailchimp.com
44. Source: MailChimp Content Style Guide: http://styleguide.mailchimp.com
45. Source: MailChimp Content Style Guide: http://styleguide.mailchimp.com
46. Source: 18F Content Guide: https://content-guide.18f.gov/voice-and-tone/#our-voice
47. WHAT IS ADOBE’S VOICE? Human Friendly, honest and respectful • Vary sentence style and structure for readability and empathy • Show empathy in situations where people feel uncertain, frustrated or confused Rational Clear and understandable • Avoid language that’s overly idiomatic, intentionally clever or trendy Reductive Concise and simple • Start with only essential information, and add in extra content if needed
48. Above: Voice and Tone | MailChimp Content Style Guide: http://styleguide.mailchimp.com/voice-and-tone/ Right: Shopify's voice and tone guide | Medium: https://medium.com/shopify-ux/shopify-s-voice-and-tone-guide-968539e06777 “ADJECTIVE BUT NOT ADJECTIVE”
49. DECLARATIVE STATEMENTS
50. YOUR VOICE SHOULD ALWAYS BE EVOLVING
51. YOUR VOICE SHOULD ALWAYS BE EVOLVING 2016 2018
52. OTHER VOICE CHARACTERISTICS Facebook: Simple | Straightforward | Human Shopify: Trustworthy | Confident | Empowering Source: https://ux.shopify.com/shopify-s-voice-and-tone-guide-968539e06777 Airbnb: Straightforward | Inclusive | Thoughtful | Spirited Source: Marissa Philips, Advocating from the inside out: Motivating your team to evangelize their work, Confab 2017 Source: https://medium.com/facebook-design/getting-started-in-content-strategy-d7543ed22633 Slack: Clear | Concise | Human Source: https://api.slack.com/best-practices/voice-and-tone
53. ENTER THE DESIGN SYSTEM Source: https://polaris.shopify.com
54. A design system that doesn't treat language as a core element isn't really about design.
55. START WITH A STRATEGY A design system that's not driven by strategy just helps you do the wrong thing more efficiently and consistently.
56. "A design system is a product. Documenting business processes for a product does not create a product. Documenting components for a design system does not create a design system. It's a tool for a specific set of users under specific circumstances." Amy Chick Strategist and Designer
57. Source: https://polaris.shopify.com
58. Source: https://polaris.shopify.com
59. Source: https://polaris.shopify.com
60. STRATEGY DESIGN SYSTEMS Shopify includes naming guidelines in the Polaris design system. • Used as a governance tool • Enables the teams to have naming conversations based on more than personal opinion Source: https://polaris.shopify.com/content/naming
61. PATTERNS DESIGN SYSTEMS Including example wording when documenting a component helps teams understand its use. Audi's design system uses placeholder words, making it harder for its users to see how to use them. Source: https://www.audi.com/ci/en/guides/user-interface/components/buttons.html
62. PATTERNS DESIGN SYSTEMS Including example wording when documenting a component helps teams understand its use. Atlassian's design system uses real words from the interfaces, making it easier for its users to understand the guidelines.
63. TODAY’S PROJECT: (but this isn’t a workshop about designing chatbots) A FINANCIAL CHATBOT
64. THE CONSTRAINTS No personas: If your voice is friendly, the bot shouldn't have to say "I'm friendly". Let the interface itself convey the nuances of voice and tone. Focus on providing user value: Unlike the real world, there are no technology constraints. Create any functionality you want—just make sure your users' needs are resolved.
65. WHAT TO FOCUS ON Facilitation: Lead others through unfamiliar territory. Experimentation: The conversation of UI can go in a lot of different directions. Adaptation: Let’s talk through how these work, or even don’t work, for your situation.
66. 1. Read the project overview 2. Write down three questions you have about the project 3. Write down three attributes for this product's voice SOLO ACTIVITY
67. 1. Choose a facilitator 2. Share your voice attributes 3. Use affinity clustering to group similar voice attributes 4. Choose no more than five voice attributes—everyone must agree GROUP ACTIVITY
68. Source: https://medium.com/@stephenanderson/whats-wrong-with-dot-voting-exercises
69. 1. Choose a facilitator 2. Share your voice attributes 3. Use affinity clustering to group similar voice attributes 4. Choose no more than five voice attributes—everyone must agree GROUP ACTIVITY
70. WHAT'S YOUR PRODUCT'S VOICE? Share
71. 1. Come up with ideas for how to share your product's voice with your organization 2. Create a prototype or mockup of your group's idea GROUP ACTIVITY
