Experience principles

The foundation of the voice chart are the experience principles: the terms that define what the experience is trying to be to its customers. The voice will help convey that experience in the ideas it conveys, the words it chooses, the punctuation it uses or omits--all of the aspects of language. The purpose of the voice chart is to make the text convey those principles deliberately, consistently, and scalably--so that anybody in the organization can work on them as necessary.

If your organization doesn’t know what the experience is trying to be to the people who use it, work can’t begin to define the voice. While you can increase clarity and usability of the text, and thereby “fix” some text problems, the experience will also inspire feeling and be assigned a personality. The purpose of the principles is to make sure the organization has determined, strategically, what that feeling and personality should be.

To be clear, identifying a product or organization’s principles is not usually the job of the content strategist. If your organization has marketing or advertising support, they may already have defined these principles. When I have had to facilitate the articulation of these principles, it has helped me to keep in mind that my goal, as the content strategist, is not to “own” the principles, but to align the content strategy to them after they are ratified.

When the organization hasn’t defined its principles, I recommend interviewing people inside your organization. In Nicely Said², Nicole Fenton and Kate Kiefer Lee outline a process of interviewing people inside the organization to determine the goals of the brand, the organization, and the experience.

Use the results of interviews to draft the most important principles that emerge, then ratify those with your stakeholders. As the process continues, the articulation of the principles will change considerably--and that’s fine. The process of articulating the product principles can become political. When I draft these principles, I expect that the first, and even second and third drafts will end up on the trash heap. The important thing is that the conversations continue, and these early drafts help the stakeholders get to the organization’s goal.

For the examples in this book, I’ve invented three principles for each organization. Imagine that each organization has developed its own set of principles to meet its business or civic purposes, and its purpose in the lives of the people who use it. Let’s look at each one.

Sturgeon Club

The purpose of the Sturgeon Club, as defined by its Board, is to provide a private, elegant venue for its membership to socialize and recreate. To bring that purpose to life, the Club’s executive and operations leaders have determined that the physical building, the internal spaces, and each experience the members have should be imbued with elegance, build camaraderie, and connect members to the club’s traditions.

Table 4.3 shows the top row of the voice chart for The Sturgeon Club, which uses each of those three main principles as column headings: Imbued with elegance, Build camaraderie, and Connect to tradition.

The Sturgeon Club Voice Chart

Imbued with elegance

Build camaraderie

Connect to tradition

Table 4.3 The Sturgeon Club product principles, which make up the top row of its voice chart.

‘appee

The purpose of ‘appee is to create an entertaining, engaging experience for its players while generating content for the platform, viewing advertising, and buying merchandise. Instead of competing with “serious” art experiences, it is trying a strategy of playfulness, seeking to provide surprising entertainment and moments of insight.

The ‘appee voice chart in Table 4.4 shows those three strategic principles as the headings for its voice chart columns: Playful, Insightful, and Surprising.

‘appee Voice Chart

Playful

Insightful

Surprising

Table 4.4 ‘appee product principles, which make up the top row of its voice chart.

TAPP

The purpose of the TAPP app is an extension of the purpose of the regional transit system itself. Move people around the region, and therefore through the online experience, in a way the public finds efficient, trustworthy, and accessible. The TAPP voice chart (Table 4.5) uses those principles as the headings for the columns: Efficient, Trustworthy, and Accessible.

TAPP Voice Chart

Efficient

Trustworthy

Accessible

Table 4.5 TAPP product principles, which make up the top row of its voice chart.

Concepts

The concepts are the ideas or topics that are intentionally mentioned in the experience. The voice chart helps us specify, in advance, those concepts that we think will support the product principles. The topics should reflect the role the organization wants the experience to have in the person’s life. They are the ideas the organization wants to emphasize at any open opportunity, even when they aren’t part of the task at hand.

That doesn’t mean that the experience endlessly discusses itself and its organizational concerns. Instead, when applicable, it includes the key ideas. Concepts also don’t specify the language to use; these are the ideas that should land regardless of slogans or campaigns.

The Sturgeon Club

The Sturgeon Club voice, for example, specifies to use the details about togetherness and belonging (Table 4.6). For example, instead of describing the formal event space as merely “Capacity of 124 people,” the experience could mention “Mingle with up to 124 members.”

The Sturgeon Club Voice Chart	Imbued with elegance	Build camaraderie	Connect to tradition
Concepts	Details of finish, opulence; functional and ornamental	Togetherness, belonging, and discretion	Specific connections to club members, history, fame, and power

Table 4.6 Concepts aligned to The Sturgeon Club product principles.

‘appee

Concepts included in ‘appee are to include surprising information, and small delights and coincidences (Table 4.7).

