Voice and tonality

An important part of creating good content (i.e. texts) is being aware of the voice and tonality of it.

Voice

The voice in our quality registries must be constant, just as it is in a human being. The voice can be equated with personality and qualities, what makes us recognize someone. In a survey sent out to the QReg section at UCR, we asked what the quality registry would be like if it were a person. The answers said, among other things, that it is a reliable, trustworthy, helpful person. The voice is what sets the tone of the quality registry.

The voice of the quality registry is:

• reliable
• friendly
• knowledgeable
• objective
• helpful
• clear

A good person to deal with, quite simply. Helps when needed but does not talk unnecessarily. The voice is definitely not unpleasant, snobby, fiery, too trendy or talkative. It is important to keep in mind that the voice should suit both a completely new and inexperienced user as well as a very experienced user. When you write texts for quality registries, you can imagine an expert, a really good advisor, who makes sure that the work flows and helps you out of any trouble if such arise.

Tonality

The tone changes depending on the situation. When giving an important presentation, you use one tone and another when having coffee with colleagues. In the same way, we adapt the tonality of the texts to different situations that may arise in the use of the registry. A welcome message can be happy and pleasant, while an error message should be more serious.

The tone of the registries should be quite formal, like government or bank information. Formal but not too dry and boring.