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Nebula — Spiritual Tone of Voice

Built a three-pillar tone-of-voice framework for a spirituality and self-reflection app — do/don't guidance that aligned writing across onboarding, paywalls, and in-app content.

Role UX Writing
Timeline 2025 — 2026
Tools Figma, Notion, Claude

Overview

Nebula was mid-rebrand — moving away from a "magical astrology app" positioning toward a more mature spiritual brand — and the voice across every channel needed to reflect that shift. On top of the rebrand, different parts of the product had drifted into sounding like different products entirely: marketing copy leaned promotional and pain-point driven, while in-app content copy stayed esoteric and reflective, with no shared reference tying the two together.

As part of the UX Writing team, I built a tone-of-voice framework around three voice pillars, each paired with a clear do/don't contrast so the guidance is usable in the moment a writer is drafting a screen, not just descriptive.

Problems & Solutions

Brand voice has to come from a system, not just vibe

Before writing a single guideline, we pulled together how the product actually talked today across onboarding, paywall, and support copy, and sat down with stakeholders (such as retention, growth, and content teams) to find out what each of them actually needed. Alongside that, we looked at how established consumer apps handle their own tone of voice, including Duolingo, Headspace, and Revolut, to see how they structured and communicated guidelines that people across a company would actually use.

Say This, Not That — simple examples people could actually check their copy against

The three pillars themselves — Thoughtfully Guiding, Gently Empathetic, Accessibly Inspirational — came from the brand agency as part of the rebrand. What they meant in practice for our product was a much larger task we had to take on ourselves: rather than leave them as abstract brand language, I structured each one the way established brands lay out their own tone-of-voice guidelines, pairing it with a direct "Say this, not that" contrast. Defining the pillars this way meant a writer didn't have to interpret a principle in the abstract; they could hold a line of copy up against a concrete example on either side of the line.

Thoughtfully Guiding

Reflective · Supportive · Confident

"Notice what feels true for you right now."

"Stop thinking about this man. He won't come back."

Gently Empathetic

Empathetic · Warm · Reassuring

"I'm here when you're ready to continue."

"Worried you missed your chance to find love? Act before it's too late."

Accessibly Inspirational

Encouraging · Grounded · Relatable · Accessible

"Your energy is shifting, and here's what that means for you."

"Transiting Jupiter in harmonious aspect to the natal Moon is notably supported for relationship."

Things to avoid

  • Guru-like certainty
  • Fear or shame hooks
  • Esoteric jargon
  • Preachy morals
  • "Should / must" language

Automation makes perfect

Big companies often suffer from over-documentation, and I didn't want this to end up as another Notion page people would forget about. A framework only works if people actually check their copy against it, so I turned the guidelines into a Claude skill that reviews any piece of copy against the brand pillars and flags where it drifts. That moved the ToV from a static reference into an active, simple-to-use tool that could benefit anyone working with content — from a copywriter running a compatibility check on a draft to a product manager sense-checking copy on the next iteration of a paywall screen.

What I learned

Getting the pillars right on paper was the easier half — making a tone-of-voice document that people across the company would actually use turned out to be the real challenge.

The main friction came from copy across channels having different audiences and goals — how the brand team talks isn't how the growth marketing team talks, and both had real reasons for it. Building one shared framework meant finding compromises that would work for most of the company rather than a set of rules that satisfied any single team perfectly.