72. HOW DID IT GO? Discussion
73. PARKING LOT QUESTIONS Discussion
74. RETURN AT 00:00 Break!
75. TONE Systems for situational awareness
76. Lots of tone No tone LEVEL 1 Headlines, marquees, subject lines, big stories, chapter headers Tone is engaging, human, emotional, creative, thought-provoking LEVEL 2 Subheads, pre-headers, How Adobe helps Tone is more directional or informational LEVEL 3 Main body copy, sub-sections, customer stories, case studies Tone is conversational, including technical details and story LEVEL 4 Main bullets, deeper content, tech specs, features, capabilities Tone is technical, straightforward, to the point LEVEL 5 CTAs Tone is direct, short and punchy How marketers often think about tone
77. HOW UX WRITERS THINK ABOUT TONE Sibling Boss Cow orker Room m ate N eighbor Rather than a volume knob where you turn “tone” up and down, it’s a spectrum upon which you pick a tone to best respond to the user.
78. HOW UX WRITERS THINK ABOUT TONE Rather than a volume knob where you turn “tone” up and down, it’s a spectrum upon which you pick a tone to best respond to the user. Inform ational M otivational U seful Supportive Reassuring Proactive Reactive
80. Could your account BE any more hacked? Go you!
83. Source: https://twitter.com/jeffchausse/status/1130556778008272900?s=21
85. You (the interface) YOU Goal: What do you want the user to do? Mood: What feeling do we want to display to the user? Attribute: What qualities does this interaction have? How would you say things? USER Emotion: What might they be feeling when they encounter this message? Receptiveness: How open to this message is the user likely to be? Your user Scenario SCENARIO UI Type: What is this UI element? Location: Where in their journey might this user be? Exit Point: What will the user be encountering next after this message?
86. MOTIVATIONAL Your goal To show user new features, get them excited about using a product — perhaps for the first time You mood Positive and passionate User’s emotion: Curious, possibly overwhelmed User’s receptiveness: Medium to high Typical UI type: Onboarding, new user experiences Tone Attribute: Encouraging TONE PROFILE
87. Your Goal: To tell you about something that might be useful for you in context. Your Mood: Polite, respectful User’s Emotion: Busy, distracted User’s Receptiveness: Low to medium Typical UI Type: Tooltips, modal dialogs Tone Attribute: Helpful USEFUL TONE PROFILE
88. Your Goal: To fade into the background and present relevant information if needed Your Mood: Neutral User’s Emotion: Any User’s Receptiveness: High Typical UI Type: Microcopy, labels, button CTAs Tone Attribute: Straightforward INFORMATIONAL TONE PROFILE
89. A/B TESTS! Light & Funny Caring & Serious With
 Headline We got you, boo
 So it looks like your password is not so fresh — how about you work on that? Your password is out of date We care about you and your account, so please take a moment to update your password. Without
 Headline So it looks like your password is not so fresh — how about you work on that? We care about you and your account, so please take a moment to update your password.
90. Light & Funny Caring & Serious With
 Headline We got you, boo
 So it looks like your password is not so fresh — how about you work on that? -2.18% CTR Your password is out of date We care about you and your account, so please take a moment to update your password. +5.45% CTR Without
 Headline So it looks like your password is not so fresh — how about you work on that? +.47% CTR We care about you and your account, so please take a moment to update your password. +1.2% CTR A/B TESTS!
91. TONE FRAMEWORK Activity
92. IDEAS FOR SCENARIOS • A user just created their bank account • A payment was just accepted by its intended recipient • A credit card on the user's account is about to expire • There was suspicious activity on the user's account, so they need to reset their password before they can sign in • ABC is offering an account credit if the user invites friends to sign up for an account
93. TESTING Activity
94. TESTING METHOD • Underline the things that are helpful • Circle the things that aren't helpful Ask your participant to: • Ask follow-up questions You should: • Use a verbal likert scale to measure voice or tone, e.g. "Rate this from 1-7, where 1 is too casual and 7 is too formal" Want to do even more?
95. DESIGN A CHATBOT CONVERSATION Activity
96. CRITIQUE YOUR BOT'S VOICE AND TONE Activity
97. GUIDELINES FOR CRITIQUE • Let everyone participate. Every perspective is important. • Ask questions if you’re unsure why something is the way it is. • Speak from objectives. Avoid phrases like “I don’t like that”. • Dig into the details. Talk through the nuances of word choice, discuss alternate approaches and more. Critique the writing, not the writer.
98. HOW DID IT GO? Discussion
99. PARKING LOT QUESTIONS Discussion
100. Thank you!
101. GO.MJMETTS.COM/BOOK The book is coming later this year: