How do you align your web content labels with your brand voice and tone?

1 Why labels matter

Labels are not only visual cues, but also verbal cues that communicate the purpose, function, and meaning of your web content. Labels help users to find what they are looking for, understand what they are seeing, and interact with your content effectively. Labels also help users with disabilities, such as visual impairments, cognitive impairments, or motor impairments, to access your content using assistive technologies, such as screen readers, keyboards, or voice commands.

2 How to create clear labels

Creating clear labels is essential for your users, as they should use simple, concise, and accurate language that matches their expectations. Ambiguity, jargon, slang, or unnecessary words should be avoided. To create clear labels, use common and familiar words that your users understand and relate to. Additionally, use descriptive and specific words that accurately convey the meaning and function of your content elements. Furthermore, it is important to use consistent and predictable words that follow the same style and format throughout your content. Lastly, use active and imperative words to indicate the action or outcome of your content elements.

3 How to create consistent labels

Creating consistent labels across your web content, channels, and platforms is essential to reinforcing your brand identity, voice, and tone, as well as creating a seamless and coherent user experience. To do so, you should use a style guide and glossary to define and standardize your label language and appearance. Additionally, a label inventory and audit can help review and update existing labels. Finally, user testing and feedback can help evaluate and improve label clarity and consistency.

4 How to follow WCAG guidelines for labels

WCAG is a set of guidelines and standards that aim to make web content accessible to people with disabilities. To achieve this, WCAG provides criteria and techniques for creating accessible labels, such as providing text alternatives for non-text content, labeling form controls, adding headings and labels for content sections, writing link text that describes the destination or purpose of the link, and providing programmatically determined names and roles for custom content elements.

5 How to align your labels with your brand voice and tone

Your brand voice and tone are essential for expressing your brand personality, values, and emotions through your language and style. It should be consistent across all channels and platforms, allowing users to connect with your brand on an emotional level. To align labels with your brand voice and tone, you should define and document its attributes, such as friendly, professional, humorous, or authoritative. Utilize words and phrases that reflect these attributes, such as casual, formal, playful, or serious. Additionally, adapt your brand voice and tone to different contexts, situations, and audiences. Finally, test the impact of your brand voice and tone on user satisfaction, engagement, and loyalty.