The goal of creating materials on the web is communication. The checklist below provides a test to see if your materials will communicate effectively.
Accessibility
Have all your images got <alt> text - for use by people who rely on screen readers?
Have you used h1, h2, h3 etc in an order that makes sense? So that people who rely on these to interpret the pages structure are not confused.
If you’ve set text and background colours, do they have enough contrast?
Active voice
Have you written your materials using an active voice throughout?
eg. “The board proposed the legislation” not “The regulation was proposed by the board.”
Building scent
Do all your links to other pages contain enough information to let people know where they’re going?
eg. “More information” not “Click here for more information”.
Have you underlined text that is not a link? That will be highly confusing for your audience.
Scannability
Can your materials be quickly scanned? (Noting that people actually read very little - about 25% - of most web pages)
Are they broken into small chunks?
Do they have headings that are easily understood?
Do they use bullet points rather than lists in paragraphs?
Front loading
Have you started with the material that’s most important for your audience, with extra detail further down?
User language
Are you using terms that your audience will understand?
If your audience was searching for this material, what terms would they use?
Useful resources
- Web accessibility checker
- Accessibility Contrast Checker
- The writer’s handbook
- Why you shouldn’t use click here
- How people read on the web
- Inverted pyramid style of writing
- Consider your audience
If you'd like to discuss this resource, or how I can help you, get in touch.