allyLikes - Tone of Voice
TLDR: I defined the Voice and Tone for a new fashion brand for Alibaba, created the style guidelines and also audited the existing content against the guidelines
Alibaba saw an opportunity to capture a decent share of the global e-commerce fashion market by setting up a new shopping platform called allyLikes. I was part of the team tasked with delivering the product in 7 core languages against a tight deadline.
The Problem
There was no voice for the brand or style guidelines when I joined the project and this was creating issues in consistency across the site, impacting on the user experience, and making content creation inefficient.
I defined the tone of voice and content standards for the brand and supported on defining the brand positioning. I also played an influential role in directing the optimisation on the site to improve the user experience.
Crafting a voice for the brand
We wanted a fresh tone of voice for the brand. Working remotely with a content team colleague in Hangzhou, China, we conducted 2 workshops with stakeholders to finalise the positioning and tone of voice for the brand.
I'm not in this photo from Hangzhou - I was on the laptop screen.
Workshopping what our customer need to know and feel about the brand.
As a group we defined our voice as:
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Inclusive
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Trustworthy
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Cool
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Cheeky
My content team colleague and I then spit these into tones using NNG's Tone of Voice list:
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Warm, enthusiastic and relatable.
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Helpful and informative
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Young and trendy
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Playful and sassy but respectful
So how did this translate into writing UX copy for the site and app?
I wanted to keep the tone conversational, breaking down the boundary between written and spoken language. I wanted to build a rapport with our users by injecting some personality into the brand voice, but was careful to make sure the copy was still useful. I wanted to address our shoppers using language they would relate to and being concise without leaving out information.
It's also important to know when to dial the tone of voice up and down depending on the user's emotional state. I listed the rough emotions our users may experience on the website and app, and mapped these against our tones to provide a guide.
Examples
I also made sure verbose or legal text is simplified so it's easier to understand and gels with the allyLikes brand.
An example of streamlining legal copy during the user journey. Working with the Product Owner for registration, Legal and the designer, I helped streamline this section of the registration journey by reducing legal disclaimers and highlighting benefits for the user. I also examined the language our audience used and their concerns around data sharing from interviews conducted in the conception stage.
Creating content guidelines colleagues will use
To maintain consistency across the site, I created content guidelines for other writers recently recruited for the project. I provided tangible reasons based on design heuristics or general user research to explain why we have made certain decisions and to make them easier to recall. I also worked with designers to create a content design system and audited the UX content against the guidelines.
I then conducted an audit of UX content against these guidelines and began logging and prioritising updates.
