Brand Values feat. UX Writing
How UX Writing can help you to reflect brand values and support great user experiences.
In my article UI & UX Design feat. Brand Values you learn why a really good digital product reflects the brand values of your clients' brand in every single interaction. UX Writing is an important part of the user experience, so the words that are used should reflect brand values as well.
Writing ≠ Marketing 💵
First of all, you have to know that writing for good user experience is more than typing some words on a call-to-action-button. I am totally sure, you already know that. — It is basically about leading users to their goals not selling products. Thus, UX Writing is not Marketing, it is more a kind of transferring brand values from a brand strategy to words with a brand-driven character.
Context + Brand Values = Tone Journey Map 📊
We at Swipe Circus -among other tools and methods, are using a “Tone Journey Map”.
Your personal character does not change whatever, right? But the sound of your voice does. For example, your voice is a different one if you are talking to your business partner as to your girl- or boyfriend.
This is important: the color of voice needs to match the context. As well as in real life as in digital products.
If a user completes a task successfully, it is a good opportunity to go full out “Ouh yes, you did it.” But if the user is about to make a big decision, like paying for their subscription plan, you need to play it “safe and secure.” It always depends on the context and brand values.
A great way to help you think about how to vary your tone is with a tone journey map. This can be used to visualize the whole experience a user will have in the digital product.
The tone journey map helps you identify opportunities to express the brand values and highlights the points when your product needs to change the tone of voice. The goal is to get the balance right to let your product’s personality shine while maintaining your user's trust.
But: A Tone Journey Map gives you and your stakeholder just a rough overview of how the product will talk about overall topics and epics. To have a better and more detailed view of your words and the synergy of brand values, I really recommend using spyder charts to get more into detail of the balancing the brand values in different topics. — If you are interested in this kind of workflow, just drop me a line.
Example: One message different brand values 💬
All examples are pretty rough but perfect to show you, how you can play with words to represent different kinds of emotions and values. Imagine the user has saved a file successfully and your digital product should give positive feedback for that.
File saved.
Clear & straight — kind of professional.
File saved, nicely done. ⭐️
Empathic & matey — kind of friendly.
Congrats files saved.
Motivating & collegiality — kind of collaborative.
You saved the file. Let’s do a happy dance.
Familiar & unexpected — kind of over the top.
Yo dude props on saving the file.
Urban & hip — kind of hip-hop-slang.
Create rules and dos & don‘ts ✔ ❌
Everything is about interpretation. Thus, create rules for your UX Writing. Pick different topics and create do’s and dont’s.
Rough example:
Rule:
We guide the user and support him with clear statements.Do not:
Password does not match the security rules.Do:
Use at min. 2 special characters for your password.Conclusion: Writing represents Brand Values 🎯
- Guide users to their goals. Do not talk “Marketing”
- Tone of voice and context must match
- Create rules, as well as do‘s and dont’s
Thanks for reading my article “UX Writing feat. Brand Values” — I would love to get feedback from you, just drop me a line!
Some of the examples are based and inspired on the article of the lovely Jennie Tan and Margaret Kelsey 🙏.- Thank you.
