Brand new bookmarks

Forgive me, for it as a very long time since the last edition of the Plain English Weekly newsletter. And yet here is a new one.

Two pieces of information. First, there is no sign of me becoming less busy, so let's change the name of this thing to Plain English Club* instead. There, done. And now let's aim for send this every two weeks or so. Cool, cool.

Next, may I point you towards a completely reworked 'Bookmarks' section of the website? With some DIY coding and a little help from Claude, I have managed to get our full directory of links all in one place. That includes categories, pagination and even a handy search tool.

Without wanting to sound like too much of a wally, I think this is already an excellent resource for all content folk and will continue to grow. Oh – and it was shared on LinkedIn this week by Vitaly Friedman, the chap who founded Smashing Magazine.

That's it. Enjoy some excellent information below.

Iain

* The URL for the web version of the newsletter has always been plainenglish.club so this is not exactly the biggest change in the world.

How content, content design, and content strategy fit into the bigger business context

It was great to see a new talk from the team over at Content Folks pop up a few weeks ago. This one is about content shapes and is shaped by an organisation, and it's by the excellent Hilary Marsh.

Do go and browse other talks on the Content Folks Youtube channel.

Free content tools and resources, curated by Cake Design Studio

I was recently added to the brilliant user-centred design (UCD) directory in my capacity as a freelance content bod. It's put together by Lizzie Bruce from Cake Design Studio, who also happens to have their own lovely list of free content tools and resources for you to explore.

Designing content for people with limited English

Please, please do read this blog post from the Home Office Digital, Data and Technology team:

People may interact with the Home Office at stressful times in their life, which already affects comprehension. Research has also shown that long and technical content makes people anxious. This makes the use of clear language really important. And though you already do this across all your services, you may have to be even plainer than you think.

It's also full of practical tips and examples. And though this advice is about writing for people with limited English, much of it applies to other groups of people too. Like, pretty much everyone.

Plain language – the choice is clear

Some good stuff about the barriers to and benefits of writing in clear language from from the Australian government. I also note the enjoyable but hopefully tongue-in-cheek sub-heading of 'Obfuscation', while also hesitating slightly over the notion that clear language is 'good for busy people'. Mate, we're all busy. All the time.

When to use tables and how to make them accessible

Thinking about making a table? Before you do, take a minute to read this marvellous information from the GOV.UK style guidance.

For example:

Use tables to present data or information that can be organised in a structured way. This could consist of numbers, text or statistics. [...] Do not use tables for cosmetic reasons or when you can use normal page structure to present the information, for example headers or lists.

The section on accessibility is especially important and worth a look.

An information architecture case study

An excellent piece by Lauren Pope, who used several techniques for developing sound information architecture on her very own website. I really love this way of working in the open and explaining the work too. Great stuff.

By the way, Lauren has lots of great articles on her website and even has her own tag in Bookmarks. Just search for her name.

"Using plain language improves comprehension. In other words, it makes content easier to understand. Users can struggle to understand long words, technical jargon and unfamiliar terms. We often see this in areas like health, law and finance. In these situations, complex language can cause confusion and even harm."
Australian Government Style Manual

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