Voice chart: a tool to keep all the rules in one place
How can you write understandable text for users of your digital product? How best to keep it aligned with your other branding materials and products? The answer is: use a voice chart. Read on to learn what it is and how to use it to ensure branding consistency.
Table of contents
What is a voice chart?
A voice chart allows you to define your voice and tone. And what does the “voice” mean in this context? The voice is a list of rules and characteristics to ensure a specific feeling throughout your content.
A voice is a recognizable set of words that a specific person uses. For example, think of any two of your friends: you can tell them apart by looking at the difference between their language and how they communicate.
Their voice includes what kind of words are usually part of their conversations, and also which words they never use; how they structure long sentences (or maybe they use mostly shorter statements), and any specific phrases or quotations, etc. that they use. Similarly, any brand has its set of various words and phrases used (and not used) to create its voice.
On the other hand, the tone allows you to recognize the emotion or intent behind the words used: is it sarcasm, is it formal or informal, is it positive or negative? The tone includes not only the words but also the punctuation and emojis. For example:
Call me!
The exclamation mark could indicate an urgent, negative situation.
Call me :)
The emoji with a smile indicates positive feelings, maybe we’re going to receive some good news or have a nice chat with a friend.
The goal of a voice chart
Voice charts have a single goal: to keep the voice consistent across every user touchpoint. It shouldn’t matter who provides the copy, it could be anyone: copywriter, ux writer, marketing team, product designers, etc. The voice chart contains all the necessary rules to guide the decision-making process around content, and also indicates how to meet both company goals and user needs (the strategic goals of UX writing).
Why is a voice chart useful?
Keeping the voice consistent is valuable, but it’s not the only benefit of voice charts. The others include: to prompt a review of the copy and offer guidance through the decision making process. In more detail, the benefits are:
1. Consistency of the voice in UX content
Voice charts are especially helpful when multiple teams are responsible for creating content for different touchpoints in customer journey - creating a consistent voice. How does it work?
Imagine an app built for a golf club where you are a senior member and every time you log in it greets you with “Sir Kowalski, welcome back!”. Now imagine a situation where you receive an email from that app, and the message starts with “Hey, you!”. That greeting wouldn’t be so bad if it wasn’t the complete opposite to what you experienced in the app.
Your first thought would probably be “It’s either spam or a phishing attack.” But the truth might be that a different team was responsible for different parts of the experience. A voice chart is a way to prevent this from happening.
2. Copy review
When multiple teams contribute to a single text with their various (subjective) feelings and knowledge about the users, it’s hard to decide which version or voice is better. A voice chart helps select the proper words and create the ideal version of the copy.
3. Decision-making guide
When creating different versions of the product, the voice chart offers clear guidance on deciding which content is aligned with the global voice of the brand. It helps when creating wireframes, where a lot of draft text can be created, but only one must be chosen.
The meaning of brand and archetypes in a voice chart
Brand values and rules are necessary to create a voice chart. Before you decide “how” to communicate with users, we need to know “what” we want to convey: what kind of message, and what values. We need to know what the core of our product is and also the mission and vision of the company and product. Without them we cannot create a voice chart.
The role of brand archetypes is to present brand assumptions and allow users to identify with the brand as they would with people. An archetype helps to initiate a relationship with users. There are 12 core archetypes defined, and we should choose the one most related with our brand, mission and vision.
How to read a voice chart?
A voice chart is a table that places each product principle in a column. Then, for each principle, each of the six aspects of voice is defined in a row: the concepts, vocabulary, verbosity, grammar, punctuation, and capitalization.
- Principles answer the “what” question. They describe what people should feel while using the product (what value should they be getting). Of course it’s key to base these principles on brand values. This is the crucial foundation describing the voice later on.
- Concepts answer the “how” question. They include the ideas or areas that should be highlighted by the product. They represent the experience the user could receive.
- Vocabulary describes the style guide rules on spelling and usage of words (e.g. canceled vs. cancelled). It presents which words should be used so as to create a specific user experience. Remember, it’s not a list of domain words that should be used - it’s about the experience, not terminology.
- Verbosity is about using the right number of words to create the desired experience.
- Grammar impacts the user experience. In most cases, a simpler grammatical form is the best choice. Nevertheless if you want to achieve a more elegant or specific tone, more complex grammar structures might be appropriate.
- Punctuation & Capitalization describes where and what kind of punctuation and capitalization we want to use to enhance or highlight the user experience. This often depends on context; e.g. an exclamation mark added to a slogan might indicate energy and motivate the user, but it can also make the user feel that, “someone is shouting at me” and have a negative effect. Capitalization rules usually follow grammar but not always - deliberate variations can be used to add emphasis, or make certain features stand out; e.g. buttons or headers.
Who should create voice charts?
There’s no single person that is responsible for creating a voice chart. The best way to go about it is to organize workshops and include people from different parts of organization who can bring different perspectives, such as:
- product owner,
- designer team,
- marketing team,
- key stakeholders.
It’s important that these people understand the brand rules and vision of your product. The voice chart is based on that understanding and in order to create a consistent voice the entire team needs to be heading in the same direction.
During the initial workshops, you should at least create the basic principles of your voice. It’s fine if you need to revisit them later multiple times - this kind of work is complex, especially if working with various teams. It will take time to define the best voice to present your brand and appeal to users.
When used correctly, voice charts can be a valuable tool and their benefits often spill into other areas of your digital product’s UX. The best brands are consistent in their communication over the years, and if your business wants to compete with them, it should do so as well. Voice charts are a step in the right direction.
Bibliography:
1. “Strategic Writing for UX” Torrey Podmajersky
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