One design lesson that kept resurfacing while working on Marvel Stadium was the importance of writing for humans under pressure, in a way that feels like a conversation. With Disney holding the naming rights to the Docklands Stadium, their role went beyond sponsorship, and they were deeply invested in how the brand looked and sounded. Disney’s brand language had to meet the same high standards seen across its films, toys, and merchandise. Working on their stadium’s mobile products was a fun experience, as it showed how all those brand elements come together within a digital experience.
There was a fair amount going on in terms of managing the design strategy, working with a long list of vendors, and orchestrating it all together into a cohesive visual design. All this effort would be represented well when the voice and tone of the app come together nicely. All my previous experiences with content effectiveness across various products, including transport, showed patterns in user content processing based on situational context and emotional state, which proved helpful.
So, I set about considering how we can maintain personality when someone is looking for a facility or feeling overwhelmed by a massive venue they've never visited before.
Our app needed to guide 50,000+ people through complex scenarios while maintaining the energy of the event day. That meant we aimed to keep the app's voice passionate, knowledgeable, and local, consistent, but our tone had to shift dramatically based on what someone needed in that moment. During onboarding, we used encouraging, step-by-step guidance to build confidence: "Don't miss out on any announcements or Welcome to the Marvel Stadium". But what happens when someone can't find accessible seating during the rush? No room for personality quirks, just clear, direct help: "Aisle 44 via lift B. Accessible facilities available."
This connects directly back to my PTV experience, where we learned that transport apps become invisible during smooth journeys but critical during disruptions. Peak-hour commuters processing service delays don't want conversational copy, as they are looking for facts: "Use bus replacement service platform 1."
Our research found that apologetic phrases like “Sorry for the inconvenience” often increased user frustration, whereas action-oriented language helped reduce it.
The pattern held across both platforms: users in different emotional states process information in entirely different ways. Off-peak PTV users had cognitive space for more supportive language, such as "Avoid crowds, next train is quieter." But during morning rush, even "Plan your journey" performed better than "Let's plan your perfect trip together" because speed mattered more than brand personality. In essence, Planning phases accommodate more descriptive content, while crisis scenarios demand minimal cognitive processing.
It was the same at Xero. I learned to strike a balance between personality and utility when designing financial interfaces. The app needed to feel approachable enough for small business owners who weren't accountants, but trustworthy enough to handle their money. Every word choice mattered. This meant we had to be consistent with the brand voice while allowing flexibility in tone adaptation based on user stress levels for the task at hand.
At Marvel Stadium, planning features revealed the same insight. Users needed contextual usefulness. Parking and Food courts were grouped, while events and upcoming activities were reorganised to inform fans about what’s happening and what's to come. Efficient, practical, actionable.
Design system integration
Bringing this into the context of designing a design system is quite challenging. Design systems are often unaware of the context in which they are being applied. So we developed a modular content guideline that:
- Maintain brand voice consistency across platforms
- Enable context-appropriate tone adaptation
- Support rapid content iteration based on user feedback
Learnings
Working at Telstra Purple, I got to collaborate with several businesses and brands, each with its own interface personality, where tone becomes as contextual to the user as the brand itself. I've learnt that content design means treating language as a functional UX element, not purely as brand expression. User-centred content strategies need to prioritise information utility over personality consistency, especially in high-stakes scenarios where clarity directly affects whether users succeed or not.