Newsletter

Welcome to the first Plain English Club newsletter of the year, which comes to you via the daft laptop of me, Iain Broome.

I have some news to share. Two pieces of news actually.

First, if all goes to plan, the next time you hear from me it will be to tell you that the companion website to this newsletter has become a blog. And no ordinary blog, because it will contain original posts alongside what I think we still call link posts.

Basically, if you enjoy the format of this newsletter – links to great content about content with some commentary and context from me – then you will also enjoy the blog. I'll explain more when it's all live.

Second update for you: another name change. On LinkedIn, I asked folk to help me choose a name for the site when it becomes a blog and a newsletter. The responses were super helpful. Feel free to go and add your own thoughts too.

But the current plan is to switch from Plain English Club to Clear Language Club. There are a few reasons, but the important ones will become clear (clear!) if you read the first article in the list of links below.

That's it for now. Thanks for subscribing. More soon.

Iain

Why plain language and Plain English are different

I did not know a lot of the history outlined in this post by Caroline Jarrett until she kindly pointed me to it last year. Historical drama aside, I think the key distinction for me is the importance of testing content with users.

Plain language relies on testing with users. If the intended users can use the content to do what they need to do, it’s plain. If they can’t, it’s not plain. So you can only really know whether you have succeeded in writing in plain language when you have tested with the actual users.

And of course, this detail is fundamental to content design as a discipline. It's about following the principles of clear writing, but making decisions based on research and data. You need to understand what users need before you start writing. Then you need to test your content when you're done to make sure it meets those needs. It's only plain or clear if it does.

User research with disabled people and their families

This is a brilliant piece of work by the team at Scope. And of course, almost all of this guidance can be put into action for any user research, not just when its done specifically with disabled people and their families.

I recommend you first read these recommendations by Ema Thornhill, which provide a good introduction to the guidance.

How To Design For (And With) Deaf People

This post on LinkedIn by Vitaly Friedman, editor-in-chief of Smashing Magazine, is not specifically about content, but it's full of useful, related information. This includes some statistics, infographics and a collection of simple, practical tips.

Improving content through journey mapping

I'm not sure how I hadn't read this before, but if you're looking for a handy guide to content journey mapping, this is for you.

When we start working on an end-to-end service, we define the users, then map out the journey. This process shows us what tasks users need to complete and highlights where the content doesn’t help them to do this.

What follows is pretty much a step-by-step to get you started. Of course, you'll need to take your organisation's specific circumstances and constraints into account. But hopefully it should be easy to get the right people together and start mapping those content journeys. Also, you can do all this at the start of a content project, not just when things already exist and are ready for an update.

Consider also reading this article from Content Design London on mapping and measuring content journeys to influence your organisation.

Common misconceptions about screen readers

You might already know these screen reader misconceptions. Or you might learn something new about how they work and who uses them.

Probably the biggest misconception around screen readers is that they are only used by people who are blind. This is far from reality. WebAIM's latest Screen Reader User Survey shows that only 77% of respondents identified as being blind.

"Accessibility never happens by accident. There must be a deliberate effort to make products and services more accessible. It doesn’t have to be challenging if it’s considered early. No digital product is neutral. Accessibility is a deliberate decision, and a commitment. Not only does it help everyone; it also shows what a company believes in and values."
Vitaly Friedman

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You may be getting ready for a well-earned rest, but don't let that stop you enjoying this latest edition of the Plain English Club newsletter.

All being well, I'll be able to send you another email full of goodies before the year is out. And you never know, in the new year there may be a little update to the website and how that works.

Also, don't forget your bookmarks.

Explore the links below and enjoy many festivities.

Iain

PS If you want to know more about me, here's my freelance website.

The UX writer’s guide to Figma

Excellent guide to using Figma from Figma itself:

Over the past few months, my team and I have spent time gathering feedback from UX writers and content designers from around the industry. Between feature requests and copy recommendations, one theme kept bubbling up: Figma is pretty intimidating for writers. If you can relate, don’t worry—you’re in good company. Many of us, including the writers here at Figma, come from fields beyond design, and never learned to use design tools. With so many bells and whistles, where do you even start?

