Information Architecture: Audience

Perception / Tone

How do you want the user to perceive the website?
What emotional response do you want to evoke?
What is the tone of the website?

For example if the site is about Mardi Gras the tone could be festive, colorful and exciting but if it was a site for a funeral home you would probably want the tone to be conservative, respectful and somber.

Mardi Gras - Tone: festive, colorful, exciting
Funeral Home - Tone: conservative, respectful, somber

When you are designing on a very tight budget that does not cover a detailed Communication Strategy then the Perception / Tone becomes a valuable source of information for the overall tone of the site and the desired user perception.

example Perception/Tone set-up

COMPANY NAME

PERCEPTION / TONE
You need to only write a few words, normally two or three are enough that describe the tone of the site and the emotional response you want to create in your user.