A word is worth a thousand pictures

Words matter. They shape the experiences people have with the services they use. Stop thinking of words as the finishing touches of a…

Words matter. They shape the experiences people have with the services they use. Stop thinking of words as the finishing touches of a product or service and start using them as the best design tool you never knew you always had.

By Sorcha Daly, Associate, Wilson Fletcher

When we talk about that human layer of interaction between people and the digital products and services they use every day, its most immediate incarnation is in words. Most people speak of a website as something they read. The words on screen are the things that prompt us to act, prompt us to think, prompt us to make a decision and prompt us to make judgements about the value of the service itself.

To start from a very crude and basic way of thinking about the impact of language, take these five words: ‘OK’, ‘got it’, ‘continue’, ‘accept’, ‘done’. They all perform the function of getting a user to confirm and move on to the next stage, but look at how different they each are. What do these really mean? What do these short words make a user feel when they’re on a simple button?

‘OK’ is no big deal — you’re not signing up to the most exciting offer in the world, but that’s just fine.

‘Got it’ means the service is trying to be my friend — but you know what, maybe it’s succeeding.

‘Continue’ is a journey — you’re expecting more work around the corner.

‘Accept’ feels like a commitment. What am I signing up to? Maybe I should go back and read those terms again.

‘Done’ is satisfying — a big swooping tick on a to do list.

Words are still the most vital and nuanced units of communication we have in our grasp (yes, even more so than emojis), so why don’t we use them more during the design process?

In a traditional product team, writers sit with marketeers in the team that works with the finished product. Writing is copywriting, and copy, until it gets to the copywriter’s desk, is lorem ipsum. The copywriter isn’t privy to many of the ideas that have gone into the creation of the product. Writing happens once a project or service has been conceived, designed and often, once it’s completed. It’s a huge opportunity lost, a very old- fashioned way of working. Start using words at the beginning of the design process and those you’ll have at the end will be better.

Distilling purpose

At the very beginning of design, use words to define purpose. It’s startling how often this stage is missed or cut at the beginning of a project in favour of launching into working out how something will work before developing an understanding of why. Defining the service with one, two, three or six words is often a very difficult task, but when successful can be the most rewarding and useful design tool.

We often find that during kick-off workshops, it’s easy to jump into the mechanics of the service before the purpose is articulated. People speak in sketches, in scenarios, in discussions of how, when and why individual features are used much more comfortably than taking the time to carefully de ne that purpose.

A word written big, on a board, in front of everyone has the power to distill. Show people a sketch and they’ll want to add, to redraw, to swap elements around — they launch into detail. Show them a word and they’ll agree or disagree: “yes, but isn’t it more about efficiency than simplicity?”, “I like the idea but perhaps it should feel more empowering?”.

Words also have unique viscosity: they stick in the mind. They’re portable. A pertinent statement stays in the brain far longer than a sketch of an entire user journey.

Packaging ideas

At the concepting stage, words are useful for their power to package and articulate common thinking. Working with named ideas, features and characteristics helps to develop an identity from the outset and ensures you’re not separating brand and product. The product develops its identity as it evolves, rather than having it slapped on at the end.

A crucial moment at this stage of product development is articulating ideas to other people — whether that’s within the team itself, to other people within the business whose buy-in you need, or when pitching to somebody else. For them, think of words as behaving exactly as they do when they’re in a live service — they’re nuanced units of communication that come loaded with meaning, setting the tone for the experience.

Take, for example, a basic element like an account page. Calling it ‘account page’ is simple and clear, but also comes with preconceived assumptions. Somebody might expect the account page to feature payment, or wishlists, or changing profile details. It’s a functional and generic element that does a certain job. But by giving it a name you’re creating clear purpose for something that could otherwise be generic. But use something like ‘membership hub’ or ‘clubhouse’ and we’re talking about an exclusive, luxury-feeling service that focuses on making the user feel special by highlighting perks of membership. It’s a concept the whole design team understands and can work towards.

The same is true of presenting explorations for look and feel. ‘Design route one’ and ‘option two’ are forgettable names. People are more likely to cling to specific details they remember, calling the concept ‘the green one’, ‘the one with the slider’, ‘the one with the big image’ rather than thinking deeply about the characteristics of the concepts and what they do to the experience — i.e. the impact they’ll have on the user. But give concepts names and you give them resonance and meaning.

Refining detail

One of the great advantages of using language purposefully in the service strategy phase of a project is that by the time it gets into detailed design the thinking hasn’t been lost.

Designing without language is like sewing without thread — you may be doing all the right things with big elements but you’re missing what keeps the whole structure together. With everybody speaking the same language (not Latin), the service itself has a life, developing language of its own.

The easiest way to carry this through is by avoiding lorem ipsum, which feels like an obvious thing to say but is so easy to forget when up against pressing deadlines. Use the language that has fueled the design as a stepping stone to get you closer to the language that will resonate with the user.

At this point it’s vital to switch thinking from product-first to user-first. The nuance here is so important. When crafting the top layer between the user and the service, it should speak directly to them, responding to what each user feels, wants and needs at each specific moment in time.

Describing an experience

By using words purposefully during a project, the marketing and live experience of a service will be more natural. Maintaining a focus on the ‘why’ of the service throughout means that the marketing stage isn’t as big a leap as it may have otherwise been. It also creates a bank of words that do or don’t work in articulation, leaving less room for jargon and a greater likelihood that the words used have lived with the service for a while — and they fit.

Once a service is live, it’s important to ensure the mask doesn’t slip. A jolt in language will always be noticed by a user — whether that’s a trusted brand making a mistake or a new service adopting a strange tone, like your bank saying ‘oops’ or a friendly brand suddenly calling you Sir/Madam.

Using words more purposefully might not come easily. The first thing to start doing in order to make language a greater part of a design process is to make it explicit. There are times when everybody instinctively stops to think about the words they’re using — writing a deck, pitching an idea, even writing an email to a stranger and trying to convey a certain impression. We need to be doing that more.

There probably will be plenty of daunting moments spent staring at a blank whiteboard, in front of a room of people who would be much more comfortable staring at a blank screen, or feeling completely counter-productive when a word is in use but you feel in your gut that it’s not the right one. Work for that right word. It will do the job of a thousand pictures.