Users and govspeak

[joolswood]

What do you need?

Guidance on (and support for) designing content where govspeak is an issue (ie when we can use something else, what to do when we can't),

Which entry/section is this related to?

Discovery work needs to be done.

Some background @Michael.Hugill:

The more deeply I dig into source content and try to write pages that actually make sense to a broad range of users, the more I think we need an inline glossary or similar solution.

Yes, of course, I always try to explain in context (for example add a sentence to explain a thing), but there are times where arguably it would be better for the user to have a link (or some kind of accessible pop-up solution) to a nice, concise explanation.

This is separate to the issue of rewriting/renaming – there are some government terms that should not be renamed because they are correct and in high use and renaming will only create confusion (e.g. cabinet, portfolio, policy, consultation etc).

Could we have an entry in the style guide where we collect common govspeak words and suggest alternatives? We have something similar at http://content-style-guide.apps.staging.digital.gov.au/az-indexes/p.html#plain-english so we could add to that or have a whole new entry just for plain english alternatives.

Examples of words we see a lot in Agency that have bad readability scores:

• administer
• ensure
• oversee
• implement

[joolswood]

May be a sub section of plain English.

[joolswood]

Content designers to update spreadsheet with new words.

[joolswood]

Superseded by #179