Voice and Tone

I was browsing through the Windows Phone 7 design and interaction guide (pdf) today and enjoyed this section towards the end about voice and tone:

Many users consider text displayed on computers to be another language called computerese, a jargon-filled, soulless, completely impenetrable foreign language that torments them by hindering their ability to complete tasks and asks nonsensical questions in dialog boxes.

Windows Phone 7 banishes computerese entirely and developers should as well. The Windows Phone 7 voice and tone should be human, clear and consistent.

One method to check if text has the proper voice and tone would be to see if it sounds like a friend assisting another friend with something on the phone. An example would be helping them understand an error message that appears in the application. A developer shouldn’t offer a rigid, uninformative response when trying to explain an issue such as, “Error Code: 4B696C626F.” Many people could be confused or frustrated by that message, as it provides no context or potential solution. However, something such as, “There is some info missing here. Please enter your name in the text box to move to the next page,” is clear, friendly and provides a helpful suggestion.

It is imperative to give users a meaningful response in a casual, comprehensible manner. Help them fix the problem in a way that they can understand.

Consider the string, “Synchronize the phone device.” It sounds mechanical and stilted. Instead, “Sync your phone,” sounds much more like what someone would tell a friend to do.

Another example is, “Schedule a calendar event for tomorrow through Outlook.” It is neither friendly nor representative of how a friend would speak. An alternative could be “Set up an appointment for tomorrow in Outlook.”

Seems obvious, but Microsoft of all companies would know this isn’t always the case. It’s good to see they’re attempting to make things right. This is good advice for copy writing in general for any application: make it conversational.