Mobile Strategy positioning

Design Strategy for MobileFirst; loosely defined, strategy is a plan to achieve a goal. More granularly, design strategy offers insight on how to bridge the gap between corporate policies and tactics. Strategy is how we differentiate ourselves in the marketplace.

Michael Porter (Harvard University, authority on competitive strategy) identifies three principles that underly business strategy
Creating a unique and valuable market position – IBM MobileFirst enterprise mobility solutions deliver apps, infrastructure and ways to engage that are fundamentally designed for mobile users. That means all interactions can be personalized based on data, processed securely across touchpoints and delivered in an elegant user experience.
Choosing “what not to do” – What are we leaving off the table (or perhaps, what do we have no influence over)?
Aligning initiatives to support the chosen strategy – Illustrate alignment to the Fall plan.

Alignment with existing or new initiatives will rely on the outcome of Fall plan – which is still unresolved at this point. We can make some base assumptions on our intended strategy and like any good business plan it is a living document and intended to be updated as more information comes to light.

Team

Liz H., Cameron C. Black H., Brandon H., Allison H., Patrick C., Hyun S.

Design strategy venn diagram

Strategy can also be defined as “a system of finding, formulating, and developing a doctrine that will ensure long-term success if followed faithfully.” 1

Essentially, what business should we be “in” and how can we compete?

If we follow this thread further along to a specific design strategy, some things we should consider are:

Where are our successes that we can build upon?
What are our key value propositions (what differentiates our products from our competitors)?
What are existing problems and challenges?
What are the key unmet customer needs?
What are some emerging trends in our space we can capitalize on?

To form our design strategy, we should think of the strategic management of the business and plan our major business goals based upon our available resources, where should we focus our actions to move MobileFirst forward towards these goals? What are our goals?

Ease of discovery
How can we promote the adoption of our service offerings to the public?
Example applications and/or showcase of best-of-breed apps on our platform.
Industry recognition; as well as peer-reviewed recommendations.
Close the gap between ourselves and others within the industry.

Speed to use

How can we create a guided experience for our customer?
More contextually relevant supporting documentation.
Ability to connect with active developers (i.e. stack overflow, etc.)
What is the minimum amount of data we need to collect in order to allow customers access to try our services?

Simple purchasing

What is the minimum amount of data we require to purchase our services?
For all of the above items, how can we translate the insights from our analytics into actionable solutions?
How can we align our strategy with the marketing initiatives of our partners within IBM?

Competition is about “Who is the most profitable”? Profitability is defined by 5 competitive forces:

Buyers
Suppliers
Substitute Products/Services
New Entrants
Existing Rivals

These five forces define every competitor in the industry and shape our future.
1. Dr. Vladimir Kvint, President of the International Academy of Emerging Markets, and an Adjunct Professor (since 2005) at La Salle University’s School of Business

Club Wyndham Search

As we researched the business goals for the upcoming redesign of the Club Wyndham web-experience, one of the key aspects desired was greater engagement on mobile devices from our owners.

The Club Wyndham timeshare product is the premier product from Wyndham Destinations and comprises the lion’s share of the company’s profits. One of the challenges with the old site was its reliance on the desktop experience in order to plan, search, and book owner’s vacations. The product team required that the upcoming redesign ensure owners have a complete experience with their ownership site regardless of device they used to engage with the company.

Team

Design Team, Brand, Marketing, IT, Operations

Problem

How do you engage with owners across all of the digital touchpoints to increase engagement while ensuring they have complete control over their ownership and relationship with Club Wyndham?

Solution

Begin all design efforts from a mobile first perspective. Although this is not a new approach for the industry, it was a sea-change for the Wyndham Destinations company to approach product design with a modern sensibility that allows complete engagement with applications regardless of the device an owner might choose to use.

As the product team reviewed the acceptance criteria for the upcoming website, one of the key things that kept surfacing from the owners was a demand for equal access to their ownership site regardless of whether they were using their computer, iPad, or phone.

This was a change from the previous ownership site, codenamed Voyager, as well as an opportunity to evolve our company’s approach to design in general. As we continue to build towards a mature enterprise design team, the requirements to introduce industry standard approaches to solving problems is necessary for success.

Although mobile-first has been a perspective for years, it was new to Wyndham Destinations and required a new approach to our business goals and solving the owners’ problems.

First and foremost it required thinking through the challenges our owners faced to manage their ownership with Club Wyndham. Understanding what their goals are and how we can streamline the tasks they wish to accomplish with the least amount of friction was a key focus for this project.

The number-one priority our owners have is the desire to search and book their vacations. Since Wyndham Destinations uses a wide variety of legacy systems, our ability to provide a truly modern experience has some limitations versus a company like AirBnB whom has built a business entirely off of a modern stack of frameworks and hardware.

Using these constraints as an opportunity became a central goal for the design team. Distilling down the simple actions that we gleaned from our user research and creating simple user journeys focused on those goals was the first step.

The second step was validating those journeys with our actual owners in sprint-based user tests. Where the previous designs went through no user testing, we planned on sprint-based user testing to validate our assumptions as well as an opportunity to correct our errors or refine those assumptions.

As we planned out user testing we also needed a system that was the lowest level of entry for our owners; although a wide demographic most of our owners are over 60 and trend towards technical neophytes. We had to ensure that the user tests became opportunities to learn from their experiences and not an tech support call trying to get them to install some prototyping software.

Although there are many options available, the one we selected was InVision. Since our teams at IBM Design were a partner with the company I had already had experience with the product and their team. Second, it required no installation of any software for our test subjects so we could focus on the tasks and ensure they had a smooth experience trying out new features and providing feedback and opinions.

The prototype below was used for Sprint 3 and focused on the search features of the new application. A user could “log into” their account select a location and dates and then navigate the returns. The prototype allowed them to see the room type as well as showcased the filtering options originally planned by the product team.

There are a couple of reasons to celebrate the initial response and success of the site: 1.) we introduced an agile approach to our development processes as we are building towards a mature enterprise design team, 2.) the introduction of user-testing throughout the project allowed us to work on the right problems that were identified by our owners, and 3.) the backlog we maintain allowed us to pivot towards experiences the owners demanded post-launch.

As our team continues to mature we will evolve our design and testing regimen, and the tools we use, to match the expectations of our owners and senior leadership to continue to evolve the products and experiences for Club Wyndham, and all of Wyndham Destinations products.

Content Strategy

Content strategy plans for the creation, publication, and governance of useful, usable content.
Kristina Halvorson, founder Brain Traffic

If we use the quote above as an accepted definition of content strategy, we discover that there can be essentially two phases in properly activating a genuine content strategy for any product or website: the creation and use of content.

A truly robust content strategy is based around:

Driving the creation of content.
Creating systems that govern creative processes.
Enablement of users to engage with us to begin their relationship with our products.

As such, content strategy is inherently invested with the classification and organization of the content flowing throughout our product(s) as well as the design of the systems required to build and maintain same product(s). A successful content strategy works across the enterprise, involving teams such as social media, public relations, telesales, and web production. Therefore, content strategy should be a focus of senior leadership to ensure collaborative efforts across teams and create consistent messaging across all touch points.

Content strategy will define key messaging, content auditing, purpose, SEO and metadata. It will also detail recommendations on the creation, publication, and governance required to execute the content strategy. A successful content strategy will also ensure that the content being created is relevant to the customer, useful, efficiently produced, and comprehensive.

Therefore, the successful content strategy cannot be limited to a single implementation, but rather used as the guide to drive holistic experiences that drive customer action. Content strategy is focused on utilizing content to enable those experiences for the viewer regardless of the context (e.g. out of home, digital, TV, etc.).

The main goal of content strategy is to …be experts in all aspects of communication in order to do this effectively.

Rachel Lovinger

These experiences are not inherently limited to one channel but allow the content’s use, and re-use, based upon an associated marketing strategy designed to attract, engage, and delight our customers and prospects. Coca Cola calls this liquid content that “moves freely amongst themselves but do not become separate stories”.

Today, everything is content — so our content strategy has to consider not only the written word, but also the information architecture, visual design, photographic imagery, structure of the page, user journeys — down to the metadata used in the code. Everything is content and needs to be considered in an effective content strategy.

In order to deliver a successful content strategy, we must focus on the processes required to research, create, author, publish, and analyze our content, and not just focus on the end-goal: delivering engaging experiences. We have to ensure that these stories, as they are used and re-used, remain connected.

We should be able break that core content strategy into a two key parts: people and content. The people relates to the workflow and processes necessary for the creation, implementation, management, and governance of a successful content strategy. While the content portion relates to the actual assets, organization, taxonomy, and analytics of the content.

The processes required to facilitate the delivery of the content includes the infrastructure and governance to support creation, delivery, and analysis of the content. While the content side includes the topics, assets, structure, and metrics.

Content strategy is then focused on the what, when, and how we create while also governing who is allowed to create and the why around the analysis of content. At a high level then, the content strategy speaks to what we are creating while also whom is allowed to create and defines the procedures for approvals; in short, what you can and cannot do.

In support of the content strategy we should apply the 70|20|10 rule to content creation in support of any marketing content strategies:

70% of our content should be the expected articles and information that customers would expect from the world leader in the timeshare industry. Articles like how-to, city guides, and testimonials on the value of being an owner with Club Wyndham

20% of the content should build from the 70% by innovating on what has worked well from that large pool of content. Building out new and innovative ways that engages on a deeper level with the customer.

10% of our content should be brand new perspectives or engagements based on our role within the industry, where we are pushing POVs to disrupt as the market leader.

Working within this type of framework will ensure a clarity to our thinking while also embracing risks and rewards. Addressing content in this manner would continue to support our current owners’ needs while also allowing experimentation and growth in the style or delivery mechanisms to reach more prospects and engage our owners more effectively.

Tactically, if we were to begin to plot this on a calendar it might look like 70% content is developed 7 times a month, 20% is developed twice per month, and 10% is a single article per month to support this guidance.

This approach would enable supporting the needs of our existing customers while allowing innovation in our the creation of new content could be more immersive and experiential content to enhance our brand’s equity. This high-level guidance should inform the content marketing strategy and how we approach the articles and campaigns that will be tactically delivered to support the overall content strategy.

In conclusion, content strategy is a discipline of disciplines. Framing together perspectives from design, technology, communications, sales, etc. within the enterprise will impact the business goals. It is the proper planning, production, and curation of content that enables meaningful, engaging experiences as well as the analysis of the objective key results.

Brand Personality

Introduction

During my time with IBM Design, our teams were rebuilding a 100+ year old company with a focus on design thinking. As part of that exercise we had to create, or recreate, processes and procedures to build something new. While I was with the IBM Security team we were dedicated to aligning a disparate portfolio of applications, many brought in-house through mergers and acquisitions, into a cohesive set of tools. In order to do that we had to develop a strategy that we could point to and this was the guidance our team developed for what the new IBM Security Brand Personality sounded-like.

Team

Liz H., Cameron C., Blake H., Patrick C., and Allison H.

Overview

What is the Security Portfolio tone, personality, character? How does it fit within the IBM Brand? What are the signature moments that define IBM Security? This document outlines a foundational set of Security specific UX guidelines that unifies our products while augmenting the IBM Design Language.

Security Product Pillars

Security Intelligence and Analytics
Identity and Access Management
Data Protection
Infrastructure Protection
Fraud Protection
Application Security

Goal

As we build multiple products under the IBM Security Portfolio it is important that each points toward the same North star. We are all part of the same family tree even though we have our own personalities. A brand encapsulates all aspects of the relationship between our customers and us. It unifies our greatest strengths: software development, services, delivery, customer insights, marketing, content development into a single “Personality”. This consistent personality, builds familiarity. Familiarity builds relationships, Relationships build loyalty. Loyalty builds revenue.

Personality

A brand personality is how you act and how you speak as a brand, as if the brand were a real person. The tone or voice of communication is what you say and how you say it in marketing materials. This is essential to establish an emotional connection with the target audience.

Brand Voice

Intelligent. Credible. Trusted.

IBM has had a strong and credible reputation for the past 100 years. The voice of the Security Portfolio should compliment that reputation. When users encounter a Security product either face to face or through communications, our words, designs and expressions should represent that IBM.

Purposefully designed
A clarity that makes you think
Designed appropriately for the situation (phone, mobile device, desktop, tv)
Consistent in its design (fonts, icons, colors, capitalization)
Vibrant but not flashy
Enhances your understanding
Includes visual elements that help people understand the point
Builds the story from a place of common understanding

Character

Respected. Dependable. Innovative.

Our products should strive to be respected, dependable and innovative. Interactions should be thoughtful and expected. Data should not be faked or inaccurate. Consumers should associate our designs with IBM’s long lasting reputation of excellence, trust and honesty.

Offers insight, not just facts
Provides the evidence needed to make the case
Focuses on implications and actions
Highlights our innovative thinking and how it creates impact
Focuses on how we can help the client create value
Provides confidence to motive action
Builds trust and personal relationships through design
Dedicated to the success of others

Editorial Tone

Clear. Honest. Human.

Communications should be to-the-point, honest and credible. Situations should be realistic and achievable as a genuine part of every work day. Concepts should not be heavily involved or deeply emotional but consumers should feel like they can trust us. Language should be practical and vocabulary simple.

Use simple, clear and direct language
Be an expert, but not arrogant
Be optimistic without being obvious and intentionally exaggerated
Provide a clear objective and agenda
Tell a clear story through the headlines
Tell the user something they didn’t already know
Make a case with reason, intelligence and empathy
Remove Redundancy

Principles

Inspire. Engage. Empower.

Draw attention to the sense and substance of the data Associate objects to build relationships leading to new insights Reduce noise by adding value to the content

Apply color with meaning
Use color, spacing and position to create the initial focal point
Contextualize experiences so people can be more focused and engaged
Provide accessible chunks of content for easy retrieval
Break lengthy content into chunks. The human brain remembers 7 chunks +/- 2
Show and hide elements based on what they need, and when they need it
Surface insights to create transparency and eliminate uncertainty
Consider whether changes made to layout help or hinder the message
Understand the user

In Control. Intuitive. Personal.

Design for scenarios they do the most

Create interactions that feel natural and easy to use Build connections that are meaningful and immersive

Provide content that meets the needs of the user
Collaborate with clients, watch what they do rather then asking them
Consider how the user might access the content. Has a precedent been set?
Create associations with familiar elements to help users store information
Naturally relate to what precedes & what follows
Regardless of the modality or device surface contextually appropriate content
Tell a story with the content to create an emotional connection they will remember
Structure of information to allow users to attain multiple levels of understanding

Timestamp

Overview

Designing at scale for the enterprise is filled with compromises and opportunities but most of all, it is filled with details. Details about design, user journeys, APIs, toolkits, etc.

These details abound when you move from a simple webpage to an integrated application that incorporates data from multiple back-end systems while also writing back transactions to same said systems in order to drive the business forward.

Background

For instance, let’s examine the simple request to add timestamps to items on the page so our viewer will know how recent/relevant the data may be to their needs. At its core, this seems like a simple request for a timestamp; an alphanumeric sequence that usually applies to the date and time of the file being reviewed.

This simple request becomes immediately more complex when you begin to work with large scale enterprise applications due their integrated nature and how they read and write data from other systems. Some of those systems may be internal to the company while others are more than likely derived from other networks, partners, and businesses that supply services to the company.

Solution

That complexity increases when you start to breakdown what a timestamp actually looks like. At its simplest for, the timestamp might look like [HH:MM:SS] where HH, MM, and SS are hours, minutes, and seconds. However, that simplicity disappears when you begin to work across enterprises, timezones, and integrated systems that have been developed over time, possibly decades.

If we examine the day of the week as a component of a timestamp, that seems like a simple thing to tackle. But, should it be stated DAY, fully spelling out each day – Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday? Or, should it be something simpler and abbreviated like, Sun, Mon, Tue, Wed, Thu, Fri, Sat. Some of this is determined by the systems we might be integrating the data with, but at the outset of the design process we need to investigate these seemingly small details to ensure that our designs work with the data needed to support the business goals of the enterprise.

For clarities sake, this is the full gamut of details on timestamps our team worked through as we developed our own standards for the Club Wyndham applications.

