Are you humorous, formal, respectful, or enthusiastic?

I am a long-time fan of both Jakob Nielsen and Don Norman, so it was exciting to do a workshop from the Nielsen Norman Group on Information Architecture. Since then, I’ve been learning a lot from the articles on their site. I particularly appreciated this one, about tone of voice. Although the tool they developed is focused on web content, I think it is relevant for written content in any form.

The Four Dimensions of Tone of Voice

If we envision our website as a tool that enables us to have a conversation with our users, it’s clear that a carefully considered tone of voice is critical. In literature, the tone of voice refers to the author’s feelings towards the subject, as expressed through the writing itself.

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