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Voice and tone

We use the Guidewire voice across all of our P&C cloud solutions. Our voice is an extension of the Guidewire brand personality. Guidewire's voice is always the same, communicating with customers in a way that's essential, consistent, and makes sense to them.

Aligning all UX copy around a single voice enables our customers to create a coherent picture of the personality communicating with them. Customers gain trust, understand more, and forge an emotional connection that motivates them to act.

A well-defined and consistent voice is one aspect of effective UX writing. For your UX copy to deliver on all fronts, you also need to consider voice in relation to tone and style.

Voice, as we've mentioned, describes Guidewire's personality, which is unique and constant.

Tone is how the voice changes in different situations. It's dynamic.

Style covers the rules and mechanics of writing, such as grammar, punctuation, and syntax.

To help with translating the Guidewire brand into UX copy, we've included best practice guidance on how to express our voice through your writing.

Voice traits​

UX voice traits support the idea of developing trust and lightening customers' burden where possible. These traits are intended to result in an overall experience that feels friendly and intuitive.

Each voice trait comes with its own set of Do's and Don'ts that are applicable across all contexts.

Simple​

Description: We maximize readability by designing content that is straightforward and tailored to our customers.

  • Choose words that are simple and familiar to your audience.
  • Write at the 10th-12th grade reading level for professional audiences, and the 6th-8th grade reading level for general audiences. You can use free tools like the Hemingway Editor to check your copy.

Helpful​

Description: We deliver the right content for the right user at the right time.

  • Be plain-spoken and support customers with clear content.
  • Inspire action through highlighting value and writing in an active voice.
  • Keep content economical so that customers can focus on what's important.

Trustworthy​

Description: Our customers count on us to be open, transparent, and honest.

  • Communicate with clarity and empathy.
  • Use positive, direct language and avoid ambiguity.
  • Be specific when explaining the benefit of a feature without overpromising.

Friendly​

Description: We design enterprise applications that are both accessible and approachable.

  • Aim for an informal style that makes use of everyday language when possible.
  • The words of an interface represent your conversation with customers. Write in a voice and tone that is human, relatable, and authentic.
  • Address customers in the second person (you or your), so it feels like the product is speaking directly to them.

Adjusting tone​

It's helpful to think of tone as a series of sliding controls that you can turn up or down as needed. Tone is based on the mood or feeling of our customers. You can create an empathy-driven experience by adjusting tone to accommodate your audience and the situation. Are you trying to ...

  • Engage them emotionally?
  • Give them clear instruction?
  • Reassure them or boost their confidence?
  • Enhance a moment of celebration?
  • Diffuse a moment of frustration or pain?

The characteristics of word choice and messaging set the tone. Consider error and success messages:

  • If someone encounters an error message and is struggling to complete a task, the UX copy should reflect that we take the issue seriously and seek to fix the problem.
  • If someone has completed an action during their journey and sees a success message, the UX copy should leave them feeling empowered, motivated, and satisfied with their efforts.

Being sensitive to what people are trying to do at different stages of a journey—and setting your tone accordingly—will influence how customers feel about what's happening at that moment, as well as the brand and product overall.

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