Recommended reading: content design

These resources can show you how to improve your content. They are easy to understand and use, even if you’re new to content design. We review these resources often and occasionally add new ones.

Principles

• ODI's content design principles are broad guidance for writing good content. Each principle contains tips you can use right now in your writing.
• California Design System principles are about designing good services. They can inform team or department values.
• Government Code 6219 is California’s plain language law. Share it with stakeholders so they know the importance of writing in plain language.
• US Web Design System principles are service design standards from the federal government. They can be a good supplement to the California Design System principles.

Online courses

• Cake Consultancy’s Content design pathway course is a 3-5 hour paid self-paced course. It’s a great overview of content design from a UK-based design firm.

Style guides

These are the style guides we look at when we have a new content question. We’ve organized them in order of preference.

• Associated Press (AP) Style is ODI’s default for style questions not covered by our style guide.
• 18F content guide (federal government)
• How to write for SF.gov (City of San Francisco)
• Federal plain language guidelines at plainlanguage.gov (federal government)
• Federal style guides by government agencies
• Australian Government Style Manual

How-to's

Accessibility

• Web Accessibility Toolkit is a comprehensive guide to digital accessibility at the state. It’s maintained by Disability Works California (formerly the Department of Rehabilitation).
• Web Accessibility Initiative is the leading internet accessibility standards organization.
  • Cognitive Accessibility Guidance. It helps you make content understood by people with cognitive and learning disabilities.
  • An alt decision tree is a tool we use when deciding whether an image needs to have alt text.
• How to: write good Alt Text is good general guidance for writing alt text.

Content design

• Why FAQs aren’t the answer you’re looking for has good points about why FAQs don’t help readers. We borrow from them when we talk with stakeholders.
• A guide to content design is a great handbook on writing by Shelter, a UK housing nonprofit. In particular, we like these sections:
  • What is content design? is a useful definition for people new to the field.
  • Crits: what a content crit is and how to run them.
• How content designers can convince subject matter experts content needs to change. This has advice that can help you advocate for better content.

Inclusive language

Inclusive language uses words that respect all people. ODI doesn’t maintain our own inclusive language guide. We consult these guides when we have questions:

• The University of Washington’s IT inclusive language guide. It has terms often found in IT, with alternatives.
• Atlassian’s inclusive language guide gives alternatives to many terms and phrases.
• Vox Media’s Language, Please defines many terms and gives history about them. In some cases it offers guidance on choosing terms.
• Service Design Network’s Supporting inclusive forms design with design systems. It talks about how to make inclusive language the default when making forms.

Plain language

Plainlanguage.gov is a great resource for how to use plain language. It’s maintained by the US federal government. Their site also includes examples of plain language in action.

The ClearMark Awards honors the best plain language communications. They’re a great place to find inspiration for your writing. Winners come from government, nonprofit, and business.

Word substitution lists

Swapping complex words for simple ones is a big part of plain language. These word substitution lists can help with that.

• Start with Plainlanguage.gov’s Use simple words and phrases. It covers the most common words.
• Health Research for Action’s Plain Language Word List has lots of healthcare-specific words.
• The most complete list is the Plain English Lexicon. It has 2,700 words. However, some are specific to British English.

Human-centered design

Nielsen Norman Group is a leader in usability research. We like their articles on:

• Content strategy (the high-level plan for creating and managing content)
• Information architecture (how to organize a website)
  • Information scent: how users decide where to go next. This article talks about how people navigate websites. Understanding information scent helps you make sure people get to what they need.
• Writing for the web (general advice on writing)
  • F-shaped pattern of reading on the web. It’s a common scanning pattern people use when reading. The article describes when people use the f-shaped pattern.
  • The layer-cake pattern of scanning content on the web. People use this scanning pattern when content is organized well. The article explains how to design content so people can use the layer-cake pattern.
• Web usability (user experience research, helpful for putting content design in context)
  • Why you only need to test with 5 users shows why you don’t need to do big usability tests with your content. Use this to persuade stakeholders you can quickly gather feedback before publishing content.

Tools

• Hemingway Editor is ODI’s favorite writing assistant. Its web version is free and highlights areas for improvement in real time.
• ODI’s plain language checklist has detailed guidance on how to improve your writing.
• ProWritingAid’s Simplify function can be helpful in lowering the reading level of content. It’s a good place to start if you need help simplifying text.

Books

• Content Design by Sarah Winters is our pick if you want only one book on content design. It covers everything from starting out to building organizational support for content design.
• Writing for dollars, writing to please: The case for plain language in business, government, and law by Joseph Kimble. This is our go-to reference when we run into legal or technical objections to plain language. The author is an attorney and longtime plain language advocate. He refutes many common arguments against using plain language.