Emotional Modes — Aleris Brand OS

Reader state as a design entry point

Draft — unverified translation + reader-state scaffold. Machine-assisted English translation of foundation/emotional-modes.md, now extended (2026-05-31) to make the concept hold across audiences. Provenance is marked: (verbatim) is the existing patient content, relocated unchanged; PROPOSED is new scaffolding for Torfinn's voice pass and validation. Do not treat as canonical or stakeholder-facing.

PROPOSED — concept rename (umbrella, not replacement). The concept is broadened from emotional mode to reader state. "Reader state" is the umbrella; emotional modes (worry/curiosity, and the digital anxiety/aspiration/latent-anxiety model) remain valid as the patient and next-of-kin family — unchanged, so Baseline component metadata and the hypothesis model don't break. Professional audiences sit in dispositional states (scrutiny, time-pressure). This is additive. A full rename across the system is a separate decision — see Open. [Author prompt: confirm "reader state" as the umbrella term, and whether the page/file should be retitled or kept as emotional-modes with reader state as the framing concept.]

Why the same reader needs different communication

(verbatim) A person sits in the waiting room ahead of a conversation with the surgeon. An hour from now, the same person sits in the recovery room after the procedure.

(verbatim) Same human being. Same clinic. Same brand. But what is needed from us is entirely different.

(verbatim) In the waiting room, uncertainty dominates. The patient doesn't know what is going to happen, or how it will feel. Here our communication needs to create predictability: this is what will happen, in this order, and we are here the whole way. Structure eases worry.

(verbatim) In the recovery room, the uncertainty is of a different kind. The patient knows something has happened to their body, but not quite how it went or what happens now. Here the communication needs to be reassuring and concrete: it went well, you are here, this is what happens next. Affirmation and the next step — not process overviews.

	The waiting room, before	The recovery room, after
Reader state	Worry, need for control and overview	Disorientation, need for affirmation
We lead with	Process: what happens, step by step	Outcome: it went well, you are safe
We dial down	Clinical details that may increase worry	Information that requires a decision
The format supports	Overview — list, timeline, contact detail	Simplicity — short text, large type, one thing at a time

(verbatim) The Aleris voice is the same in both rooms. The information architecture is entirely different — because the patient's [reader state] is.

The principle

(verbatim, lightly broadened) Before you make a communication decision — whether it concerns a website, a brochure, an app, or a sign — start with the question:

What state is the reader in?

[Author prompt: keep the original "What does the person encountering this feel?" as the question for the emotional family (patients, next of kin), and add that for professional readers the question is closer to "what pressure or stance are they under?" — feeling for some, disposition for others. One or two sentences in your voice.]

(verbatim) The answer doesn't determine what we say (that's a content question) but how we structure it. What we lead with. What we dial down. How much we explain. Which form supports rather than disrupts.

(verbatim) It isn't a question of style — it's a question of structure. The same content, structured around the wrong [reader state], becomes either overwhelming or empty.

Two families of reader state

PROPOSED — the genus/species framing. Reader state is the umbrella. Two families sit under it:

Emotional modes — for patients and next of kin, where the state is genuinely a feeling.

(verbatim) Worry — the person has uncertainty about what lies ahead. Perhaps before an assessment, a procedure, or a piece of news. Need: predictability, control, human contact.
(verbatim) Curiosity — the person has actively chosen to be here and wants to feel affirmed in that decision. Perhaps a health check-up, an aesthetic consultation, or a wellness initiative. Need: a focus on outcome, clarity, a low threshold to proceed.

(verbatim) There are more nuances — and in digital products we work with a more detailed model — but the two basic modes are enough for most communication decisions. [The detailed digital model — anxiety-driven, aspiration-driven, latent anxiety — is a hypothesis living in Baseline, not Foundation. Reference it; don't restate it here. See baseline/ patterns.]

Dispositional states — for professional readers, where the state is a stance rather than a feeling.

[Author prompt: a sentence introducing this family — practitioners, coworkers, and decision-makers aren't "worried" or "curious", but they read from a position (time-pressure, accountability) that shapes what we lead with just as much.]

Other audiences, other states

PROPOSED — scaffold; analytical starting points, validate with the people in each context. Mirrors the Across audiences table in [[voice]] so the two pages reinforce. The voice stays constant; the reader state shifts what we lead with and dial down.

Audience	Dominant reader state	Lead with	Dial down
Patient	Emotional — worry / curiosity	What happens to them; the next step	Detail that overwhelms or alarms
Next of kin	Practical — a helper supporting a close one (often also worried)	The jobs they're doing for the patient — using a service, travel to/from the clinic, translation, forms — and what to expect	Casting them as helpless; centring the text away from the patient
Care practitioner	Dispositional — time-pressure, cognitive load	What's changed and what it means for their work	Background they already hold
Coworker	Dispositional — needs clarity, respects time	The decision or action, and why	Corporate padding
Decision-maker, private	Dispositional — opportunity / risk assessment	The value case and the evidence	Unsupported claims
Decision-maker, public	Dispositional — scrutiny, accountability	Reliability, evidence, how risk is handled	Anything that reads as a sales pitch

[Author prompt: confirm or rewrite the columns; these are starting points, not validated. The professional rows especially should be checked with people who do that work.]

Quick test

(verbatim, broadened) What state is the reader in right now — what do they feel, or what pressure are they under? That tells you what you need to address.
(verbatim) What do they need to feel after reading/seeing/hearing this? That tells you what to lead with.
(verbatim) What risks making the situation worse? That tells you what to dial down.

(verbatim, broadened) Reader state governs the expression. The character — presence, calm, precision, warmth — is constant. But what we lead with, what we dial down, and how we structure the content adapts to where the reader is. Doing the same thing regardless of state isn't consistent — it's absent.

Open

~~Umbrella vs full rename.~~ RESOLVED 2026-05-31 — Torfinn confirmed the umbrella. "Reader state" is the umbrella; "emotional modes" stays as the patient/next-of-kin family (additive, non-breaking — Baseline metadata and the digital 3-mode hypothesis are untouched). No full rename. Consequence applied: the contextual axis in [[constant-and-contextual]] is named reader state (emotional mode is its patient instance).
File/title. Kept as emotional-modes with reader state as the framing concept, to preserve inbound links and propagates_to. Decide whether to rename the file.
Where the next of kin sits (raised by Torfinn, 2026-06-07). The next of kin is primarily a helper with jobs to do — using a digital service, travel to/from the clinic, translation, filling in forms — not a "helplessness" feeling; even when worried, they're served by making the job doable (Principle 1 in [[voice]] applied to the helper). That sits awkwardly in the "emotional modes, where the state is genuinely a feeling" family above, which currently pairs patients and next of kin. Decide which family the next of kin belongs to — emotional, dispositional/role, or a third task/helper framing. The "helplessness" trope is rejected throughout the corpus.
Reconcile with the digital model. The Baseline 3-mode hypothesis (anxiety/aspiration/latent-anxiety) is all patient depth; it sits under the emotional-modes family. Confirm it is referenced, not duplicated, and that "reader state" doesn't disturb its hypothesis status.
Market is not a reader-state axis. Market calibrates voice realisation (language, cultural reading); it does not create reader states. Noted so the two don't get conflated.
Dispositional states need validation. The professional-audience rows are analytical, not researched. Flagged for validation with practitioners, internal comms, and partner/public-sector colleagues.

[[voice]] — Across audiences references this page's states; this page owns the catalogue
[[constant-and-contextual]] — reader state is one of the contextual axes (audience binds it)
baseline/ — the digital 3-mode hypothesis model (anxiety/aspiration/latent-anxiety) and the component metadata