Posts tagged ‘plain language’
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
0 comments / March 24th, 2011
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
3 comments / December 22nd, 2010
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
2 comments / September 2nd, 2010
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
0 comments / July 5th, 2010
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
0 comments / April 12th, 2010
Are you confusing your customers?
If your documents are confusing your customers, try a free simplicity review to find out why.