The answer, of course, is with this guidance. And it is indeed a very useful starting point if you are new to Figma or working with other disciplines on content.

I would add, if you take the time to learn Figma in more detail, you can easily put together your own prototypes. You can use those prototypes to quickly test your content ideas or explain them to your teammates.

Naming services in complex situations

This blog post on naming services is by Dani Allen, a lead content designer at TPXimpact:

Naming services is an important part of digital transformation. Service names need to be clear, concise and related to the task people are completing. But this can become harder when the situation becomes more complex.

The thrust of the post is about using dedicated workshops to get all the key people together:

An engaging naming workshop is a way of making sure that everyone has the same level of knowledge of what’s involved in this task, and the importance of it. Getting important stakeholders involved and as close as possible to this work will set you up for success.

I have one extra tip on naming your service. I learnt this the hard way earlier this year. Before you start telling people your new service name, remember to carry out a quick check to make sure that any inevitable acronyms are not, well... a bit rude. Cripes.

Word list: Co-op Experience Library

I like this list of words and how to use them from the Co-op. It's a great tool for internal teams working on content, but it's also right there and easy to access for all employees and even customers.

Using visual content in an accessible way

This post by Marian Avery at Content Design Ireland is a great introduction to making visual content more accessible. For those of you who post regularly to LinkedIn, take note of the section on using emojis instead of bullets. I have done this at some point in my dark and distant past and it is not a good idea!

Fizzy – a new Kanban tool for planning and organising

I confess to having not tried Fizzy yet, but I am very much rooting for any project or content management tool that keeps it simple.

Here's the pitch:

Let’s be honest: every issue and idea tracking tool you loved slowly morphed into boring, sluggish, corporate bloatware. Trello put on 40 pounds of cruft. Jira started charging by the migraine. Asana tried to become everything to everyone. GitHub Issues slid into a steady state of decline. Name one that got better last year. Exactly.

I have used Trello on so many projects, but it has definitely succumbed to the world of enterprise software. I've been tied up in Jira boards more recently and I have no idea what half of it does.

Often, the tool choice is made by a project manager or a team of developers. I think content folk should have far more of a say. Let me know if you give Fizzy a go and how you find it.

"Don’t use emojis as bullet points. Remember that screen readers read the unicode names for emojis. That means that emoji descriptions announced by screen readers may not match the image you thought you chose, which could give a very strange introduction to your bullet list item."
Marian Avery, Content Design Ireland

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Here we are, back once again, not with the renegade master, alas, but a new edition of the Plain English Club newsletter. Sent by me, yep, Iain Broome.

I know four commas in the opening sentence of a newsletter about plain English is not ideal, but we are where we are. Thank you to everyone who shared the last email I sent you. Lots of new readers as a result. Hello new readers!

Without further faffing, on to the good stuff.

Iain

Use Specialised Language for Specialised Audiences

There is plenty in this Jakub Nielsen post from 2014 that applies today:

Even for specialised audiences it’s still best to write as simple as possible. Even highly educated people don’t want to struggle to read your site. You do not impress anybody by spouting highfalutin words or complex sentence structures that require careful parsing. People don’t pay close attention to web content.

He then goes on to make the case for using 'specialised language' if you are sure that the person reading knows what it means.

Specialised language is not only more concise but also clearer, as long as the reader is a specialist who understands the terminology.

I think this is still pretty good advice too. And I think the thrust of what he is saying is all wrapped up in the principles of what we now call content design. Effectively, before you write or design any content, make sure you understand who it is for and how they will use it.

That said, the one thing in the piece that I do strongly object to in this article is the bit about writing for specific 'reading ages'. Caroline Jarrett has covered this perfectly in her piece about reading age.

Do not use “reading age” when thinking about adults. It’s not helpful, and it fails to acknowledge the life experience of people with reading difficulties.

Don't forget you can find lots of other articles on this kind of thing in our shared list of Plain English Club Bookmarks!

From Shelter's style guide: Writing online content

Shelter is one of a handful of UK charities that do a two-toots tremendous job of publishing their approach to content on their website. I am a fan of this humble page on writing online content, which is concise and absolutely packed with useful, practical guidance for their content designers and writers to follow.

