In February 2020, the New Style Jobseekerâs Allowance service (JSA) was in a private beta stage, dealing with around 10% of new applications. There are road signs in mid Wales for 'The Midlands' translated as 'Canolbarth Lloegr' = English Midlands! (Arguably it should be using "for example" anyway! I have made some updates and we are clearly going to have to look into the geographical style again. Tags: Cabinet Office, security, style guide, Comment by So in the first example above, the key words are "national careers service". on 31 July 2013. posted on We made our style guide into a PDF (not a web page) for this reason. GOV.UK will cater for varied audiences trying to complete a wide range of tasks. Sarah Richards (3) Americanisms: No problem with you recommending standardisation on "-ise", but "-ize" isn't an Americanism as such. posted on on 03 July 2012. Government Digital Service (GDS) is leading the digital transformation of government. The Government Digital Service (GDS) style guide covers style points for content and guidance on... Read (advanced). posted on Karwai Pun is an interaction designer currently working on Service Optimisation to make existing and new services better for our users. GDS plans to raise the bar within government by setting some developer documentation best practice. Dashes and hyphens seem to be slightly mixed up in style guide, at least in the dreaded IE7. Weâve changed our style guide as follows, and weâre letting content designers across government know. Everyone. The standard for Australian Government writing and editing. So I don't know! The Guide includes the south of England but just the north - for consistency I'd argue for the north of England / the south-west of England unless of course you mean northern Britain / south-western Britain. (4) Capitalisation: Can I put in a plea for a mention of "Internet" here? Will be keeping my eye out for the update. It was formed in April 2011 to implement the "Digital by Default" strategy proposed by a report produced for the Cabinet Office in 2010 called 'Directgov 2010 and beyond: revolution not evolution'. (1) What's the difference between "Style Points" (second main heading) and "Points of Style" (third main heading)? Usability expert Jacob Nielsen goes as far at to suggest that "users typically see about 2 words for most list items" (http://www.useit.com/alertbox/nanocontent.html). baragouiner Find out how your organisation is impacted at GOV.UK/accessibility-regulations. ... Government Digital Service. We and many others have made our love for Government Digital Services (GDS) quite clear. The Government Digital Service (GDS) team has been publishing a wealth of research, testing and analysis as part of the creation of their content style guide; Our early thoughts include some GOV.UK content appearing on mygov.scot, helping to create a more consistent user experience. Accessibility and inclusion is never “done” and learning has to continue. Comment by But the key message is that we are also still defining formats and styles so you will see changes regularly over the next few months. helenolsen In 1.3, second paragraph, third bullet, you say "use Google Insights". Online resources Sarah Richards on 24 August 2012, [...] used and the lay-out of the content. This framework will remain available in case you’re currently using it. Style Guides by Government Agencies âThis page is a collection of style guides created by government agencies. Thanks, John. Comment by Digital communication Read (introductory). This will be an ongoing process but we have the ambition to come up with something that can form the backbone of our policy framework for years to come. Haven't really looked at separate guide for 'Inside Government', but the large number of mandatory and option fields in the guidance for policy pages will encourage longwindedness, as illustrated in the examples provided. Style.ONS is a guide to writing about statistics that can be accessed online. While it’s possible to do this on Windows, there are a few issues such as taking a long time to switch from one profile to another. on 31 July 2013. We decided to use accessibility personas on Chromebooks after first trying them on a Windows laptop. Andy Key Government Digital Service Putting the public first in delivering digital public services. on 17 June 2014, I love the fact that you make the user's opinions matter. The Government Digital Service (GDS) is part of the Cabinet Office. I'm especially interested in learning about your decision making process, like how you built the Plain English list. Learn on your own. Everything we write, design or build within government should be accessible for everyone because thatâs who our users are. Read these to find out how to write your title, summary and body copy. Working with people like you and your team makes this easier. Whilst I see the word âassistâ in many public sector publications I have never had a social worker offer to âassistâ me, or a care worker ask my son if he wants 'assistance'. A brief GDS Guide to Twitter. The Government Digital Service (GDS) style guide covers style points for content. Digital engagement, GDS team. Guidance and services GOV.WALES proposition. posted on Comment by GDS worked with organisations across government to create the Digital Buying Guide. posted on NSW Government digital style; NSW Design System patterns ; Accessibility and inclusivity. Oxford University Press, 2008. Some 'quick' formats such as answers are also occasionally too long (anything longer than 100-150 words tops is pushing it). 