The problem

We were losing the trust of both internal and external users of the bank’s digital experiences. Journeys within, and even the product suite were fragmented, with inconsistent approaches to tone, language and UX patterns. A primary contributor - the absence of shared content guidance between design, product and engineering teams.

“I don’t know how to decide between wording like ‘Next’ and ‘Continue’, or even how to tell whether my content’s clear or not.” Lead product designer

Goals

Approach

How? Building a core, MVP style guide that establishes a consistent, unified voice and structure applicable across the bank’s digital ecosystem.To deliver the MVP, I broke this project into 4 distinct phases:

Phase 1. Audit

Reviewed all existing style guides, tone docs, and design system content to identify overlaps, contradictions, and gaps.

Examples of inconsistencies

Phase 2. Define principles

Within the small, but mighty content design discipline we established our core content design principles:

1. Content is clear and accessible
   We write in plain English, striving for 7th grade reading level or below. Our users understand information quicker when we avoid using jargon.

2. Content is not used to patch bad UX
   Users want to get their answers quickly, without getting overwhelmed by fluff. Content decisions should be consistently applied, ensuring we don’t inadvertently spotlight variances across back-end systems.

3. Content is grounded in evidence
   We continuously research, seeking to understand our users, we deliver the right information at the right time.

4. Content evokes confidence
   Our users can identify our business through product interactions, encouraging them to feel safe and confident in their decisions.

5. Content aligns with the businesses' values
   Our approach is consistent, building trust in our users through their recognition in our voice. We empower users of our products empower our users.

   
   

Phase 3. Developing and applying content standards

For internal products, I developed broad patterns to improve the consistency of communication. For uplifting designs, take these destructive dialogues, for example:

Before (examples of inconsistencies)
After
Resolutions	Agreed button CTA rules with design system team, with primary action always to the left.	Primary action linked to the verb Reducing verbosity of common statement "Are you sure you want to…"

For new journeys, we were able to apply standards straight away. Here's an example from our mobile app.

Phase 4. Engaging with the broader team

I partnered with the broader design and brand teams to ensure the new content system reflected the bank’s tone of voice and visual identity.

Outcomes

The standards we created improved the experiences of both client-facing and our enterprise platforms. Once designers had a shared reference, they wrote clearer microcopy faster, improving coherence across internal experiences.

Enterprise software

• 
  

• Continued increase in adoption of our new

• Reduced reliance of help-desk by

  
  

Trusted client devices

• In December 2024, we launched a new security feature enabling clients to register up to 5 trusted devices. Since then, 28% of all active online accounts have at least one registered trusted-devices (Correct as of August 2025)

Informally, there's been a positive sentiment reported by clients to their team.