Readability
Readability is how easy content is to read. Simple changes to improve the readability of your content can help your audience to understand and remember the information.
Design content for scanning
Readers are often time-poor and scanning content is a common way to read webpages.
Readers scan in various patterns. Understanding how your audience reads helps you structure and design your content in a way that works best for them.
Text scanning patterns: Eyetracking evidence — Nielsen Norman Group
Front-load your content
Put key terms at the beginning of your headings, paragraphs and bullet points to help your reader find what they are looking for.
Sentence case instead of title case
Capitalise only proper nouns and make everything else lower case. Lower case is the easiest for scanning.
Use sentence case: Make accessible webpages for families
Avoid title case: Make Accessible Webpages for Families
Break up content blocks
Large blocks of text can be overwhelming and can make it harder for the reader to maintain focus. Use various tools to break up the content and give the reader regular breaks.
Short paragraphs
Splitting up the content into smaller chunks helps the reader to digest the information before moving on to the next idea or topic.
Regular sub-headings
Readers often come to a page with a specific question in mind. Sub-headings help them find answers faster and help them to navigate back to the information for future reference.
Vary the style
Bullet point lists, tables or other display tools help to keep the reader engaged. Using a mix of styles that are best suited to the content is better than using a single style for consistency.
Know your audience
How easy your content is to read depends on the audience it is intended for.
To effectively tailor your content to the audience, make sure you understand:
- their familiarity with the subject
- their education and reading level
- what terms they commonly use.
Choose language that is clear
Language choices can have a big impact on readability. Check out our plain language guidance.
Active voice over passive voice
Active voice is when the subject of the sentence does the action. Talk directly to your reader to make it more engaging.
Use: Check you have all the required documentation before you start.
Avoid: The person who is applying needs to make sure they have all the required documentation before starting the online process.
Online checkers will help you find your passive sentences.
Check your writing — Hemingway App
Short and simple sentences
Use simple sentence structure and split up long sentences (25 words or more).
Use: Keep your application, forms and proof of identity together.
Avoid: For forms, keep them all together with the application and your proof of identity.
Common basic words
Choose everyday words that your audience knows and uses.
Everyone reads, understands and remembers information more easily when it’s written in plain language.
| Terms | Replace with |
|---|---|
| Assistance, advisory, advocacy | help, support |
| Delve, discover, deep-dive | find out, learn |
| Deployment, implement, onboard | start, set up, join |
| Retain, withhold, maintain | keep, hold on to |
Handling technical terms
If a term has no plain language replacement, explain it in plain language. You can then use the term in your content.
In some situations technical terms may be commonly used in the process. Using and defining the term in plain language in your content may help your audience when they come across the term.
You need to file an affidavit with your application. An affidavit is a written document that includes detailed information about your situation and what you’re asking the court to do.
Using AI
AI can help improve readability, but it may not understand the intent behind your message. Always review and edit the output to make sure the meaning is accurate.
Measuring readability
Readability testing can give you a score to let you know approximately how easy it is for someone to able to read your content.
These tests will give you an indication of how easy your content is to read. The tests should not be relied on alone as readability depends largely on your audience.
Utility links and page information
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