Content Design and Brand

How is content design related to Workday’s brand?

Content design is involved in one important piece of Workday’s brand strategy: its voice and tone. Voice and tone guides how Workday’s system speaks to our users. Along with our visual and interaction design, Workday’s voice and tone defines how users experience Workday, and content design plays a significant role in implementing Workday’s voice and tone in the UI.

What is voice and tone, and what’s the difference between them?

Voice is what you say; tone is how you say it.

Voice is like Workday’s personality. It’s the undercurrent of all the writing that appears in Workday’s product. Workday’s voice stays the same because our personality stays consistent.

Tone is adaptable. Just like how a person might adjust the way they speak in different situations, such as at a job interview versus at a party with their friends, Workday adjusts its tone for different situations.

Some of the situations that Workday might use different tones for are congratulating a worker on a promotion versus informing a worker of their termination. Although Workday’s overall voice would remain the same, we would use different language in these situations to convey different tones. For example, we would never use an exclamation mark to inform someone about their termination, but we might use one to tell them about their promotion.

So, what is Workday’s voice?

Workday’s voice is smart while remaining accessible and friendly. We don’t talk down to our users, but we also don’t assume that they’re all familiar with our technology. Our audience wants to use our product effortlessly, without reading language that’s too formal or unnatural. We avoid jargon and we state things plainly and clearly, regardless of a user’s level of familiarity with the system. Our voice is straightforward and clear so that we can build trust with our users. Aim for something similar to Apple’s neutral, welcoming voice rather than Slack’s quirkier voice.

What should I consider when writing in Workday’s voice?

• Remember our global audience. Write in a way that’s approachable to users all over the world. Use clear, simple vocabulary and avoid idioms.

• Sound like a human. Keep UI text conversational. Avoid jargon and technical language in user-facing text. Read your text out loud or have an uninvolved colleague read over it to see if it’s clear to someone who isn’t familiar with the product or feature. Note: conversational doesn’t mean informal. Think Apple, not Slack.

• Don’t default to internal-facing language. Use language that resonates with your users, instead of with your internal teams or customers. Just because your team may be used to referring to a product or feature with a certain name or in a certain way doesn’t necessarily mean it’s the best way to refer to it when speaking to users.

• Keep text simple, short, and clear. Write in the active voice, using verbs whenever possible. Think about what information is most valuable to your users and arrange information in order of highest to lowest priority. Consider cutting information deemed low priority.