2. posted on SPEAK UP, I CAN'T HEAR YOU. We donât make style decisions on a whim. Menu #7936 (no title) â Digital Advisory Board profile â Alex Balfour â Digital Advisory Board profile â Ashley Machin Is there guidance for differentiating between financial and calendar years over different time-spans: eg calendar year 2011-12 or financial year 2011/12 (or academic years...)? Ditto for "Web". Hello, Tom Loosemore The style is about writing clearly, concisely and without jargon. on 02 July 2012. The 'be concise' section seems a bit repetitive ("clear and concise, brisk but not terse...", etc). posted on We have now started putting together our own set of 10 principles borrowing heavily from GOV.UK. Read more of What we learned from a recent GraphQL workshop - 1 comment Join the cross-government form building community. ð. Comment by Design System. We find out what users want and the vocabulary they are using. Sarah Richards, Content Design Lead on the Delivery team explains why this is important and how it has and will develop and evolve. The UK's Government Digital Service is running a project to see whether organisations outside government can use real-time passport validity checks to build useful digital services. Then we try it out. Is this a London English style guide or is this due to unfamiliarity? You're welcome to adapt a style pattern if it does not meet your users' needs. The government is looking for a CEO to lead the Government Digital Service (GDS), following the imminent departure of interim director general Alison Pritchard. Perhaps it would be worth running this guide in alphabetical order in the way Guardian Style is presented. Maintaining their style allows things to stay consistent In 2017, the Accessibility Team at the Government Digital Service (GDS) created accessibility personas to highlight common barriers faced by people with particular conditions and provide tips on how to design for them.. Some people have previously seen this as âdumbing downâ but being open and accessible to everyone isnât âdumbâ - itâs our responsibility. I’ve been a member of the policy team for just over a year and am currently leading a refresh of the catchily-titled HMG Security Policy Framework. Yep. The Government Digital Service (GDS) exists to make government work better for everyone. Meet the Digital Service Standard. Damien I would also like a coherent numbering scheme, so I can lambast such abuses with a suitably quasi-legalistic flourish. You should apply a content strategy when building new services or redesigning content, or for big changes such as machinery-of-government updates. Weâll work with the GDS design principles and agile delivery in mind. on 02 July 2012. But we also have smaller parts to the guide that are audience specific. on 02 July 2012. ... âThis new organisation will be the centre for digital government in the UK, building and championing a âdigital cultureâ that puts the user first and delivers the best, low cost public services possible. timothypcooperTimothy Cooper They include our Digital Guides, Design System, Content Guide, the Style Manual and other guidance. This seems to conflict with best practice usability. Oxford Reference Online. We base our decisions on the language and reading behaviour you use. OMB Final Guidance on Implementing the Plain Writing Act of 2010 (M 11-15) âIn the January 2009 Memo on Transparency and Open Government, President Obama emphasized the importance of establishing âa system of ⦠Government Digital Service (GDS) is leading the digital transformation of government. When writing for GOV.UK, we aim to make government web information as easy as possible to understand. Our guides and tools help you design, deliver and manage government services. There will be others. So now is a good time to tell us what you think - please post your comments below. In other words, the principles matched our own aspirations for security policy. ), (7) Singular, plural and contractions: You write, "Avoid using âshouldâveâ, âshouldâveâ, âshouldâveâ etc." Football Manager In most cases it's a valid British English spelling (favoured by Cambridge University amongst others). Comment by It was remarkable to see how much research had gone into what is effectively a short and pithy list of rules. Note the word "recognized" - it doesn't have to be an official name for a region. This gives us a consistent feel across the whole site. ð, Comment by EIA Writing Style Guide (PDF, 1.3 MB, 139 pgs) U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) EPA Communications Style Book; U.S. General Services Administration (GSA) USAGov Bilingual Style Guide: Table of Contents; U.S. Government Publishing Office (GPO) U.S. Government Publishing Office Style Manual; U.S. (9) General points: It would make commenting much easier if you numbered the sections. We are a world leading organisation that has inspired many other governments globally to follow