Tone of Voice Guidelines

Tone of voice deals with the mood of UI text as it's read by our users. It mostly involves phrasing and stylistic choices on top of UI text best practices. Essentially, this is how we can add the "Emarsys brand" to our UI texts.

Unlike UI text best practices, which deal with length, clarity, consistency, etc., tone of voice is more about the style than the quality of the UI text.

1. Converse Naturally

Try writing natural-sounding, conversational text instead of only displaying technical terms.

The text can still contain technical terms, such as error codes, as supplementary information for troubleshooting.

Avoid:

Good:

2. Stay Positive

We can give our text a positive attitude by pointing towards the next things to do, and never blaming anyone — neither the user nor us.

This is especially important when we're handling error messages: be briefly apologetic, don't blame anyone, and point to the solution if you can.

Avoid:

Good:

3. Speak Like a Peer

Try not to be way too friendly and funny, but at the same time, don't be too formal and overly polite either. It's difficult to strike the balance, but image Emarsys speaking to the user as their co-worker — not friends, not strangers, but peers.

Avoid:

Good:

4. Adjust to The Situation

Imagine yourself as the user in the situation where the UI text is displayed. What sort of tone would fit the situation? Tweak the Emarsys tone of voice to make sure it fits the situation at hand.

If it’s an error state, focus on being empathetic, helpful, and straight to the point.

But if it’s a success state, you can be a bit more celebratory, energetic, and be happy for our user.

Examples: