Strategic Writing for UX, 2nd Edition

Chapter 2 Voice: They Recognize You

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Voice: They Recognize You

They may forget what you said, but they will never forget how you made them feel.

—Unknown, attributed to many

People using an experience will come away with a feeling they associate with that experience. That feeling becomes the brand of the experience and the organization that makes it. The organization wants people to remember how it makes them feel, because that feeling makes the experience recognizable, consistent, and distinct from its competitors. Voice is the set of characteristics that allows content to create that feeling.

As we saw in Chapter 1, the organization uses content throughout its relationship with people. When the voice is consistent throughout the virtuous cycle, brand affinity is strengthened. People can be more loyal to experiences and organizations that they recognize. Conversely, if we don’t design how the content supports that feeling, the person might be left feeling anything: affection, repulsion, loyalty, disgust, or a confusion that leaves them detached.

The biggest barrier to this consistency is the potential variation among the many different team members who write the content. In large organizations, team members can be in different departments and not aware of one another. Having a common description of voice is the first step to helping diverse teams create a cohesive voice.

For example, when I worked at Microsoft in 2010, the voice for the Xbox 360 game system was “The ...