By the way, is it time to officially launch 'style guide of the week' as, you know, a thing?

Designing for people on the autism spectrum

Another excellent resource from the frequently linked to (by me, especially) team at UK disability charity, Scope.

This isn't a bad place to start from with all your content:

It’s important to remember that how anyone chooses to talk about their impairment is up to them. If you’re referring to a particular person or group of people, always ask them how they would prefer to be described.

But if you specifically want or need to create content for people with autism, you'll find a list of useful, research-backed guidance. You can also swipe, print and share this handy infographic that covers the main points.

Content designers don’t ‘own’ the words. We never have

This post by Jane Van de Ban is pretty spot on about how misguided this notion is that content folk 'own the words'. I have previously used that phrase myself or perhaps, even worse, said that I or we 'own the style guide'. It's not really true though. Words and style guides are for everyone. Lucky people.

How we’re designing user-centred AI labels at the BBC

This is interesting insight into how the BBC are testing ways they disclose how AI has been used on their web pages:

AI labels have been appearing across all areas of tech, including social media, but we’re yet to see a consistent, transparent, truly user-focused and easily understood approach. That’s what we’ve been working on at the BBC. Over the past year, we’ve been developing a labelling approach that’s rooted in audience needs, designed to work across all our products, and focused on two main things: transparency and trust.

Some of the research findings so far are perhaps not surprising:

Throughout our research into AI labelling, audiences told us clearly that they don’t just want to know when AI is used, they want to understand how and why it is used.

There is lots here for you to get your teeth into and help you think about your own work. That said, I do find it a bit frustrating that there seems to be a working assumption here that audiences actually want AI at all.

The testing is being done on live sports pages. I follow live sports pages (especially cricket). The journalists who write that content are very good at it. They are funny, erudite and able to describe and convey the emotion and sense of community that comes with watching and enjoying live sport. It's a very human thing.

I dunno. I do try not be that guy when it comes to AI – I vibe coded the living daylights out of Bookmarks. But it does feel important for user research to ask, "Should we do this at all?" and not just, "We've done it. Do you trust us?"

"In the end, words on a page or in a service or in a print source don’t belong to any of us. They belong to our users - the people who need them in order to get their new passport, or book their train travel, or find out about the healthcare they need, or whatever it is they’ve come to our digital space to do. And our users don’t care who ‘owns the words’ - but they do care about getting things done."
Jane Van de Ban, Roxboro Design

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Hold your horses – this is a new edition of the Plain English Club newsletter. It's arrived in your inbox via the computer and keyboard of me, Iain Broome.

Sorry I have been so bad at sending newsletters this year. I hate being bad at sending newsletters. Rest assured, I plan to be better at sending newsletters for the rest of 2025. And this one is full of excellent content.

Many high fives,

Iain

PS Remember, if you do not want me to send you emails like this anymore, you can unsubscribe using the link in the footer or by signing in on the Plain English Club website.

User stories for content design

This post by Jack Garfinkel gives you an excellent overview of all things user stories. I can't recommend it enough.

If you are already a content designer, this is where you should send people when you are trying to explain user stories. If you are a copywriter or general clear language enthusiast, user stories are how you can make sure all that plain English you are writing is actually doing its job.

Creating a content design portfolio with no UX experience

This by Emily Wachowiak from Mozilla on the Button blog is good if you are new to the content world. I agree that real project work is the thing to shout about, even if that work feels small to you.

Work produced under real-world conditions showcases far more than your content design skills — it shows you know how to collaborate with a cross-functional team to solve problems and handle the setbacks, technical constraints, and compromises that inevitably pop up. 

Another recommendation from me. If your current role is not strictly in content design, you can still use some of its principles.

For example, if you work in marketing or communications, you can carry out some guerilla user research before you start writing copy. Or you can dig into your organisation's web analytics to see what search terms people are using to reach your website.

Then, armed with some actual evidence, you can take your findings to your bosses and say, "Hey big dogs! I think we should take this approach because it's what our users appear to want and need. Tell me I'm wrong!"

