36. Get the message Newsletter

Welcome to another edition of the Clear Language Club newsletter. The person sending it to you is me, freelance content designer, Iain Broome.

This was supposed to be with you some time ago, but we had a seemingly never-ending heatwave here in the UK and honestly, I decided to abandon all non-work sitting-at-the-computer time. And now it is, I am told, July.

Anyway, there is lots for you to chew on in the following links to many content goodies. As always, feel free to hit reply and email me back.

Iain

Top 10 Principles for Plain Language

Got to admire the National Archives crew for keeping it simple with these short, to-the-point principles for writing clearly. Old school. Stick 'em on your wall.

Giving pages a clear shape by using headings

A pretty technical explanation on the Intopia blog about how you should be using headings to add structure to your web pages.

Planning and writing text messages and emails

Another dip into the GOV.UK service manual to pick up some tips on planning and writing texts and emails, so that recipents literally get the message.

Exploring the role of AI in our design process at Co-op

Tired of all the AI blog posts? Well, this is a good one because it actually shows a real team (from the Co-op) talking about how they might use AI in real life.

How to create design documentation

From Colin Baird, a helpful post if you and your team are never quite sure who wrote a thing or made an important decision at some point in the past.

Co-designing with people around difficult subject areas

The ace Charley Pothecary, who I am currently working, with has some good, practical suggestions for running inclusive research sessions.

How to access the Readability Guidelines wiki

The Readability Guidelines wiki was a fabulous, free resource for several years. Recently, the project was taken offline and I think that was quite a shame, especially for new folk just joining the content design world.

That's the bad news. Now for the good news.

Lizzie Bruce, who authored the Readability Guidelines wiki for Content Design London, has shared a magic link to an Internet Archive version of the wiki. Hooray! It lives! You'll also find links to other handy resources.

Now, obviously, this means the wiki is kind of stuck in time. But if you want to get some well-researched, reliable guidance on everything from clear language to how people read, you can't go far wrong. This stuff is pretty timeless.