How are getting on with all the AI excitement and nonsense? Seems to me it largely depends on what kind of content work you do and who you do it for. Either way, this AI glossary from Nielsen Norman is actually pretty good route into it and a helpful guide to what things actually mean.
Clear Language Club
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Long Story Short
Apps and toolsThis is neat. Long Story Short is a daily online game (think Wordle) where you select 5 words from a sentence that still conveys the same message or tells the same story. It's like being at work, but for fun.
Headers, headings, and titles
Content designLove this clear explanation from Martin Underhill of what headers, headings and titles are, and why they are very much not the same.
This resonates:
Three particular terms I often hear being used interchangeably are ‘header’, ‘heading’, and ‘title’; I even catch myself doing it sometimes! Let’s have a look how they can be confused.
And this seems pretty sensible:
What a designer calls something should not differ from what a developer calls it, and the easiest way to ensure this consistency is to use the terminology defined by the super smart people who wrote HTML and ARIA.
If you work in content that lives on the internet, I think you should know the differences and be able to explain them.
Basically:
- header – usually a banner area where a logo, strapline and navigation lives
- title – search-friendly metadata that describes the page and appears in the browser, not the page itself
- headings – the h1, h2, h3 content that helps structure a page and provides an outline of your content
If you're reading this and thinking, "Hmm, still not sure," then I highly recommend you go check out Underhill's post. It includes much more detailed definitions and useful examples to help you out.
Writing NHS messages
WritingI'm almost 6 months into my first contract with NHS England. It's been great to see the constant activity to try and improve content guidance for people working across various digital services.
I want to point you at these new guidelines on writing NHS messages, which are useful for anyone who writes healthcare content. It covers emails, text messages and paper letters, and includes examples of each.
Fancy some further reading? Here's some GOV.UK advice on sending emails and text messages. And if you work in an area where paper letters are essential, you can learn more about how to write effective letters on GOV.UK too.
Summer hiatus
UpdatesNotes on a busy few weeks that explain why posting to the blog briefly slowed to a stop.
I'm just writing and publishing this post to note and acknowledge the gap in posting since sharing the last newsletter.
It's all straightforward enough. There are only so many hours in the day and Clear Language club is currently a side project to, you know, my actual paying work.
Things I have had to prioritise include:
- recovering from an operation
- a challenging few months of freelance work with NHS England
- making an audio documentary every day for 20-odd days
- going on an actual family holiday
All this is to say that perhaps summer was a bad time to launch – or extend, I suppose – a new project. And I am sorry about that.
With both autumn and indeed winter, I'm afraid, on the horizon, the pace of publishing here should pick up. Starting tomorrow.
37. Get the message
NewsletterPlain language principles, writing texts and emails, and designing with people around difficult subjects.
