I am an interface and user experience designer.
Salutations, dear reader! *ahem* I mean Hi. And thanks for reading. Let’s talk about what you’re doing right now – reading, I mean. Presumably you’re reading this to yourself in a voice not dissimilar to that of this post – a usual, everyday voice like you’d use to talk to your friends… but that first line brought you up short. Why? Because writing is targeting, and it’s easy to miss the mark.
Why do press releases and marketing fluff-pieces not ring true? It’s because they’re not voiced to reach you, as part of a larger audience. Marketing is the dark art devoted to this concept – but in the design/development/startup world, sometimes it gets overlooked. There should be more consideration given to the wording and voice we use most often in our day-to-day work lives – writing in interface, writing to communicate.
Somebody had to write every single word on every button and link and palette you click to get your job done. Do you think about these small interactions with writing? Probably not – because they’ve done their job and got out of the way. 37signals, for example, speaks extensively about this – designing is writing. And when you’re writing, you’re making decisions. If you’re not making the right decisions you’re probably not reaching everyone you could be, or actively alienating potential customers.
Consider language use. If I was writing a cover letter for a consulting position at IBM, would I drop some LOLcat or an f-bomb into the middle of it? I can haz no fucking way. Not because it’s irrelevant or a quote-unquote bad word, but because I’m using the wrong words to get the job done. In the context of that cover letter, I need to be using the voice to which that audience is receptive. Because I’m speaking their language, I can haz.
The same goes for interface design – where writing is the most important element. If you strip away all the pixels and CSS declarations, you’re left with words – and really that’s all you ever have to communicate with your users. If the voice you’re using feels wrong, or uncomfortable, they’ll bail. Not because the value isn’t there, but because you weren’t able to speak to them in a way that made sense. Drop shadow and rounded corners won’t fix that. Kill your stylesheet. Does the site still make sense? Is it still coherently speaking to you?
Am I sitting in my wingback chair, dictating this in stentorian tones to my personal secretary? Sadly, I have no wingback, no secretary, and am only mildly stentorian. Is this post reaching you, though? I’d like to think so – because I write for the audience that I belong to. I’m writing this for you, hypothetical reader, because I think you’re like me and will respond to something to which I would respond.
Is the version of me writing this a veneer over the ‘true’ voice? Of course not. There is no ‘real’ authenticity, no authoritative version. The way I talk to my mother on the phone isn’t the way I talk to my coworkers, nor are they the words I use when building interfaces. All of them, however, are my words.
If you’re in the creative industries, your work is about communicating concepts, about selling your point of view. Communication is about voice. It’s worthwhile to develop a voice that resonates.
@Togsy Ha – that’s amazing but clearly not right. I’ll look into it.