Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Your audience:
Once you identify your audience, determine various interest levels of your overall
audience and try to write for each level (none, little, some, strong, and so on).
Create a user persona for each kind of user to help you determine how to get their
attention.
Write as if you are speaking to your audience in person.
Writing for all users:
Consider users of various reading levels.
Make sure all content is accessible.
Titles
The title is the first piece of information a user scans. Make it clear, inviting, and
meaningful.
Headings and subheadings
Headings should be short, direct, and powerful.
Subheadings should be descriptive so users easily learn what each section is about.
Use subheadings frequently (every few paragraphs) to keep user moving through
content in easy chunks.
Sentences and paragraphs – shorter is better
Sentences should be no longer than about 20 words.
Each sentence should be limited to one idea.
Paragraphs should have no more than about 6 sentences.
Each paragraph should be limited to one or two ideas.
Lists
Lists are easy to scan because content is vertical.
Content presented in lists is usually more succinct.
Links
Use descriptive link text so users know where they are going.
Link to related information.
Design elements
Use callouts, bold, and italics to make text easier to scan.
Use pictures and other visual elements in place of text when appropriate.
The title, summary, and major headings should give users a broad
overview of the topic.
The sentences and paragraphs should tell users a story.
Users want to take away the main ideas without being bogged down with
specifics.