Iain Broome
Sheffield, UK
Freelance content designer and founder of Clear Language Club.
98 posts
Posts by Iain Broome
Do you do a lot of copy and pasting? Have you ever used a clipboard manager before? Well, I am here to tell you that your life is about to be changed. Pastebot is my app of choice and I use it constantly.
It does a few things, but the most important is it remembers more than one thing you copied, including images and any formatting if you want it.
Here is the blurb:
If copy and paste is a part of your workflow, Pastebot is an indispensable tool to improve your productivity. Quickly recall clippings that you have copied before and apply powerful text filters to format before pasting. Queue up multiple clippings to paste in sequence. Pastebot is always running and only a keyboard shortcut away to command copy & paste.
And if you do not use a Mac, Zapier has a list of what it reckons to be the 5 best clipboard managers, which covers various platforms.
Many local council's in the UK will now include a web page that explains their policy on clear language. This example from South Tyneside is deliciously concise and provides a near-perfect introduction to the world of plain English.
Adding alt text to an image is a way of describing its content and meaning in an alternative format. Enjoy these examples from Holly Tuke, who has gathered a collection of organisations and individuals doing alt text well on social media.
Here's a good introduction to alt text on GOV.UK.
This post on sentence length was published on GOV.UK in 2014, but the benefits of writing shorter sentences remain the same today. One other thing that I always emphasise when running training sessions is one idea per sentence. It forces you to think about what you are trying to say and helps get the word count down.
Well, this is a fabulous collection of trauma-informed design resources put together by "...the volunteer organisers of the Trauma Informed Design Discussion Group". It includes blog posts, books, journals, podcasts, courses and much more.
In time, I will no doubt link to specific resources and add the most relevant stuff to our very own Clear Language Bookmarks. But don't wait for me to find the most golden of nuggets – get stuck in and start exploring.
