Content principles

Our principles for creating clear, useful and accessible content.

Use our guidelines to create clear and consistent content.

Good content allows users to find out what they need to know or do quickly.

Everything we publish should:

Meet the user need

People do not usually read our content unless they want information. When you write, start with the same question every time: what does the user want to know?

Meeting those needs means being:

  • specific
  • informative
  • clear

User needs can be functional things people need to do, for example to check eligibility for a benefit. They can also be emotional.

Both types of needs are important to understand if you want to design useful content that people can use without assistance.

Only publish content that has a clearly defined user need.

Find out how to research and work with user needs

Use clear language

Aim to write for a maximum reading age of 9, even if you're writing for a specialist audience.

Using short sentences and simple words to meet an age-level readability score alone will not make your writing understandable or easy to follow.

You should always:

  • choose plain English words
  • be open and specific
  • avoid jargon and buzzwords, these words are often too general and can lead to misinterpretation
  • write conversationally, in the first person, using the active voice
  • test your content with users, what's clear to you may not be for someone else

Do not use:

  • idioms or figures of speech
  • ampersands or other text symbols in place of words

Microsoft Word has a reading-age checker within the spellcheck function. There will be a score at the end of the checker, which you can interpret with a conversion table.

Descriptive link text

Make sure the link text clearly describes where the link goes. The text should be understandable on its own, even if read out of context.

This is because some screen reader users list links on a page to find what they need quickly.

See 'Link text' in our content style guide

Break up your content to make it easy to scan

People read differently online. They often only read 20% to 28% of a page.

This is because most visits are goal-orientated; people are looking for specific information or to complete a task.

To make your content easier to scan, break up your content with:

Keep sentences and paragraphs short. Aim for around 25 words or less per sentence.

This helps users scan and absorb content more easily. It also helps people who have cognitive, visual or motor impairments.

GDS's Service Design Manual explains how people read and why sentences longer than 25 words are not accessible.

Use simple formatting

Use simple formatting to make it easier for users to find the information they need.

Use a minimum font size of 12 points and sentence case.

Do not:

  • use all caps and italics
  • use underlining, except for links

Most visitors to our website use a mobile device, so design for small screens first, starting with a single-column layout.

Make content inclusive

In the UK, 1 in 5 people are disabled. The impairment can be permanent, temporary or situational, but it has the same requirements.

Complicated words and long sentences can be a barrier, particularly for:

  • users with learning disabilities or cognitive issues
  • users with a lower reading ability
  • users whose first language is not English, including sign-language (BSL) speakers

You must make content inclusive for users with different literacy levels and access challenges.

To do this, use:

Avoid:

  • using presentational features like colour, bold, italics or alignment to convey meaning
  • directional text like 'click the green button below' as this assumes the user can see the page or distinguish between colours

Some of our users access our information using a translation tool. We make it easy for information to be translated well by keeping content simple, expected and clear.

Avoid gendered language

Make sure content is gender neutral wherever possible. Use ‘them’, ‘their’, ‘they'.

See 'Gender and sexuality' in our content style guide

Avoid ableist language and assumptions

Use the words that the person or group you're addressing prefers.

The word ‘disabled’ is a description not a group of people. Use ‘disabled people’ not ‘the disabled’ as the collective term.

Avoid passive, victim words, and phrases like ‘suffers from’ and ‘confined to'.

Do not change your tone, and avoid being patronising.

See:

Avoid inaccessible formats

PDFs and Word documents are difficult to use with assistive technology and are unlikely to meet the accessibility standards required by law.

Find our how you can make documents accessible.

Do not use Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs). The FAQ format has structural problems that make information hard to find and read.

Only use tables for data.

Inclusive content resources

For best practices for writing inclusive content, see:

To check if your content is inclusive, you can use software checkers like:

Provide support for users who cannot self-serve online

Sometimes people need help to use services online. This is known as assisted digital support.

Explain how you will provide assisted digital support. This could be:

  • in person
  • on the telephone
  • via webchat