our example. The Digital Service Delivery Guide is a collection of best-practice guidance and processes for designing and delivering government services that are simple, fast and strive to improve the user experience. It's about rhythym, I think: how does it sound when read aloud? (Incidentally, caps point is undermined slightly by name of site - GOV.UK - and that of the sub-domain - Inside Government, with a capital 'G'.). I expect that will improve in later drafts. You really don't like "should've", do you? Robert Allen. What is GDS and what does it do? So weâll be continuing to write more content using the Style Guide and formats that weâve [...], Comment by This is an important part of the plan to become a government that's designed for the digital age. You - our users - inform this style guide;  itâs yours. Apologies for the delayed reply, thanks for the response and the update! on 18 September 2012, Great to see a style guide taking shape for this service, and some really interesting and helpful comments made so far. 6 July 2012 ]. Comment by Comment by Have we done any testing on internal links? Helps people decide if part or all of their planned publishing should be on GOV.WALES or not. Read more of Podcast: Accessibility in government Thanks for all your comments. It helps civil servants in governments across the world improve their procurement processes. "going forward" - which other direction do you think time travels? " Andy Key East denotes physical position (on the east side of town) and is spelt with a capital initial (East) when forming part of a recognized name (New York's East Side)...", [Source: Pocket Fowler's Modern English Usage. One of the first headings in the GOV.UK editorial style guide is ‘Ever-changing style guide’. GOV.UK service and product owners need to upload an accessibility page and publishers need to upload an accessible documents policy. Today marks the launch of the alpha release of the GOV.UK editorial style guide. This means that the most important words for the user should be among the first few words in the link or the title. A message for Sarah Richards, Content Design Lead on the *Delivery* team - I thought you said only pizzas, post and services are delivered? follow the Government Digital Service (GDS) style guide and writing guidance; Meet the user need. Find a cross-government training event. Yep. Karwai is part of an accessibility group at Home Office Digital, leading on autism.Together with the team, she’s created these dos and don’ts posters as a way of approaching accessibility from a design perspective. posted on A few weeks ago Sarah Richards and Ben Terrett visited the Government Security Secretariat (GSS) to talk about copywriting and the GOV.UK style guide… I also don't like the reference to making "an FOI [eff-oh-eye] request"; better to spell this out and refer afterwards to the 'request'. posted on on 02 July 2012, Comment by I'd like to understand the thinking behind using the present continuous tense for policy titles in Inside Government (for example "Setting up a national careers service" and "Reforming higher education and student finance"). This is the body of documents that deals with everything from the type of locks we put on our doors to much broader issues such as counter-terrorism and cyber security. Keith Prust Although, if there is no evidence one way or another, we go with gut-feeling and add it to the âto be testedâ list. This means you only need to set things up and make changes once and you can easily transfer a setup from one Chromebook to another. Sometimes there are lot on one page - not sure if they distract from readability. fails conform to the requirement to use contractions. It covers the elements of writing about statistics. on 02 July 2012. It would also be handy to have indications of word-limits in reference to avoiding 'long sentences'.  We know that users can and will arrive anywhere on GOV.UK - search engines provide âdeep linksâ into the content of websites - so the acronym has to make sense with little or no context. Comment by Digital Service Delivery Guide. Posts about style guide written by GDS and Sarah Richards. Government Digital Service (GDS) is leading the digital transformation of government. Sarah pointed us towards the government’s policy of stabilisation in Afghanistan as an example of a hugely complex issue that had been distilled into a single web page, with links leading off to the detail for those who need it. on 06 July 2012. To help me, yes; if he would like help, yes, but does anyone really use the word 'assist' in real life interactions? Ken Clayton on 02 July 2012. Comment by Usability research suggests that when scanning a list of links people only tend to focus on the first few words for each item. on 12 July 2013. We can't exactly ban a word but I think we will banish it. We will be releasing an update fairly soon - it will have extra guidance for some of the new Inside Government formats. We asked Ben Aung from GSS to write about the visit and the work it has inspired. It's really great to see that a lot of this is common sense. on 17 July 2012, We should retain the distinction between "such as" and "like" - it's useful. 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