‘appee Voice Chart	Playful	Insightful	Surprising
Concepts	Small delights, avoiding grand successes; Frippery	Commonalities found especially at the intersection of ideas	Unpredictable; misdirection and difficulty can be fun

Table 4.7 Concepts aligned to ‘appee product principles.

TAPP

The TAPP experience adds very few new concepts to the experience. If they are included, they are specific to supporting the operating principles: a lack of waste, rides happening on time, and the inclusion of every possible rider (Table 4.8).

TAPP Voice Chart	Efficient	Trustworthy	Accessible
Concepts	Waste no resource	Every ride on time	Rides for every rider

Table 4.8 Concepts aligned to TAPP product principles.

Vocabulary

Where specific words can support a voice principle, or specific words can undermine a voice principle, use the Vocabulary row to specify them. If there aren’t specific words that help land the principle, this row can be omitted.

The Sturgeon Club

As shown in Table 4.9, The Sturgeon Club vocabulary serves to reinforce the social order. A member may have an appointment with staff, like a nutritionist or concierge. But members meet with each other. Generalities are to be avoided, and so is referring to someone as a “former member.”

The Sturgeon Club Voice Chart	Imbued with elegance	Build camaraderie	Connect to tradition
Vocabulary	Avoid generalities (“very”,”really”, etc.)	secure, not safe meet with members appointment with staff	member member emeritus, member (deceased), not former member

Table 4.9 Vocabulary aligned to The Sturgeon Club product principles.

‘appee

Vocabulary isn’t the same kind of tool in ‘appee as it is in The Sturgeon Club. In Table 4.10, Playful and Surprising don’t specify any vocabulary to use or avoid. Even in the one place it does reference vocabulary, it is vague, but important: Use non-metaphoric language when defining insights, such as “Your Wednesday photos are your best photos.”

‘appee Voice Chart	Playful	Insightful	Surprising
Vocabulary	{not terminology specific}	Plain,non-metaphoric language to define the insight	{not terminology specific}

Table 4.10 Vocabulary aligned to ‘appee product principles.

TAPP

In Table 4.11, the TAPP voice chart specifies words that could be used throughout the experience. Notably, the Accessible principle says to never use “disabled” or “invalid,” but encourages the use of available, easy, and ready. In practice, this means the team will avoid language that has been used to exclude people who use wheelchairs and other assistive devices, but instead include them by specifying what is and isn’t available, easy, or ready.

TAPP Voice Chart	Efficient	Trustworthy	Accessible
Vocabulary	Fast, save time, save money	regular, on time	available, easy, ready Never use: disabled, invalid

Table 4.11 Vocabulary aligned to TAPP product principles.

Verbosity

For strict usability, the text inside an experience should get out of people’s way. It isn’t there to be savored or read for pleasure, the text is there to keep them moving through the experience. But using few words where many are expected can block a person from moving forward as thoroughly as using too many words where few are expected. Screen size and reading format makes a difference, too: people are more willing to read on a desktop computer than on a TV screen.

To choose verbosity for voice, make sure you understand the expectations of the person using the experience, how they expect the experience to behave, and the general constraints you’ll have in the design. Then align the quantity and type of language to the support particular product principles.

The Sturgeon Club

The Sturgeon Club intentionally sets a measured pace. It is not afraid to take time to expand upon its own glory, so it will enhance descriptions with adjectives and adverbs, as seen in the Verbosity row of the voice chart (Table 4.12). The club also wants an air of formality, even where a more casual atmosphere is common, so it will use complete sentences (and therefore more words), even where short phrases are more common. However, there is a tension between setting a stately pace and wasting the members’ time: Members are there to build camaraderie with each other, not with the concierge, the staff, or the experience.

The Sturgeon Club Voice Chart	Imbued with elegance	Build camaraderie	Connect to tradition
Verbosity	Enhance responses and descriptions with adjectives/adverbs	Be brief and begone; they aren’t here to talk to the concierge	Complete sentences even where phrases are more common

Table 4.12 Verbosity aligned to The Sturgeon Club product principles.

‘appee

‘appee shows its playful side with its entry for Playful on the Verbosity row of its voice chart, in Table 4.13. As a quasi-game experience, ‘appee needs to introduce difficulty or challenge in the use of the app. One way it can do this is by using fewer words than strictly necessary to get its point across. This cell in the ‘appee voice chart is a good reminder that the Voice for any experience is used like a spice when cooking: too little and the food is unappetizing; too much, and the food is inedible. If the writer applied this piece of the voice too heavily, there would be no words in the experience at all!

‘appee Voice Chart	Playful	Insightful	Surprising
Verbosity	Fewer than strictly necessary	{not verbosity specific}	{not verbosity specific}

Table 4.13 Verbosity aligned to ‘appee product principles.

