1 Using different voices

First, great article. It’s a lot harder than it seems to write a good confirmation email.

While I love flickr, photoJojo and other ‘friendly sites’, that informal voice just doesn’t suit every client. How do we go about writing engaging, approachable text for a company whose values are formal and traditional? ‘Dude, you rock’ mightn’t be a good choice for a cemetery website for example.

Still, formal and traditional don’t have to mean bad, or boring, so how do we get the best of both worlds?

Anyone got any ideas?

posted at 04:25 am on May 09, 2006 by Benjamin Fleegle

2 Designers as Writers

An informal tone doesn’t suit everyone, correct, but I think the point of Derek’s article is not only pushing the design as designers put polishing up our writing skills. I think that most people enjoy the informal aspect of sites like Flickr, it makes it that more fun.

Without the stylesheet applied to a site, all the users have to go for is the text. Good writing is critical.

posted at 05:25 am on May 09, 2006 by Miko Walczuk

3 what about the language barrier?

Interesting thoughts, and similar to some of my own. The biggest obstacle to that sort of personalisation is the barrier it creates to people with English as a second language. For example, ‘log in’ may be in their limited vocab but more colloquial forms wont.

posted at 05:33 am on May 09, 2006 by bugmenot bugmenot

4 Yeah, but there are costs...

I agree with the article – in an ideal world scenario.

Unfortunately, experience has told me that people (mostly) aren’t willing to pay for such a service. I in turn, am not willing to do it for free ;)

I have found benefit however in touching up peoples text when necessary. You do however need to display caution when doing this but my clients see it as a value add :)

posted at 06:12 am on May 09, 2006 by ian heggaton

5 Websites are no place for marketing blah

I very much agree with your point of view but often we also go with “lorem ipsum”. You need a very good understanding of your customer and his product or service. Even worse: many times a customer wants to stick with his marketing blah which might be suitable for a brochure but not for the web.

posted at 06:28 am on May 09, 2006 by Jan Kurschewitz

6 Untitled

I am a writer and editor, but I would be as nitpicky with an orphan, a widow, or a misplaced period as I am with background colors that are off or image margins that overlap. I’ve always believed in form and substance going hand in hand.

But while it’s a fact that clients first pay attention to what they see as a whole, commenting on the copy later (as doesn’t everyone else?), designers can teach them that it’s not only what they see that matters, but how the image relates to the copy.

Formal writing doesn’t necessary mean boring writing. It doesn’t have to mean using big words. In “marrying word and image” (to borrow a phrase from Nick Bantock), one can write simply and still make an impact.

posted at 06:59 am on May 09, 2006 by Brine Storm

7 If you are interested in writing for the web

Then there are lots of articles here you might find interesting: http://textgoeshere.org.uk

posted at 08:45 am on May 09, 2006 by Dave Nolan

8 More on the way

With every designer have a blog now we are more on the way of better writing, did I wrote this well ??

posted at 09:57 am on May 09, 2006 by Abdelrahman Osama

9 Attention spans

Shazam! Nice article (although I have to say it did seem a bit short).

Perhaps the point that needs to be expanded on is why this punchy, friendly, and informal language provides such a great user experience. I think I would want to labour the point – just a tiny bit more – that using informal language grabs our attention, and that grabbing our attention is the true holy grail of the internet.

”We don’t read pages. We scan them.” (Steve Krug – ‘Don’t make me think’) – but let’s face it, if someone breaks the rules and calls me a dude, they’ve probably succeeded in grabbing my attention for at least a few seconds longer. I might even stop scanning and start reading.

I always insist on seeing as much content as possible before starting work. But I have to say, that’s not because I want to make sure it’s punchy and well written. It’s because if you don’t know what the content is going to be, or whether there’s enough content for the structure the client envisions, or whether the content is suited for the internet, you simply can’t design the right site.

Peace out y’all.

posted at 10:24 am on May 09, 2006 by Robert Swan

10 Superb!

I’m glad to see someone bringing this concept to the forefront. This argument goes perfectly with the idea that “content is king” only expanding it beyond just what we think of as traditional content.

And I’d love one day to be able to raise a glass and toast to the end of marketing-speak on the web. Ahh, pipe dreams…

posted at 01:57 pm on May 09, 2006 by Brian Crescimanno