Component – Julian, Format – year, month, day, Description – 
Component – seconds, Format – SS, Description – seconds (00 – 59)
Component – minute, Format – MI, Description – minutes per hour (00 – 59)
Component – hour, Format – MERIDIAN, Description – AM or PM  periods
Component – hour, Format – HH, Description – hour of the day (01 – 12)
Component – hour, Format – HH12, Description – operates the same way as HH above
Component – hour, Format – HH24, Description – 24 hour format (00 – 24)
Component – hours, minutes, seconds, Format – SSSSS, Description – seconds in 1-day (00000 – 86400)
Component – day, Format – DAY, Description – Day of the week (Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday)
Component – day, Format – D, Description – Abbreviated day of the week (Sun, Mon, Tue, Wed, Thu, Fri, Sat)
Component – day, Format – DD, Description – Numeric day of the month (1 – 31)
Component – month, Format – MON, Description – Abbreviated name of the month (Jan, Feb, Mar, Apr, May, Jun, Jul, Aug, Sep, Oct, Nov, Dec)
Component – month, Format – MM, Description – months of the calendar (01 – 12)
Component – month, Format – MONTH, Description – Name of month (January, February, March, April, May, June, July, August, September, October, November, December)
Component – month+day, Format – DDD, Description – Numeric day of the year (1 – 365)
Component – year, Format – YY, Description – last 2-digits of the year
Component – year, Format – YYYY, Description – 4-digit year (0000-9999)
Component – week, Format – W, Description – week of the year (1 – 52)

Ultimately we settled on a few manners of display based upon the systems we used, the designs, and context for the user journey. These are the key expressions being used in the application today:

Full display (DAY, MONTH DD, YYYY HH:MI:SS MERIDIAN) Friday, April 20, 2019 4:20:00 PM
Abbreviated display (D, MON DD, YYYY HH:MM MERIDIAN) Fri, Apr 20, 2019 4:20 PM
Condensed display (MON DD, YYYY) Apr 20, 2019
Numeric display (D MON/DD/YYYY) Fri 04/20/2019
Condensed full date (MON/DD/YYY) 04/20/2019
Condensed MM/DD (MON/DD) 04/20

Conclusion

I have said to my teams repeatedly, that in order to design at scale, you cannot merely solve the instance – you have to solve for the abstract. What I mean by that is that once you develop an acceptable solution that solves your immediate design problem, you must extrapolate that to work across multiple user journeys and behaviors.

The simple timestamp is a perfect example of the need to be able to scale a solution to work across multiple products, companies, teams, user journeys, etc. in order for it to be an effective enterprise design. It is akin to designing at micro and delivering at macro-scale. A successful enterprise designer knows this and grows their designs to meet the need of the enterprise.

Editorial Guidelines

Introduction

Although C-3PO, the protocol droid from George Lucas’ Star Wars universe, was fluent in over 6 million languages he sometimes had a difficult time with the nuance of authentic personal interaction. Although he could get his point across when speaking, he often came across as obtuse or out of touch with subject matter and how it affected those to whom he was delivering the message. He was officious and distant; which for computers is fine, but for humans presents a barrier to real communication and authentic relationships.

Overview

Interacting with your viewers, readers, in a conversational manner is paramount to building long-lasting relationships with them. Avoiding jargon and other industry forms of communication and approaching all editorial efforts from the point a point of view that values respect, empathy, and clarity with all interactions helps build trust between the company and its customers.

Team

Allison H., Amanda M.

Background

Problem

How do we craft a set of guidelines for our application to ensure that we are speaking with our visitors and customers in an authentic manner that generates trust and builds relationships?

Solution

Define guidelines based on the identity of product or brand we are speaking as while also maintaining an understanding of the best practices of the industry and what Jared Spool calls current knowledge. We want to ensure that the tone we use in the site’s communications harnesses that sum of previous experiences to navigate our site.

Solution

As we worked to define some of the key guidelines for our applications, we researched a competitive set of businesses to learn some of the ways companies “speak” to customers across the industry. We focused on specific areas of interest (button text, error message, guiding text or onboarding, and empty states) to analyze sentence structure, grammar, tone of voice, etc.

What we found was that communications should be to-the-point, honest and credible. Situations should be realistic and achievable as a genuine part of every work day. Concepts should not be heavily involved or deeply emotional but consumers should feel like they can trust us. Language should be practical and vocabulary simple.

Two of my team worked on the research in crafting our point of view for our editorial guidelines, We worked together on the goals and outlines, while Allison H. and Amanda M. did the research and developed conclusions to inform our team as we build out the guidelines for our upcoming development sprints. This helped not only inform our application, but the findings were shared with the larger design discipline for peer review and inclusion in other application development across the enterprise.