TAPP

In table 4.14, the Verbosity row of the TAPP voice chart exhorts the team to avoid unnecessary adjectives or adverbs, except to ensure customer success, to be accurate, and to be unambiguous. As a public service, the TAPP voice aligns neatly with its utilitarian purpose.

TAPP Voice Chart	Efficient	Trustworthy	Accessible
Verbosity	No adjectives or adverbs except to ensure customer success	Enough words to have accurate information	Enough words to have unambiguous information

Table 4.14 Verbosity aligned to TAPP product principles.

Syntax

Natural language gives us a rich variety of ways to construct and convey our ideas, but all of those ways don’t work in all experiences. To maximize usability, simple grammatical structures work best for most purposes. In English, that means simple subject-predicate sentences, or verb-object imperative directions, such as “The bus accepts correct change and transit passes” and “Add money to your transit pass.” For more specific examples, see the UX Text patterns in Chapter 5.

However, merely maximizing usability can result in a robotic, impersonal tone. By choosing the sentence structures and other syntax that support the product principles, you have an opportunity to define the right balance of usability and personality for the experience.

The Sturgeon Club

Once again, we see The Sturgeon Club use patterns in language to reinforce its culture, using the Syntax row of its voice chart (Table 4.15). To imbue with elegance, the experience should consider complex sentence structures. But to build camaraderie, the simple syntax is preferred when discussing people. Most importantly, the Club itself is spoken of in the syntax associated with formality: passive voice, past tense, and complex sentences.

The Sturgeon Club Voice Chart	Imbued with elegance	Build camaraderie	Connect to tradition
Syntax	In descriptions of experience, prefer complex to simple or compound	When discussing people, prefer simple statements	When discussing the club, prefer passive voice, past tense, complex and compound sentences

Table 4.15 Syntax aligned to The Sturgeon Club product principles.

‘appee

In contrast to The Sturgeon Club, ‘appee prefers using the present and future tense in its app. It rarely, if ever, uses complete sentences, as shown in the Syntax row of its voice chart (Table 4.16).

‘appee Voice Chart	Playful	Insightful	Surprising
Syntax	Present and future tense	{not syntax specific}	Phrases preferred

Table 4.16 Syntax aligned to ‘appee product principles.

TAPP

TAPP continues its utilitarian style in the Syntax row of its voice chart (Table 4.17). It uses complete sentences to emphasize trustworthiness, but phrases are also acceptable, as long as they are all simple.

TAPP Voice Chart	Efficient	Trustworthy	Accessible
Syntax	Simple sentences or phrases	Complete sentences	Simple sentences or phrases

Table 4.17 Syntax aligned to TAPP product principles.

Punctuation and capitalization

There is a strong argument to be made that punctuation and capitalization are part of the visual and typographic design of experience, and not the responsibility of the content strategist. Regardless of who owns those decisions in an organization, punctuation and capitalization continue to be among the chief complaints people make when they are dissatisfied with the text. One of the purposes of the voice chart is to force the discussions and record the result, so that future confusion or arguments can be avoided, and the experience can be made consistent.

The Sturgeon Club

In Table 4.18, The Sturgeon Club voice chart Capitalization row details how capitalization emphasizes relationships and roles within the club. It also emphasizes commas and eschews exclamation marks and tildes, aligned to elegance and tradition.

The Sturgeon Club Voice Chart	Imbued with elegance	Build camaraderie	Connect to tradition
Punctuation	Serial commas, colon instead of m-dash, no tilde, and no exclamation mark.	{not punctuation specific}	Sentences include terminal punctuation. Titles do not.
Capitalization	Title case is used for titles, buttons, headings	Relationship roles (friend, wife, spouse, parent) are not capitalized	Member titles, roles, committee titles, names, and roles are initial-capitalized

Table 4.18 Punctuation and capitalization aligned to The Sturgeon Club product principles.

‘appee

‘appee enjoys fringe punctuation, preferring to stretch into playfulness, away from tradition and formality with the use of emoji and interrobangs. Instead of using capitalization to signify importance, it indicates that capitalization should only be used for emphasis. ‘appee Punctuation and Capitalization rows are shown in Table 4.19.

‘appee Voice Chart	Playful	Insightful	Surprising
Punctuation	Avoid periods; use emoji, exclamations, interrobangs, question marks	Tilde instead of colon, semicolon, dash, or ellipsis	{not punctuation specific}
Capitalization	Use capitalization only for emphasis	Use sentence case	{not capitalization specific}

Table 4.19 Punctuation and capitalization aligned to ‘appee product principles.

TAPP

With its Punctuation and Capitalization rows in its voice chart (Table 4.20), TAPP continues to emphasize its focus on clarity as the best route to efficiency, trustworthiness, and accessibility. TAPP uses commas and periods, and avoids semicolons, dashes, parenthentical remarks, and asking questions. Titles and buttons are immediately recognizable as members of a hierarchy because of their capitalization.

