Voice and Tone for Interfaces

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VOICE & TONE FOR INTERFACES Michael J. Metts - @mjmetts | he/him Conversation Design Lead, Allstate

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GO.MJMETTS.COM/UXLX19 Slides

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WRITE DOWN THREE WORDS TO DESCRIBE EACH PICTURE. Warm-up

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VOICE & TONE FOR INTERFACES Michael J. Metts - @mjmetts | he/him Conversation Design Lead, Allstate

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Andy Welﬂe - @awelﬂe | he/him UX Content Strategy Manager, Adobe GO.MJMETTS.COM/BOOK We're writing a book! BIG THANKS TO THIS HUMAN

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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

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SO. MANY. WORDS. Why writing is design

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

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

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“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

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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.

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ONBOARDING Do it again, but make it unique from the app store one while encouraging account creation.

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ACCESS Log In, Sign In, Register, Create Account, Get Started, Sign Up, Connect, Username, User ID, Password, Passphrase, Recover, Reset, Email, Email Address

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ERRORS Whoops, Sorry, Oops…, We broke something, Just a moment, Please wait, There was a problem, Something’s Wrong, Invalid, Incorrect, Don’t Worry

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ADMIN AREAS Account, Proﬁle, Settings, My Acount, Your Proﬁle, Your Settings, Personal Details, Personal Information, Credit Cards, Payment Information, Payment Methods, Preferences

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TRANSACTIONS Cart, Shopping Basket, Items, Payment, Renewal, Subscription, Recurring, Repeating, Pro-Rated, Discount, Initial Payment, Checkout, Buy, Complete Purchase, Burger Me!

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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

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“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/

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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.

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“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.

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HOW DO WE FIND THE RIGHT APPROACH?

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RESEARCH EVERYTHING

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

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

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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

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CRITIQUE EVERYTHING

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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:

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DIG IN. ASK QUESTIONS.

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VOICE Discovering and developing identity

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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

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BE HUMAN. NOT BAE. Human vs. Colloquial

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HOW DO WE KEEP IT CONSISTENT?

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Documentation

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Source: MailChimp Content Style Guide: http://styleguide.mailchimp.com

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Source: MailChimp Content Style Guide: http://styleguide.mailchimp.com

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Source: MailChimp Content Style Guide: http://styleguide.mailchimp.com

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Source: MailChimp Content Style Guide: http://styleguide.mailchimp.com

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Source: 18F Content Guide: https://content-guide.18f.gov/voice-and-tone/#our-voice

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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

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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”

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DECLARATIVE STATEMENTS

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YOUR VOICE SHOULD ALWAYS BE EVOLVING

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YOUR VOICE SHOULD ALWAYS BE EVOLVING 2016 2018

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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

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ENTER THE DESIGN SYSTEM Source: https://polaris.shopify.com

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A design system that doesn't treat language as a core element isn't really about design.

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

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"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

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Source: https://polaris.shopify.com

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Source: https://polaris.shopify.com

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Source: https://polaris.shopify.com

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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

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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

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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.

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TODAY’S PROJECT: (but this isn’t a workshop about designing chatbots) A FINANCIAL CHATBOT

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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.

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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.

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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

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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

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Source: https://medium.com/@stephenanderson/whats-wrong-with-dot-voting-exercises

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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

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WHAT'S YOUR PRODUCT'S VOICE? Share

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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

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HOW DID IT GO? Discussion

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PARKING LOT QUESTIONS Discussion

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RETURN AT 00:00 Break!

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TONE Systems for situational awareness

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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

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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.

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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

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Could your account BE any more hacked? Go you!

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Source: https://twitter.com/jeﬀchausse/status/1130556778008272900?s=21

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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?

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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

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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

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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

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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.

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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!

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TONE FRAMEWORK Activity

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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

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TESTING Activity

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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?

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DESIGN A CHATBOT CONVERSATION Activity

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CRITIQUE YOUR BOT'S VOICE AND TONE Activity

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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.