tone of voice Articles & Videos

  • Demystifying Clickbait: You’ll NEVER Believe What I Learned

    Instead of understanding clickbait, writers often avoid anything associated with the practice, to the detriment of their writing.

  • The 3 C’s of Informational Microcopy

    Well-written informational microcopy should be clear, concise, and have character.

  • 7 Deadly AI Sins for UX Professionals

    Succumbing to AI temptations weakens your UX skills. Strive for the AI virtues to keep yourself strong as you use AI in your work.

  • AI for Tone: Avoid Sounding Like a Robot

    Learn how to use AI chats like ChatGPT to write copy that doesn’t sound like a robot wrote it.

  • Design Systems vs. Style Guides

    A design system is a complete set of standards intended to manage design at scale, while a style guide is a piece of documentation that provides specific style guidance.

  • The UX of Phone Trees

    Phone trees are notoriously frustrating for 4 main reasons. There are many small ways to make them more usable and less miserable, however.

  • The UX of Phone-Tree Systems: 16 Usability Guidelines

    Phone trees are often frustrating. Badly designed interactive voice-response (IVR) systems violate many of the 10 usability heuristics.

  • How to Practice Empathy

    Understanding and sharing the needs and motivations of users will lead to better design decisions. Observational research should be nonjudgmental while keeping an open mind and reducing bias.

  • The Four Dimensions of Tone of Voice in UX Writing

    The words in your interface can help establish your product’s personality. The tone of any piece of content can be analyzed along 4 dimensions: humor, formality, respectfulness, and enthusiasm.

  • Establishing Tone of Voice

    Learn how to establish tone of voice in your experience and evaluate the impression your copy leaves on users.

  • Prominence-Interpretation Theory

    Prominence-interpretation theory helps determine what shapes users’ perceptions of a site’s credibility.

  • Writing Digital Copy for Domain Experts

    These tips for writing web content for specialized audiences will help you sound authoritative and bolster your credibility. Professionals want content that is easy to scan, factual, and verifiable.

  • The Impact of Tone of Voice on Users' Brand Perception

    Different tones of voice have measurable impacts on users’ perceptions of a brand’s friendliness, trustworthiness, and desirability. Casual, conversational, and enthusiastic tones performed best.

  • The Four Dimensions of Tone of Voice

    A product's tone of voice communicates how an organization feels about its message. The tone of any piece of content can be analyzed along 4 dimensions: humor, formality, respectfulness, and enthusiasm.

  • The Impact of Interaction Design on Brand Perception

    Your interaction-design decisions have measurable effects on your users’ emotions and how they perceive your brand.

  • Cringeworthy Words to Cut from Online Copy

    The right words can make or break trust; they affect your tone of voice and how people perceive your site.

  • 6 Ways to Encourage Social Participation on Intranets

    Promote employee contributions by setting examples, creating enticing topics of conversation, keeping a light tone of voice, and providing positive feedback.

  • User-centric vs. Maker-centric Language: 3 Essential Guidelines

    To engage users, website copy must speak to readers and not at them. Include words people can relate to, and avoid jargon, business speak, and feature-driven language.