05 · Content standards
Voice and Tone
Built a lean voice and tone guide for WILD, giving a volunteer team of writers and designers one recognizable voice to promote women in design.
2 weeks
End-to-end timeline
1
Unified voice system
Overview
Volunteered with WILD as a UX writing consultant to prepare a lean voice and tone guide for social media outreach promoting events for women and non-binary folks in the design industry. Two weeks, working with the editor-in-chief, five writers, and five designers.
What I did
- Defined voice principles with usage rules writers could apply immediately
- Built a tone spectrum - too harsh, just right, too timid - for calibration
- Wrote spokesperson and style guidance for social outreach
Speak up - visionary, bold
- Be proactive, not passive: create opportunities rather than wait for them
- Speak up, don't be timid: amplify diverse perspectives without hedging
- Be assertive, not aggressive: push boundaries, don't accept the status quo
Usage
- Avoid wishy-washy words like “possibly,” “potentially,” “might”
- Use strong adjectives instead of modifiers like “very” and “really”
- Speak directly to the reader
Tone spectrum
Every high-stakes moment mapped to three columns - too harsh, just right, too timid - with example phrases, so writers could calibrate in seconds instead of debating.
