Better writing through content design
Content design is a design discipline that concentrates on the words, pictures, videos and other stuff that fill up websites, apps and other products. It can help make your writing more effective in things like engagement and educational materials or funding bids.
Content design puts the user’s needs first when creating content for them. To do content design, before you start writing or creating content, take plenty of time to find out what the users of a potential product really need.
Content design uses tools like:
- desk research
- keyword and vocabulary research
- user needs
- user journey mapping
When you’ve finished your discovery research and are ready to write something, pay close attention to your structure, headings, vocabulary and style, to make your content as easy as possible for everybody to read, understand and act on. That way you’ve got the best chance of your readers doing what you want them to do.
Plain English
Using plain English means always using the simplest words possible.
Plain English is better for people who:
- don’t speak English fluently
- have low literacy skills
- have information processing impairments like dyslexia
- are neurodivergent, like autistic people
- are in a hurry, on a bus, anxious or tired (most people at some point)
At some point in their lives many people learn a waffly, formal way of writing that is harder to read than it needs to be.
Writing in Plain English instead isn’t difficult, everyone can do it. You just need to unlearn some of the bad habits you might’ve picked up.
Even if you are writing for an expert audience, research shows that experts appreciate clear plain writing as much or more than everybody else. So, let’s put an end to formal language and corporate waffle!
Write like you’d speak. Read your writing aloud. Do you sound dull and formal? If you do, try again!
Use everyday vocabulary, like:
- Ensure → Make sure
- However → But
- Such as → Like
- Collaborate → Work with
- Queries → Questions
- Utilize → Use
Get rid of waffle, like:
- With regards to
- Please note
- Please be aware
- Please find below
- Please do not hesitate to
Waffle often comes with a ‘please’ – watch out for it and get rid of it!
Keep it short
Write short sentences. They’re easier to read than long ones. And that’s good. Long sentences, especially ones with subclauses like this, can be harder for people to read, which is bad.
For example:
This email is to acknowledge that we’ve received your query
would be better as:
We’ve got your email
Keeping paragraphs short is good too. Multiple short paragraphs are better than one long paragraph. So change paragraphs whenever you finish a thought.
Frontloading
Put the important stuff first:
- At the start of a message
- At the start of each sentence
- In headings and links
Don’t wait to tell people what they have to do until the end. Tell them at the start.
Formatting
Fancy formatting makes things harder to read. Keep formatting simple. Avoid:
- Bold
- CAPITAL LETTERS
- Underlining
- 𝒲𝑒𝒾𝓇𝒹 𝒻𝑜𝓃𝓉𝓈
- 𝒜𝐿𝐿 𝒪𝐹 𝒯𝐻𝐸 𝒜𝐵𝒪𝒱𝐸 𝒜𝒯 𝒪𝒩𝒞𝐸!
Headings
Headings help people quickly scan and get to the things that are important to them. Use lots of headings if you’re writing about lots of different things.
Don’t ask lots of questions in your headings (they will mostly start with ‘W’ words like who, what, why and when, which makes it difficult to scan).
The second of these sets of headings is the easiest to scan and extract meaning from for most people
- How to write a CV → CV writing
- What to say in a cover letter → Cover letters
- What to do if you get rejected → Rejection
- Have you been discriminated against? → Discrimination
Links
Link text on web pages must always fully describe the target.
Apply for free school meals online or ask for a form at the office
instead of:
Click here to apply for free school meals online or ask for a form at the office.
It’s vital for people who use screen readers, and better for everyone