Website Style Guide
This style guide will provide consistency for the content editors and is a reference for them in the first instance but it is published here for all to see. We fully expect it to change over time depending on what we learn from analytics, testing and users.
Style points
The golden rules of writing for the web:
- make it brief and to the point
- break up text into subheaded sections
- use bullet lists
- ‘front-load’ subheadings, titles and bullet points to put the most important information first
- include links to external sites and relevant pages
- use words that are easy to understand
- use active, not passive, voice
- build content to meet specific user needs.
How users read
Users typically only read between 20% to 28% of a web page and even less when they’re impatient to complete a service as quickly as possible.
This section provides background to why our guidance for creating content, and the style set out in this guide, is the way it is.
Reading age
You don’t read one word at a time. You bounce around. You anticipate words and fill them in.
By the time you’re nine years old, your brain can drop up to 30% of the text and still understand. Your vocabulary will grow but this reading skill stays with you as an adult.
It would be best if you also were confident in sounding out words and blending sounds. You may not know the word, but you have the skills to be able to learn it.
This is why we aim for our content to be suitable for a reading age of nine years old.
Lower case
When you learn to read, you start with a mix of upper and lower case but you don’t start to understand upper case until you are around six years old.
At first, you sound out letters, merge sounds, merge letters, and learn the word. Then you stop reading it.
At that point, you recognise the shape of the word. This speeds up comprehension and the speed of reading.
So we don’t want people to read it. We want people to recognise the 'shape' of the word and understand it.
Capital letters are reputed to be 13 to 18% harder for users to read so avoid them.
Also, in modern usage, it sounds like we’re shouting. We are a council. We should not be shouting.
Plain english
By the time you are nine, you’re building up your ‘common words’. Your primary set is around 5,000 words of vocabulary with a secondary set of 10,000 words.
These are the words you use every day.
They include a lot of Plain english words, which is why we are obsessed with them. These are the words so easy to comprehend, you learn to read them quickly and then you stop reading and start recognising.
Context
We endeavour to explain all unusual terms on corkcoco.ie. This is because you can understand six-letter words as easily as two-letter words – if they’re in context.
Sometimes, you can read a short word faster than a single letter – if the context is correct.
Not only are we giving full information, we’re speeding up their reading time. By giving full contact and using common words, we’re allowing them to understand in the fastest possible way. This is great for users who are impatient to complete a service in a hurry.
In transactions, you need to give people context and the information they are expecting. This helps them get through it faster.
Learning disabilities
We should remember that people with some learning disabilities read letter for letter. They don’t bounce around like other users.
They also can’t fully understand a sentence if it’s too long.
People with moderate learning disabilities can understand sentences of five to eight words without difficulty. By concentrating on common words we can help all users understand sentences of around 25 words.
Why we do this
Our audience is potentially anyone living or working in Cork county or visiting the county from elsewhere in Ireland or abroad.
To create digital services so good that those that can prefer to use them, we need to open up council information to everyone. That means using common words and working with natural reading behaviour.