Voice and tone

The ALEX voice was first created for ALEX Benefits Counselor, a spinoff of a custom product we developed for Aetna that became our flagship product in 2012.

While several products use ALEX’s voice today, ALEX was created for the original ALEX Benefits Counselor (BC) product and is still the character that interacts with BC users today.

This guide will describe ALEX and how we approach writing in ALEX’s voice for each of our products.

Who is ALEX? What is ALEX? Where is ALEX?

ALEX is a benefits concierge whose focus is always centered on the user—what they want to do and what information is relevant to their situation.

ALEX is a trusted guide. Whether in a script or in email copy, ALEX speaks with polite familiarity.

ALEX isn’t judgemental, but ALEX BC and some of our other products are designed to help users understand the potential impact of their choices in terms of savings. Here are a few examples from ALEX BC that demonstrate what this looks like in practice:

• In the Medical module, ALEX “ranks” your plans in terms of overall savings based on your needs, so you know what plans might mean in financial terms.
• In the Tax Savings module, ALEX usually suggests contributing at least enough to a health care account (HSA or FSA) to cover a user’s out-of-pocket healthcare expenses. If the user chooses to contribute less than that, ALEX warns them that this choice will almost certainly result in paying more in taxes.
• In the Retirement module, ALEX recommends a level of savings (15%), and if the user chooses to save less, sequentially makes the case for saving at least 10%, and then at least the match. If you get through retirement saving less than the match, you have a clear picture of your retirement savings options.

ALEX is approachable, informal, and here to help users. “Where’s here?” you ask. ALEX lives (metaphorically) in our products and our hearts, but ALEX doesn’t have a body and, in fact, never references this.

Because ALEX is not a person, it’s best to write around using third-person pronouns whenever possible. While ALEX BC is voiced by a male-identifying actor named Brandon, ALEX is not Brandon and does not have an assigned sex or gender.

See how we skipped using it, him, her, and their in that paragraph? It’s easy! In some marketing materials and older internal copy, ALEX has been referred to with he/him/his pronouns, but that doesn’t mean it’s how we talk about ALEX today.

When ALEX is self-referential, opt for the first-person singular “I” over the plural “we” that has sometimes been used in the past. “We” may seem to imply that ALEX is analogous with Jellyvision or the corporate customer, which is not true.

If you’re looking at this text and thinking, “Gosh, repeating ALEX’s name that often sure gets clunky!” you’re not wrong. The good news is ALEX rarely talks about, well, ALEX. Because our marketing materials primarily focus on the benefits and features of our products, this isn’t much of an issue outside of this internal document.

A sparkling personality, a generous soul

What the UX writers say about ALEX	Real example(s) from the BC script
ALEX is curious.	Tell me: Would you be okay if you needed to get by for a while on a percentage of what you normally make? Or would money get tight quickly? Do you like choosing stocks in the stock market? In the future, would you be interested in additional support for any of these?
ALEX is kind of a benefits nerd.	You can save up for big medical expenses in the future and in retirement. You can even invest the money in your HSA And any earnings from those investments will be tax-free if they’re used on health care.
ALEX gets excited about benefits selection and finds users’ options endlessly interesting, but is socially aware enough to understand that most people don’t share this passion.	So if you haven’t done it already, open up your HSA right away. Or you might miss out. And if you don’t care about missing out on that money, first of all, you are way more chill than me.
ALEX is consistently upbeat and is self-aware enough to know it.	Life and accidental death and dismemberment. Keep it light, Alex! And that is that! All of this information is also available on the details page for Vision, where you can read it without the soothing sound of my voice.
ALEX avoids cynicism or negativity, even for a joke.	Not counting your preventive, once-a-year, fully covered preventive checkup, how many times do you think you’ll see your primary care doctor? I’m talking physically going into your doctor’s office, because you have a rash or the flu or something. If you were to develop a really serious illness, that obviously wouldn’t be fun. But it also might cost a lot of money.
ALEX is sympathetic but avoids overtly sympathizing.	Let’s talk about some big ticket items–most people don’t need surgery or make a new person in a given year, but if you do, it can have a big impact on your costs.

Things ALEX doesn’t say

ALEX does not make comments about sex, gender, ability, race, age, nationality, class, and family status. In fact, ALEX almost never talks about a third party/person and most of Jellyvision’s product copy follows suit.

For more guidance on this front, please reference this comprehensive list of off-the-table words that the DEI council drew up if ever you are unsure whether a word/phrase is appropriate for ALEX’s use.

Outside of this list, there are many “value-based” terms (i.e. smart, good, funny) that aren’t problematic on their own, but they may become problematic when applied to a specific individual or group. This risk runs especially high when a term is used to typify a person or group.

Value-based language can sometimes become coded language that’s used to include or exclude certain people. Value-based terms can also be loaded; for example, saying someone is “funny” or “intellectual” may carry personal or cultural implications.

To avoid this, ALEX applies positive, value-based language to the work and contributions that people make but not to people themselves.

Approaches to value-based statements	Brief analysis
Taylor came up with a solution. They are pretty smart.	ALEX does not make value-based comments about any person or group, so ALEX would never say this.
Taylor came up with a really smart solution.	By commenting on the solution and not Taylor, ALEX steers clear of coded language and stereotypes.

On ALEX’s sense of humor

At Jellyvision, we understand that humor is a key differentiator for our product within the market and that it genuinely improves our user experience. [Find more information about this in the Friday Insights Repository.]

When writing in ALEX’s voice for any Jellyvision product, the writer’s primary goal is to help the user make the right choices for them, by asking relevant questions, and providing information and guidance for their specific situation (or whatever the goal of that communication is, if we’re talking about ALEX outside of BC). Humor comes second to that purpose.

Being funny is not the goal of ALEX’s interactions with users/customers: that goal is to be helpful, which sometimes means using humor to hold a person’s attention or to relieve the stress around a decision.

A few moments of levity for the road, courtesy of ALEX BC:

Examples in bold	The function of humor in the example
Consider keeping this [Employee Assistance Program] number in your phone, or on a sticky note stuck to your Italian credenza… if you’ve got one of those.	Inserting a fancy piece of furniture into the convo helps ALEX keep what can be a serious topic light and makes ALEX seem more human.
To help you save for retirement, the kind souls where you work offer you a 401(k).	This quippy turn of phrase allows ALEX to avoid saying “company” or “employer.”
This is the name of the medical plan. I think it was named after its paternal grandfather, actually.	The goofy aside is classic ALEX: medical plans don’t have families, but this ruminative joke provides users with a moment of relief as they make their way through the complex and rather dry work of choosing a medical plan.
Now, as every dentist always wants to remind you, everyone should see a dentist twice a year for preventive care—checkups, regular X-rays, free toothbrushes, that kind of stuff.	ALEX uses a common human experience (dentists infamously pushing people to see them biannually for an unfun cleaning) and the delight of getting a free toothbrush to engage users and come off as relatable.
Let’s go over the facts of life… insurance. Life insurance.	What’s a tougher conversation to have than a talk about life insurance? The “facts of life” talk. ALEX uses syntax and a little wordplay to ease users into what might feel like an intimidating set of choices.