Copy That Reflects Your Design Philosophy
Translating Visual Principles into Voice
Let your core philosophy set the tone
If your philosophy champions minimalism, write lean lines with purposeful verbs and no filler. If it celebrates play, use bright verbs, rhythm, and gently surprising metaphors. Share your philosophy statement in the comments, and we’ll help translate it into voice traits.
Hierarchy, Contrast, and Rhythm in Words
Balance familiar, concrete nouns with one surprising image to spark attention, just like a bold accent color. Avoid stacking multiple flashy words. Test two variants: one plain, one with a single contrast element, and ask readers which better supports your design’s focus.
Hierarchy, Contrast, and Rhythm in Words
Short sentences create breathing room, mirroring generous whitespace. After a dense explanation, add a clean, grounding line. It acts like a margin for the mind. Share an example where a single sentence break improved comprehension and reduced support questions in your product.
Microcopy That Mirrors Interaction Patterns
A quiet, neutral button deserves unbossy verbs: Save, Continue, Close. A primary call-to-action can carry energy: Start, Publish, Send. Keep labels scannable and parallel. Share a screenshot of your button set and we’ll suggest verb choices that fit your philosophy.
Storytelling Grounded in Design Systems
Spacing tokens suggest pacing; color tokens suggest mood; component patterns suggest plot beats. Draft a narrative map aligning tokens to story parts. Experiment on a feature announcement post, then share your mapping template for others to remix and credit your approach.
Storytelling Grounded in Design Systems
As components repeat, so should phrasing. Establish canonical sentences for status, error, and success. Slightly vary tone by context. This reduces cognitive load. Publish your phrase library and invite designers to propose variants that honor the system while staying human.
Storytelling Grounded in Design Systems
If your motion is ease-in-out and subtle, your transitions between paragraphs should be smooth, connecting clauses gently. If motion is snappy, tighten transitions. Read two versions aloud, feel the difference, and comment which syncs better with your product’s animation guidelines.
Accessibility as a Design and Copy Value
Plain language is inclusive design
Favor everyday verbs, avoid jargon, and explain one idea per sentence. This respects cognitive load and supports screen readers. Share a complex paragraph you simplified, and tell us which reading-grade tool you used. Encourage peers to test it with a screen reader demo.
Meaning must survive formatting
Do not rely on color or bold alone to convey meaning. Write labels and instructions that stand up without styling. Test printed and monochrome versions. Post your before-and-after screenshots and describe which wording change most improved comprehension for your testers.
Error messages that help people recover
State what went wrong, why it matters, and exactly how to fix it—no blame. Offer a secondary path or support link. Gather three real user quotes after deploying improved errors and share the impact on resolution rates with the community for collective learning.
High CTR means little if the tone violates your philosophy. Include qualitative prompts after tests: “Did this feel like us?” Share one test where the lower-click variant better matched your design values, and explain how you justified the decision to stakeholders.
From Philosophy to Playbook
Make a one-page worksheet: values, tone traits, sentence patterns, do-say pairs, and taboo phrases. Fill it during kickoff. Share a blank template here and invite the community to remix it for different industries. Promise to publish a compilation of the best versions.
From Philosophy to Playbook
For each page, audit headline promise, scannability, microcopy, empty states, and error paths. Score alignment to philosophy from one to five. Encourage teammates to run audits weekly and post trend charts. Ask subscribers to request a Notion version and we’ll share it.