TAPP Voice Chart	Efficient	Trustworthy	Accessible
Punctuation	Use periods, commas. Avoid question marks. Avoid terminal punctuation for instructions	Use periods, commas. Avoid question marks. Avoid terminal punctuation for instructions	Avoid semicolons, dashes, parenthetical remarks
Capitalization	Title-case titles, headings, buttons	Title-case titles, headings, buttons	Title-case titles, headings, buttons

Table 4.20 Punctuation and capitalization aligned to TAPP product principles.

Training new content creators

One of the things a content creator needs to do when they join the team is to internalize the ideas, vocabulary, and syntax that the experience uses strategically. The voice chart gives them a structured reference to learn that voice the same way they’d learn any other heuristic.

Feedback from others is especially helpful to onboard new team members. Using the voice chart to ground that feedback can help them learn faster. For example, “Our voice is to use the simplest possible syntax. What would it look like if you applied that lens?” Or, “Could you add more about this idea, since it’s part of our voice to include that concept where appropriate?”

Imagining

When designing new text, use the voice chart to iterate and ideate. Choose one of principles that applies to the moment in the experience, and draft the text to amplify that principle. Embed those ideas, introduce that vocabulary, add (or reduce) verbosity. Then, putting aside that option, repeat that drafting process with a second product principle. Rewrite the text to make that second product principle shine, leveraging those ideas, vocabulary, and more.

For example, the TAPP experience principles are Efficient, Trustworthy, and Accessible. The main screen of the TAPP experience includes a map that shows the person’s location, a search box to find a transit route, and a main button to buy or pay bus fare. The main title does double duty: it introduces the TAPP value and promise, and not distract from the main actions the person opening the app will take, either to find a route or to buy a bus fare. By using the voice chart to guide the iterations, I’ve created one version of the main title for each of the three principles (Figure 4.1).

Figure 1-1. Figure 4.1 The main screen of the TAPP Transit System experience, with different possible headlines to align to each of the TAPP principles.

By creating versions of the content that align to different product principles, each of which are a part of the product’s brand, we’re exercising the content. It becomes capable of lifting more weight, more capable of meeting its purpose, when we have a clear articulation of that purpose and how we intend to meet it--and that’s what the voice chart is for.

For any set of text, when you have done this iterative process, you will have a broader range of options to choose from. The more very different, very good options you can share with your team, the more you will change the conversation from “fix the words” to “let’s find and test the best options.” Then it’s time for decision making, and sometimes, to break ties between good options.

Decision making & tie breaking

When you have created several good options for the text, it’s less important which text is chosen, and more important that the text will do its job. Ideally, you have multiple good options that can be tested against each other to determine the difference (if any) in their effectiveness. But sometimes that’s not possible, practical, or desirable.

If it’s just about the words, then the person responsible for the words needs to make the call--and there’s no easy answer. The good news is that they’re all great options, so they will all work. The tougher news is that the experience needs to be considered as a whole, and the emphasis of different principles should be balanced across that experience.

When there are disagreements about which option is truly best, tie-breaking will come down to how your organization makes decisions. There are three common methods I’ve seen in teams and organizations: consensus, autonomous decisions, and hierarchical decisions. How to influence or make those decisions, using the voice chart as a tool, is explained below.

Consensus decisions: When an organization has a preference for driving consensus, you can create opportunities to make the case for the best option or options available. Frame that argument by illustrating the problems to be solved: the immediate business need, the customer experience, and the broader business objectives. Use the voice chart to remind the group about the broader need of the business to build the brand’s relationship with the customer.

Autonomous decisions: When an organization prefers for independent, responsible work, it may be all up to you! In my experience, this feels fun and powerful for a moment, and then immediately starts to feel like a heavy, important responsibility. When it’s all up to you, seek feedback from others, and recognize that this is where the voice chart is most helpful. Use the chart as your own personal checklist: if it’s good against the chart, it’s good for voice. Does the text include the right ideas, is it phrased according to the pre-defined syntax? If you have more than one option that’s good for voice, and good for usability, what a wonderful problem to have.

Hierarchical or autocratic decisions: Many organizations prefer the opinions of the people who hold the most power in the organization. The people higher in the hierarchy are the designated decision makers, regardless of who holds specific knowledge or expertise. Those designated decision makers want to make the best possible choice, both for the business and the team, so will seek information from their networks. By informing those networks in advance about the benefits and risks of the options, the decision maker can have more confidence in their alignment with the experts.

If the decision comes down to an option preferred by a team member, but isn’t aligned to the voice, then the voice chart itself can serve as a tie-breaker. Because you did the work to have the voice chart ratified, it holds the same authority as the highest-level person who signed off on it. For example, the team doesn’t need to argue a point if it’s written into a document that was signed off by the CEO.