Enhancing PlayStation’s Onboarding Experience
Voice & tone analysis, UX writing guideline creation, UX copy audit, and proposed UX writing revisions for PlayStation’s onboarding flow for new users.
2025
Self-driven project
Role
UX Writer
Service
Voice & Tone Analysis
Market Research
UX Writing
Copy Audit
Tools
Miro
Figma
Objective
To refine PlayStation.com’s onboarding experience for new users, ensuring that the voice and tone reflect the brand’s core identity while guiding users seamlessly through account creation.
Strengthen brand voice and tone consistency in onboarding flows.
Simplify and clarify onboarding copy to reduce friction and increase account creation rates.
Create a welcoming, engaging, and intuitive experience for new PlayStation users.
Brand Research: Voice & Tone Analysis
Understanding the PlayStation Brand Voice
PlayStation is a brand built on innovation, entertainment, and community. Rather than selling a product, they focus on selling an experience. They speak directly to their core audience using aspirational language, tapping into deep emotional themes of play, adventure, escapism, and transformation. Rather than targeting a young demographic, like competitors Sega and Nintendo, they target a mature gamer, acknowledging that this consumer also seriously values play. PlayStation’s voice is:
Confident & Exciting – Capturing the thrill of gaming.
Immersive & Engaging – Speaking directly to gamers in an active, energetic way.
Inclusive & Supportive – Ensuring accessibility and ease of use for all players.
Playstation UX Writing Guidelines
After analyzing the key characteristics and typical voice of PlayStation’s core marketing copy as well as their brand mission and values, I developed a series of UX Writing Guidelines tailored to PlayStation’s needs. These included the universal UX writing guidelines I use for any project as well as a set of guidelines customized for PlayStation.
Universal UX Writing Guidelines
Necessary
Clear
Concise
Useful
Conversational (easy to gloss)
Branded
PlayStation UX Writing Guidelines
Involve the concept of (serious) play
Emotional word choice
No exclamation marks
Complete sentence structure but not highly formal
Focus on anticipation and excitement
Active voice
Confident, authoritative tone
Straight to the point
Conversational without being juvenile
UX Copy Audit
Current Voice & Tone in Onboarding Flow
Using the Playstation UX writing guidelines established in the previous phase, I analyzed the UX copy for the onboarding flow for new users. The current copy violates the criteria in a number of ways, along with a handful of UX best practices.
Observations:
Unclear navigation: Sign Up option not visible on homepage. Some screens are titled with the purpose of the screen, like ‘profile’, but some feature the generic ‘create an account.’ This is inconsistent.
Title Case: Title case used indiscriminately in non-title contexts.
Unclear rationale: a lot of information is required for account setup but it is not always clear why it is needed. Rationale is sometimes provided and sometimes not, sometimes above the field, and sometimes below it.
Unclear branding: The current onboarding process highlights that this is a Sony onboarding process, not a PlayStation onboarding process.
Absent voice: PlayStation’s signature energy and core messaging is not present in the onboarding experience. This could be intentional but is worth a conversation with the client.
Lots of text: Reading-heavy experience for what should be a quick and intuitive user flow. Unclear if every screen is necessary in this section of the sign-up, particularly when additional steps are required after the ‘account successfully created’ screen.
Repetition: Guidance is repetitive and lacks warmth or personality. Warnings about accuracy could be reduced in favor of clear guidelines about the purpose of each field.
Missed CTA opportunity: Calls to action (CTAs) could be more engaging and inviting.
Unclear next steps: Users aren’t always sure what to do next after creating an account. ‘OK’ is ambiguous as a final interaction. In fact, they will need to verify their email address next.
Missed Opportunities for Personalization: Messaging could feel more tailored to new users, and could be more welcoming and introductory.
UX Writing Revisions
Refining Copy for Onboarding
Voice & Tone
Revised copy to a natural tone that makes the copy more conversational and inviting as needed.
Adjusted to the active voice where needed to conform to brand guidelines and to make the copy more concise.
Clarity
Removed potentially confusing copy like ‘Sign-in ID’ to improve clarity
Removed potentially confusing ‘Online ID’ with more universally accepted term ‘User name’
Revised title case to sentence case to improve readability.
Utility
Highlighted user benefits to improve the utility of the copy and clarify the reasoning behind the required information.
Revised navigation titles to indicate the purpose of each screen and to make the formatting consistent.
Final Takeaways & Impact
Anticipated Outcomes
More Engaging & On-Brand Copy: Strengthening PlayStation’s voice in onboarding interactions would create a more holistic, branded experience throughout the user interaction.
Higher Sign-Up Completion Rates: Clearer, friendlier copy would lead to fewer drop-offs.
Better User Experience: Users would feel welcomed and better prepared to explore the PlayStation ecosystem.
Key Metrics to Track in Future Testing and Validation
% Increase in completed sign-ups
% Decrease in user drop-offs during onboarding
% Increase in user confidence scores from surveys
Future Recommendations
Expand improvements to error messages and troubleshooting flows.
Create personalized onboarding paths based on user type (new vs. returning player).
Expand user onboarding past account creation and into platform introduction.
Apply unique graphic design interfaces to the different flows to differentiate between tasks.
Maintain PlayStation graphic cues throughout the onboarding rather than conflating PlayStation and Sony.