Audience and context formality scale

Summary

A voice-guidance page that plots communication channels on a single horizontal axis running from Informal to Formal, beneath two short intro paragraphs.

Visual description

Cream background, header "1.6 / Our voice / Verbal identity". The upper area holds two bold-labeled sans text blocks, "Think about audience" and "Think about context", plus a short note on the right reading "This diagram demonstrates how we adjust our language based on audience and context". The lower half is a clean horizontal axis with arrowheads at both ends, labeled "Informal" on the left and "Formal" on the right. Six small node dots sit along it, each tagged above with a channel: Social media, Newsletter, Keynote speech, Case study, Proposal, Award entry, ordered left to right by formality. Footer rule below.

Key takeaway

Reducing "match your tone to the channel" to one labeled axis with channels plotted along it is far clearer than a paragraph. The double-headed arrow communicates a spectrum, not categories, and the channel order does the teaching at a glance.

Reuse notes

A reusable diagram for any spectrum: formality, complexity, audience seniority, brand warmth. Plot the real touchpoints in order and let the axis carry the message. Keep the node labels short and evenly spaced. Pair with a sentence of intro so the axis is unambiguous. Works in any monochrome editorial system.