UK Census website 15 minute challenge
No, I haven’t challenged myself to fill in the entire Census form online in 15 minutes. When I have to do that I’m treating myself to a Chinese take-away to lessen the pain of the chunk of my life I’ve lost to bureaucracy.
Instead I took 15 minutes to make some sense of, and simplify, this page from the Census website
See the full UK Census website 15 minute challenge page
Why should lawyers get special treatment?
First of all, I want to say this isn’t a personal attack on the author of the website www.typographyforlawyers.com, I’m all for anything that improves the design of documents, even if they never see the outside of a courtroom. The reason for this post is more a sense of frustration at the missing of a bigger picture.
The rules of typography for lawyers should be the same as they are for the rest of us. It may be easy to blame a bit of bad typography for poor communication, but in the case of the legal profession, I think a big step backwards needs to be taken.
See the full Why should lawyers get special treatment? page
Don’t duplicate it – delete it
A comment I often make, is that ‘I get paid to delete stuff’. It’s meant to be self-deprecating but it’s largely true.
And what’s the first thing I look for when I’ve got my hatcheting head on? Duplicated information.
As a first step to making information simpler, deleting duplicated information is a great place to start, particularly because it doesn’t require any great analysis. It’s a very simple process.
See the full Don’t duplicate it – delete it page
Plain Language in Plain English book design
I was recently asked to contribute to the design chapter of Plain Language in Plain English by Cheryl Stephens. Presumably what I had to say was fairly convincing, because no sooner had I finished the writing than I was asked to design the book as well.
See the full Plain Language in Plain English book design page
The Plain Language Act
There has been a lot of talk in the plain language field about the forthcoming vote on the Plain Language Bill in the US. Its premise is very simple: to require the federal government to write all new publications, forms, and publicly distributed documents in a “clear, concise, well-organized” manner that follows the best practices [...]
See the full The Plain Language Act page