Best case scenario, they agree and allow you to take the first steps in reshaping your current role. You might even revolutionise the entire organisation! Worst case scenario, they tell you to pipe down and get the heck out.

Either way, you have done some content design work that you can add to your fledgling portfolio.

Trauma-informed content: what I've learned from the frontlines

For the last 16 months, I've been working on an extremely sensitive project where trauma-informed content design has been essential. As a result, I am a roughly one squillion per cent better content designer for the experience.

This post by Adrie van der Luijt gives you an idea of what trauma-informed content is and why it matters.

This is the reality of creating trauma-informed content that actually works. It’s not about theoretical frameworks or academic principles. It’s about understanding how trauma fundamentally changes how people process information and then having the courage to fight for their needs against organisational pressure to water things down.

The post also features several examples of trauma-informed content:

At Universal Credit, we discovered people needed absolute clarity. They didn’t want “your claim may be affected if your circumstances change” – they needed “you must tell us within 14 days if you start work or your benefits will stop”.

Assuming you too work in the content world, I strongly recommend you spend some time reading up on trauma-informed design. There are other useful posts on Adrie's blog and Rachel Edwards wrote an excellent intro, which I have linked to before.

I've also created a tag for trauma-informed content in my bookmarks collection if you need a place to start.

Just Keep Writing – On "content design" in the AI era

There are many hot takes on AI and how it is affecting us content bods flying about the internet right now. I quite like this one by Danielle McClune.

Words not to use

Brill list of words to avoid from the style manual of the Office for National Statistics. I always like it when these lists are either grumpy or include at least a little humour in them. Ideally, both.

For example:

drive out (unless it is cattle)

And:

deliver (pizzas, post and services are delivered – not abstract concepts)

And perhaps my favourite:

one-stop shop (we are not a retail outlet and creating a single place for everything often does not meet user need)

"Maybe the future of content work looks different from what we're used to. AI systems desperately need quality writing in places most people don't even think about: evaluations, taxonomies, training datasets. And the core skills of a great writer aren't going anywhere. You can't prompt your way into good judgment. That comes from experience, practice, and something you definitely can't automate: taste."
Danielle McClune

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Forgive me, for it as a very long time since the last edition of the Plain English Weekly newsletter. And yet here is a new one.

Two pieces of information. First, there is no sign of me becoming less busy, so let's change the name of this thing to Plain English Club* instead. There, done. And now let's aim for send this every two weeks or so. Cool, cool.

Next, may I point you towards a completely reworked 'Bookmarks' section of the website? With some DIY coding and a little help from Claude, I have managed to get our full directory of links all in one place. That includes categories, pagination and even a handy search tool.

Without wanting to sound like too much of a wally, I think this is already an excellent resource for all content folk and will continue to grow. Oh – and it was shared on LinkedIn this week by Vitaly Friedman, the chap who founded Smashing Magazine.

That's it. Enjoy some excellent information below.

Iain

* The URL for the web version of the newsletter has always been plainenglish.club so this is not exactly the biggest change in the world.

How content, content design, and content strategy fit into the bigger business context

It was great to see a new talk from the team over at Content Folks pop up a few weeks ago. This one is about content shapes and is shaped by an organisation, and it's by the excellent Hilary Marsh.

Do go and browse other talks on the Content Folks Youtube channel.

Free content tools and resources, curated by Cake Design Studio

I was recently added to the brilliant user-centred design (UCD) directory in my capacity as a freelance content bod. It's put together by Lizzie Bruce from Cake Design Studio, who also happens to have their own lovely list of free content tools and resources for you to explore.

Designing content for people with limited English

Please, please do read this blog post from the Home Office Digital, Data and Technology team:

People may interact with the Home Office at stressful times in their life, which already affects comprehension. Research has also shown that long and technical content makes people anxious. This makes the use of clear language really important. And though you already do this across all your services, you may have to be even plainer than you think.

It's also full of practical tips and examples. And though this advice is about writing for people with limited English, much of it applies to other groups of people too. Like, pretty much everyone.

