DEVELOPING A VOICE FOR VOICE Michael J. Metts - @mjmetts | he/him Conversation Design Lead, Allstate Why writing is designing

Andy Welfle - @awelfle | he/him UX Content Strategy Manager, Adobe BIG THANKS TO THIS HUMAN

go.mjmetts.com/book WE WROTE A BOOK! 15% off when you pre-order.

Every interface has a voice.

Inspiration: https://signalvnoise.com/posts/3404-reminder-design-is-still-about-words

Inspiration: https://signalvnoise.com/posts/3404-reminder-design-is-still-about-words

“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

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.

“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.

A QUICK PRIMER ON VOICE VS. TONE (using a few GIFs from The Little Mermaid)

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Voice is who you are. Tone is how we respond to different situations. — Michael Haggerty-Villa, Intuit

How is the concept of voice used by design teams?

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

VOICE CHARACTERISTICS IN DESIGN SYSTEMS Source: https://polaris.shopify.com

Source: https://polaris.shopify.com

Source: https://polaris.shopify.com

Source: https://polaris.shopify.com

Source: https://polaris.shopify.com

PATTERNS DESIGN SYSTEMS When it comes to conversational interfaces, we can create patterns that given them a voice.

How does tone fit in?

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?

MOTIVATIONAL Your goal: To show user new features, get them excited about using a product — perhaps for the first time Your mood: Positive and passionate User’s emotion: Curious, possibly overwhelmed User’s receptiveness: Medium to high Tone attribute: Encouraging TONE PROFILE

Your goal: To fade into the background and present relevant information if needed Your mood: Neutral User’s emotion: Any User’s receptiveness: High Tone attribute: Straightforward INFORMATIONAL TONE PROFILE

1. START WITH STRATEGY 2. RESEARCH YOUR USERS 3. CRITIQUE THE DESIGN

1. START WITH STRATEGY 2. RESEARCH YOUR USERS 3. CRITIQUE THE DESIGN

"They’re directional statements that tell teams, 'Here’s where you’re going to focus your efforts for a defined time period.' In other words, strategy tells you what to do… and, by default, what not to do." Kristina Halvorson Co-author of Content Strategy for the Web

A design system that's not driven by strategy just helps you do the wrong thing more efficiently and consistently.

1. START WITH STRATEGY 2. RESEARCH YOUR USERS 3. CRITIQUE THE DESIGN

“If your audience doesn’t trust you, they won’t interact with you.” Sarah Richards Content Design

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

Learning more about your users is always a good thing, no matter how small or limited the effort.

1. START WITH STRATEGY 2. RESEARCH YOUR USERS 3. CRITIQUE THE DESIGN

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:

1. START WITH STRATEGY 2. RESEARCH YOUR USERS 3. CRITIQUE THE DESIGN

TONE VARIATION WORKSHEET Activity

STARTER SCENARIOS: A BANKING BOT • 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 • The bank is offering an account credit if the user invites friends to sign up for an account

How did that go?

TESTING Activity

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 characteristics, e.g. "Rate this from 1-7, where 1 is casual and 7 is formal" Want to do even more?

How did that go?

Thank you!

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