Overall Best Practices

Use simple, clear and direct language
Be an expert, but not arrogant
Be optimistic without being obvious and intentionally exaggerated
Provide a clear objective and agenda
Tell a clear story through the headlines
Tell the users something they didn’t already know
Make a case with reason, intelligence and empathy
Remove redundancy

Capitalization

Title Case

Title case capitalizes the first letter of every word, excluding articles and prepositions. Use title case for:

Buttons
Call to action that is not a traditional button (“View More”)
Dialog headers
Navigation Text

Sentence case

Sentence case only capitalizes the first letter of the sentence. Use sentence case for:

Dialog content
Guiding or first time use content
User profile details
Detail panel content
Error messages

Navigation Tone

When figuring out where to navigate, what is the user Thinking or saying?

What is the user feeling?

Explorative, Interested, Motivated

How to respond:

The user is looking for obvious routes to a desired destination. Avoid elaboration or uncommon words that may make the user stop and ponder.

What tone to apply:

Direct and Neutral

Navigation text is noun-driven because it is answering the question, “Where to?” Never have more than two words.
Keep the tone personal, but neutral.
Do not make the user feel more panicked about his health score.
Do not use sentence case for actions
Use “Show” instead of “View” because its tone is more inclusive

Do not use all caps (including small caps). All caps make words appear more aggressive and less approachable.

Button Tone

When looking for a button, what is the user thinking or saying?

What is the user feeling?

Curious, Interested, Motivated

How to respond:

The user is looking to make a quick decision with minimal hold-ups. Keep the word(s) succinct. Avoid obscure words that only a certain group of people may know.

What tone to apply:

Approachable and direct

Use a single word as much as possible.
Only use two words if relating an action to a specific noun clarifies understanding for the user.
Use title case
Each word is 3 syllables or less
Do not use more than 3 words.
Do not use exclusive words that only a specialized group of people would understand (such as acronyms).
Do not use acronyms
Do not use prepositions or articles
“Next” is a noun, use “Continue” instead

Dialog Tone

When confronted with a dialog, what is the user thinking or saying?

What is the user feeling?

Curious Interrupted Inquisitive

How to respond:

The user is likely to feel interrupted by the dialog. Avoid using complex sentences that may slow the user from continuing quickly. Be sure to explain the cause for the interruption and the effect of the user’s choice.

What tone to apply:

Explanatory Neutral Direct

Dialog Text

10-12 words per sentence
Each word is 8-10 characters
Each word is 4 syllables or less
Keep the verb consistent between header and button
First sentence: Address the action in question.
Second sentence: State the consequence of the action.
Avoid using abrupt, impersonal sentences that alarm the user.
Never state the consequence without an explanation.
Do not use exclamation points. Do not use contractions.
Exclude articles and prepositions
Do not alarm a user without explaining the cause for the dialog.

Error Message Tone

When an error message surfaces, what is the user thinking or saying?

What is the user feeling?

Apprehensive Interrupted Perplexed

How to respond:

Guide the users to how they can fix the problem. Use clear and concise language to avoid confusion. Although the user does not need to be explicitly comforted, it is best to never imply that the user is the cause of the error.

What tone to apply:

Helpful Explanatory

Dialog Text

Start with a verb
You may use “Please” at the start of a sentence if the user is being inconvenienced
10-12 words per sentence Each word is 8-10 characters Each word is 4 syllables or less
Use a second sentence to explain the reason for error if it is
not obvious because of place- ment or context.
Use a single sentence when the placement and context explains the reason for error.
Never place blame on the user with a sentence structure of “You verb noun incorrectly.”
Using error codes makes the product feel less human
Do not use a sentence structure that makes the user feel at fault.
Error codes do not explain what the user needs to do to fix the error.

Empty State Tone

When an area is not yet populated, what is the user thinking or saying?

What is the user feeling?

Intrigued Interested Curious

How to respond:

Explain the space instead of just stating that it’s empty. Inform the users of how to populate the area and why it is in their interest to do so.

What tone to apply:

Empowering Opportunistic

Dialog Text

1-2 sentences

1-2 sentences
10-12 words per sentence
Each word is 8-10 characters
Each word is 2 syllables or less
Only use one sentence when the purpose of the space is obvious because of placement or context
Empower the user to take action
Make an empty space into an opportunity.
Do not just inform the user that the space is empty.
Do not use exclamation points or question marks.
Do not include negative words like “no”, “nothing” and “there is not.”