Plain language – the choice is clear

Some good stuff about the barriers to and benefits of writing in clear language from from the Australian government. I also note the enjoyable but hopefully tongue-in-cheek sub-heading of 'Obfuscation', while also hesitating slightly over the notion that clear language is 'good for busy people'. Mate, we're all busy. All the time.

When to use tables and how to make them accessible

Thinking about making a table? Before you do, take a minute to read this marvellous information from the GOV.UK style guidance.

For example:

Use tables to present data or information that can be organised in a structured way. This could consist of numbers, text or statistics. [...] Do not use tables for cosmetic reasons or when you can use normal page structure to present the information, for example headers or lists.

The section on accessibility is especially important and worth a look.

An information architecture case study

An excellent piece by Lauren Pope, who used several techniques for developing sound information architecture on her very own website. I really love this way of working in the open and explaining the work too. Great stuff.

By the way, Lauren has lots of great articles on her website and even has her own tag in Bookmarks. Just search for her name.

"Using plain language improves comprehension. In other words, it makes content easier to understand. Users can struggle to understand long words, technical jargon and unfamiliar terms. We often see this in areas like health, law and finance. In these situations, complex language can cause confusion and even harm."
Australian Government Style Manual

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Welcome to another edition of the Plain English Weekly newsletter, sent your way again by me, freelance content design bod, Iain Broome.

Did you know that every time I send an email newsletter, a version also gets published to the Plain English Club website? Well it does and not only that, you can leave comments and we can all have a very nice content chat indeed.

This is not a feature I have really pushed (or even mentioned) before, but people do always reply to me via email or social media. And those conversations are usually interesting and insightful. I like talking about clear content!

So what do you think? Shall we give it a go? If you find something in this week's newsletter that makes you want to share your thoughts, head to the website version and do exactly that.

Like, what's your favourite link and why did you find it useful or interesting? How does what you found in this email relate to or inform your own projects? What the heck are you even working on at the moment?

Some other ideas for writing comments:

• "I really like this article and will use the information in this exciting way."
• "This is a great read! It very much reminds me of this other useful resource you should know about."
• "Hey, thanks for sharing, really interesting. Can I respectfully disagree with some of it in the following way."

You know the drill. That kind of thing.

You won't be surprised to find that the comments section appears at the end of each post. Look out for the 'Member discussion' heading and don't worry, you don't need to sign up again. Just use the 'Sign in' link and the email address you used when you subscribed to the newsletter.

Email iain@verymeta.com if you need any help.

That's all. I look forward to your comments!

Enjoy the links below.

Iain

UX Writing: How to Get the Writing Done

Content designer, Scott Kubie has a personal website absolutely full of content-related resources. I can recommend this short talk on the writing process that sets out four stages for each 'assignment'.

It's all great, but I want to particularly second the idea of creating an outline before you get started. That could be a few bullet points, draft headings or even a sentence that describes what will go where.

Things might change when you get into the meat of things, but that's okay. Everything changes. Change is good. Life is change.

A guide to running a tone of voice workshop with your team

Ever thought about running a tone of voice workshop with your team or even someone else's team? Well then this is going to be a very useful article from Nia Campbell and the Content Design London crew.

Using clear and effective headings

I'm always slightly fascinated by the way different organisations in different sectors present their style guidelines. Here is Imperial College London on writing good headings and I can't see much I disagree with.

It includes the following statistic and link:

According to a WebAIM survey of 1,539 people in January 2024, 71.6% of screen reader users navigate pages using headings.

Make as note of that, as it might come in handy for future discussions with your senior leadership team or design colleagues.

Free guides on writing clearly

A wide range of free resources from the Plain English Commission, including a collection of short booklets and a single-page PDF [82KB] that features 15 tips on writing Plain English.

Inclusive language: words to use and avoid when writing about disability

Useful page from GOV.UK guidance to add to your bookmarks. It includes guidelines on collective terms and labels, everyday phrases and words to use and avoid. The latter is presented in a handy table format too.

"Consider carefully your purpose and message before starting to write – clear writing and clear thinking go hand in hand."
Plain Language Commission

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Join a growing community of 900+ plain language champs and start getting advice and resources that help you write clearer, more accessible content.