Voice guidelines for a consistent and meaningful brand experience

The problem

A consumer-facing financial services company came to us to help conceptualize, build, and launch a new feature to become the focal point of their entire brand experience, across mobile, web, and throughout their marketing interactions (emails, social media, etc.). An enormous project, the team started with JTBD work, experience visioning, and deep understanding of the company and its landscape.

I came into the project when the team was defining its distinctive brand voice and figuring out how to codify it for consistent implementation. It was a really exciting boiling point in the large, cross-functional team, with lots of conviction, enthusiasm, and ideas on ideas on ideas flying around. There was a lot of language, a lot of lingo, a lot of heart—and also growing confusion.

The process

I sat in the middle of the consumer insights, design, engineering, and executive teams to codify the way the Voice would be implemented in the experience. With a rich understanding of both the consumer and the product architecture in hand, I worked with product designers and UXers to define how the Voice would be implemented in the experience.

The result

The Guidelines, including voice and tone standards, set the foundation for the consistent implementation of the distinctive, defining brand voice throughout this revitalized experience.

And some exciting news—the experience itself is now live! And it was a Webby 2024 Honoree for Best User Experience! There’s a case study of the work our team at Lippincott did as a whole, as well.

My contribution: I brainstormed with the team initially to create the Brand Voice Character. I partnered with other designers to ideate the initial set of Guidelines. I then codified, wrote, finalized, and helped to socialize the Voice guidelines, partnering with designers and developers on an ongoing basis for refinement and to ensure implementability. Implementing the guidelines, I wrote pages of copy and microcopy for the experience itself.

And I helped the team to codify how each piece of content fit in a shared understanding of the overall product experience.