Guided Experience Tone

When an area is not yet populated, what is the user thinking or saying?

What is the user feeling?

Curious Uncertain

How to respond:

Assure users of what step they’ve reached with a clear and concise headline. In the following one to two sentences, explain the benefit of that particular step and any actions to take.

What tone to apply:

Informative Conversational

Dialog Text

10-12 words per sentence
Each word is 8-10 characters
Each word is 4 syllables or less
Sentence case
Exclamation points can be used in this context, but only in peak moments of the guided experience (example: reaching the final step)
First, inform the users where they are in the process
First sentence: Call to action that will lead to the next step.
Second sentence: Explain the importance of the step.
For the title of the step, only lead with a verb on steps after the first one and before the last one.
Avoid redundancy in the first and second sentence.
Do not over-explain the reason for the step.
Should not be verb-lead because it is the beginning. Inform the user that they are at the start of multiple steps.
Provide just enough level of detail to guide user to the next step/stage.
Beware of redundant calls to action or directives.

Conclusion

This type of research is key in developing a point of view that focuses on aiding our customers the ability to interact with the company in an authentic manner that builds a relationship. It is important to enforce rules around all behaviors across the site, documenting the reasoning behind the choices and research that provides back-up for those decisions.

Back-up Research

Competitive set

MailChimp
Intuit
Google
Apple
Amazon

Areas of Interest

Button text
Error message
Guiding text & first time use •
Empty text

Analysis of:

Sentence structure
Grammar
Tone of voice
Word capitalization, length and complexity

MailChimp | Conversation, but direct tone

Button Text key findings

No more than 3 words per button
Rarely a single word
No word has more than 8 letters
No word has more than 2 syllables
Phrase always starts with a verb
Phrase almost always ends in a noun
Always written in title case
Articles are capitalized
Includes personal pronouns like “my”
Excludes prepositions like “for”
No punctuation

Error Messages key findings

Always starts with “Please”
Under 10 words in sentence or phrase
No word has more than 6 letters
No word has more than 2 syllables
Always written in sentence case
Includes personal pronouns like “your”
Does not state the problem, only directs user to fixing the issue
Sentence type = imperative

Guiding Text and onboarding key findings

Uses punctuation for full sentences, but not for phrases
No word has more than 10 letters
No word has more than 3 syllables
Includes personal pronouns like “your”
Uses sentence case
No contractions
Text either tells the user what to do next or gives specific requirements of an entry

For confirmation text:

Uses punctuation
No word has more than 8 letters
No word has more than 2 syllables
Includes personal pronouns like “your”
Uses sentence case
Uses conversational language like “good to go”

For instructional text:

No word has more than 3 syllables
Starts with “please”
Includes personal pronouns like “we”
Uses punctuation in title
Title case for title, sentence case for additional.
No more than 2 sentences.
Uses punctuation
No word has more than 10 letters
No word has more than 3 syllables
Includes personal pronouns like “your” and “we”
Uses sentence case
First sentence is explanation, second sentence is next step
No contractions
Uses conversational language like the word “thing”
Title case for title, sentence case for additional. No more than 2 sentences.

Empty text key findings

No word has more than 15 letters
No word has more than 4 syllables
No more than 2 sentences of explanatory text
Includes personal pronouns like “you”
Title points out the problem
First sentence of explanatory text defines while the second sentence directs user to more information.

Intuit | Informative and casual tone of voice

Button Text key findings

No more than 5 words per button
Sometimes a single word
No word has more than 8 letters
No word has more than 2 syllables
Phrase always starts with a verb
Case structure is inconsistent
Excludes personal pronouns like “my”
Includes prepositions like “for”
No punctuation

Error Messages key findings

No word has more than 8 letters
No word has more than 3 syllables
Phrase almost always ends in a noun
Always written in sentence case
Includes personal pronouns like “you”
Instructional text starts with “please”
No more than 2 sentences. First sentence states the problem while the second sentence gives action.
Uses conversational words like “oops”

Guiding Text and onboarding key findings

No word has more than 10 letters
No word has more than 3 syllables
Always written in sentence case
Includes personal pronouns like “you”
Instructional text starts with “please”
No more than 2 sentences. First sentence states informs while the second sentence gives action.

