EPIC: Improve internal linking in service manual

[davidhunter08]

What

Improve links between different parts of the service manual to help people find what they need.

Why

When we user tested the content style guide with content designers, we found that we need more linking between different parts of the service manual:

• between the A to Z and other parts of the content style guide
• between the style guide and the design system
• between the style guide, design system and the accessibility guidance

We also need to improve the links between the service standard and the rest of the service manual, so that the standard is better integrated.

Why

To make it easier for service manual users to find what they need

Must

• [x] Consider further links needed between the A to Z and other parts of the style guide
• [x] Add links between the A to Z and other parts of the style guide
• [ ] Consider links between the style guide, the design system and the accessibility guidance
• [ ] Consider the links from within the service manual to the standard
• [ ] Consider the links from the standard to other pages within the manual
• [ ] Propose to the team the changes, before implementing (or implement into a local version) - except for links within the style guide

Could

[sarawilcox]

For example:

• between parts of content style guide, e.g. from hyphens to punctuation section
• between the service standard and parts of the manual

[Indu-Kaila]

Need to add to this issue ie 689 the relevant user insights from the recent contributions work user research issue 1215

[sarawilcox]

Relevant user research findings in Confluence

[Content style guide issues] (https://nhsd-confluence.digital.nhs.uk/display/SMDS/Content+style+guide+issues) 2020 found:

• User was trying to find something about plain English (synonyms) in the A to Z; It's actually on the How we write page, under "Clear".
• User was looking for "titles"; some confusion between headings, headers and titles.

Redesign: post testing overview notes said:

• Apostrophe’s and contractions sections too far apart – connect together

Powerpoint slides of work contributions user research 2021

• When looking for content related information, the A - Z of health writing is useful as a quick reference. However, this can be “more problematic when you have different entries for numbers, measurements, dates and times” and as not every topic related to content and style is listed in the A - Z of health writing
• Can be difficult to find information due to the varying options and as the content can be in a different area
• “Content style guide still slightly more difficult to find stuff as it's in different places”
• “In the past, sometimes in the Content Style Guide, you might not find what you're looking for, it'll be in a different section”. “Needs better cross linking”

But some of the above comments have been noted not in formal user testing but because people have asked us where something is.