Terminalfour

Language

• Be friendly, direct, and helpful.
• It’s ok to address users as “you” and UCD as “we.”
• Use the active voice.
  • Active: ‘Return your form to…’
  • Passive: ‘The form should be returned to…’
• Refer to positions, not people (“the Head of School” rather than “Dr Jane Goodall”) …..unless you must reference the specific person.
• Avoid ‘directional language’ that describes the location of something on the page. For example “in the upper left corner of the page” doesn’t help assistive technology users and that interface may change depending on the device.
• Avoid academic, formal, or complex words when simple ones will do as below:
  • utilise → use
  • in order to → to
  • with the possible exception of → except for
  • in spite of the fact that → although
  • e.g., → for example
• Avoid jargon! Use plain English as much as possible. NALA (the National Adult Literacy Agency) has some(opens in a new window)(opens in a new window)(opens in a new window)Plain English tipsthat may be useful.
• Avoid (or ensure you explain) acronyms like UMT and more.
• If you have to use acronyms, use them consistently.
• Be consistent in your naming - ‘pay’ should always be pay and not occasionally ‘remuneration’. Resourcing should not occasionally be recruitment.
• Use inclusive language.
  • Use “they,” “them,” and “their” as a singular pronoun if your subject’s gender is unknown or irrelevant.
  • Don’t use “one” or “he/she” or “s/he,” “he or she,” etc.
• Ensure you have a good balance of images from an EDI point of view - a mix of genders, ages and nationalities that reflects the workforce where possible.

Accessibility Considerations

The Design Library components have been checked for colour contrast, however content creators should respect these editorial guidelines:

• Ensure documents are accessible - use plain English and give webpages a structure
  • use headings: Format > Headings

• Images should have alternative text to describe them, this is needed as a non-visual way to present content
  • add Alt Text in the Media Library

• People with disabilities need structure: use headings, subheadings and lists/bullet points.
• Ensure links are descriptive - avoid using "click here"

Layout

• Your first paragraph is the most important one. As such, it should be brief, clear, and to the point to quickly engage the user. One-sentence paragraphs are encouraged.
• Write in an ‘inverted pyramid’ style. Place the most important information at the top, and extra info toward the bottom.
• In most cases, it's best to use subheadings to clarify the subject of various sections on a page. Users want to skim and scan for information. Headings help this process exponentially.
• Just when you think you are done, look again. Cut, cut, and cut your text until it is the most essential message.Users only read about 20% of text on a page.
  • Could this paragraph be replaced with bullet points?
  • Could I replace or supplement the text with a process map?
  • Does the user need the historical background to this policy, process or information?

FAQ

• Large FAQs should be grouped by topic and designed to be visually scanned.  
• Question format matters because people often type questions into search engines these days. Peopledon’t search for your solution, they search for their problem. Think very carefully about how you word FAQ questions.

Font

• Use bold sparingly, primarily for paragraph or section headings.
• Italics should also be used sparingly. Italics on the web are also hard to read. Try to avoid making long paragraphs italic - you are making the text harder to read, not giving it emphasis. 
• Do not underline text. On the web underline = link. Giving a sentence an underline for emphasis is misleading.
• Use ALL CAPS very sparingly. 
• Be consistent in the use of font sizes:
  • H1 - page title
  • H2 - paragraph or section heading
  • H3 - sub heading 
  • Paragraph - for all paragraph text
• Avoid exclamation points. We know UCD is awesome! We love it! But exclamation points make you look unprofessional!