Empty text key findings

No word has more than 10 letters
No word has more than 3 syllables
Always written in title case
Includes personal pronouns like “your”
Instructional text starts with “please”
Does not state the problem, only tells the user what to do to populate the area

Google | Helpful and direct tone of voice

Button Text key findings

No more than 3 words per button
Rarely a single word
No word has more than 8 letters
No word has more than 2 syllables
Phrase mostly starts with a verb
Mostly written in title case
Rarely written in all caps
Articles are excluded
Includes proper pronouns like “I”
Excludes prepositions
No punctuation

Error Messages key findings

No word has more than 8 letters
No word has more than 3 syllables
Always written in sentence case
Includes personal pronouns like “you”
Does not include adverbs like “Please”
Single sentence that states the problem but does provide a next step

Guiding Text and onboarding key findings

No word has more than 8 letters
No word has more than 2 syllables
Always written in sentence case
Includes personal pronouns like “you”
Does not include adverbs like “Please”
Single sentence that reiterates the main action (example: “Pull up”)
May use an “If…then” structure
Uses contractions like “you’re” to read more like spoken language

Empty text key findings

No word has more than 8 letters
No word has more than 2 syllables
Always written in sentence case
Includes personal pronouns like “you”
Ends in a preposition (traditionally incorrect grammar, but mimics spoken language
Text tells the user either trouble shooting tips or the purpose for the space.
Starts with a negative word like “no” or “nothing

Apple | Informative and sometimes empowering tone

Button Text key findings

No word has more than 8 letters
No more than 3 words
No word has more than 2 syllables
Always written in title case
Does not capitalize articles or prepositions
Often a single word
Almost always starts with a verb
Incorporates proper noun and brand(example: “iTunes”)

Error Messages key findings

No word has more than 8 letters
No word has more than 4 syllables
Always written in sentence case
Includes personal pronouns like “you”
Does not include adverbs like “Please”
Single sentence that states the problem but does provide a next step

Guiding Text and onboarding key findings

No word has more than 15 letters
No word has more than 5 syllables
Written in sentence case
Includes personal pronouns like “you”
Does not include adverbs like “Please”
First sentence that explains the benefit, second sentence offers additional info.

Empty text key findings

No word has more than 8 letters
No word has more than 3 syllables
Always written in sentence case
Includes personal pronouns like “your”
Does not include adverbs like “Please”
Single sentence that states the problem but does provide a next step

Amazon | Considerate and direct tone of voice

Button Text key findings

No more than 4 words per button
Rarely a single word
No word has more than 8 letters
No word has more than 2 syllables
Phrase mostly starts with a verb
Mostly written in sentence case
Rarely written in all caps
Articles are excluded
Uses a naked “this” in one of the button phrases
No punctuation

Error Messages key findings

No word has more than 8 letters
No word has more than 2 syllables
Always written in sentence case
Includes personal pronouns like “your”
Instructional text starts with “please”
No more than 2 sentences. First sentence states the problem, second sentence gives action.

Guiding Text and onboarding key findings

No word has more than 15 letters
No word has more than 4 syllables
Always written in sentence case
Includes personal pronouns like “your” • Instructional text starts with “please”
No more than 2 sentences
May include a rhetorical question

Empty text key findings

No word has more than 15 letters
No word has more than 4 syllables
Always written in sentence case
Includes personal pronouns like “your”
Ends in a preposition (traditionally incorrect grammar, but mimics spoken language)
Text personifies the area (example:“Your shopping cart lives”)
Does not use obviously negative words like “no” or “nothing”

Key Research Findings Overall

Overall

No word longer than 13-15 letters
No word should have more than 3-4 syllables
No more than 2 sentences at a time, with each sentence under 15 words

Button Text

No more than three words is ideal
Up to 8 letters per word
Less than two syllables per word
Ideally starts with a verb

Error Message

Some use the word “please”
Usually tells the user what is wrong and how to fix it.

Guiding Text & First Time Use

Uses punctuation to show movement through a process
Tells the user how and why

Empty Text

Tells the user that the space is empty
Sometimes tells the user how to populate the space

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