Tone of voice

[ContentDesigner]

Hello. Has anyone read anything interesting on tone of voice? I'm advocating a neutral, factual style for health information - to not get in the way of the action focus of the content - but there's some anxiety in the organisation about loss of reassuring bedside manner. I think this just takes up space and adds little. None of our user feedback has been negative on the neutral factual voice. Any good blogs on tone anyone's seen recently?

Thanks

 

[Keith Pearce]

I've done a fair amount of work with health benefits information and our organization's stance was actually the opposite of what you describe. The information was very factual and neutral and our reader engagement was low. I sought to bring more informality and practicality to the messages to build engagement. I was successful in softening the messages but as you note, there was some anxiety about it. Those concerned with legal or contractual aspects preferred the antiseptic language, but despite their predictions, the sky did not fall.

It's such a common answer but I think it's all about balance. I do see what you're saying - if there is too much bedside manner, the messages - especially action oriented messages - will not be as clear or compelling. I would suggest you lean towards the neutral, factual style but retain some of the warmth to preserve connection with the reader. So, using an imperfect model - a sliding scale - I'd say 75% factual, 25% engaging is what worked for us.

Finally, a lot of this depends on the culture of the organization. If the org is paternalistic towards clients and that's how they see their role in the relationship, you'll not want to go to far in the factual direction because it won't sound like your organization anymore. Perhaps you focus the transformation of tone on directly actionable content and leave the rest squishy as before?