Finding and testing the language your readers use
Being a content designer means putting people at the heart of what we do. Researchers create user stories that tell us what people need to know and what their pain points are.
The world of disability can be complex. Some of the processes, systems, people and attitudes around disability can be wearing. You’re living in a world that’s not designed to be accessible to you. That’s why helping our audience understand the information we’re giving them is so important.
Language of the people
Our language needs to be understood and relatable. It needs to help people to do what they need to do while cutting through the complex jargon that doctors, teachers or government workers use.
That’s not to say that you must avoid jargon at all costs. That can sometimes make things harder to understand. Especially if we’re not using the ‘official’ or widely used terms that readers will need to know or are familiar with.
We need to balance what is accurate with what people say or search for. That’s why as content designers it’s essential to:
- look at where the reader is in their journey
- research the language they’re using
- find out what they are already familiar with and what they don’t understand
- test your language to check you’ve got it right
Researching your audience’s language
There are many ways you can look at how people talk about a subject. Sometimes if the topic is a bit niche, the words they use can be hard to find. But, in these cases, using plain English will help. You can also test your content if you’re not sure.
Keywords and search engines
Googling your topic is always a good place to start. Google autocomplete can help you see what people are searching. You can also see what other content comes up, particularly in forums or blogs.
If you’re using Chrome or Firefox, you can use a browser extension called ‘Keywords Everywhere’. This shows you similar searches to yours and the search volume in the search engine results pages. This can help you get a feel for how the topic is searched and what language people use.
Keyword Planner can help too. If you have the Keywords Everywhere extension installed, keyword planner will show you exact search volumes rather than ranges.
Google Trends can help you compare different words on the same topic, like ‘Personal Independence Payment’ and ‘PIP’.
Communities and forums
Forums and online communities are some of the best places to find information about your audiences and the pain points they experience, as well as the language they’re using.
In the disability space, the number of acronyms used is incredible. There’s an acronym for everything. While we cannot write in acronyms, we can use the ones that people talk about a lot (first written out in full of course).
It gives us the opportunity to explain what those jargon words or acronyms mean to people new to the system. Some places we look at include Mumsnet, Netmums, Special Needs Jungle and, of course, the Scope online community.
Social media (if applicable)
Social media can sometimes be a good place to look for readers’ language. But then again sometimes it’s not. Social media works if you’re looking for the right topic and you know roughly where to start. Sometimes your topic will just be too niche, or there’s just nothing relevant.
User research notes and talking to user researchers
Talking to your user researcher will help you understand your readers’ mental models: how they feel, how they talk and what frustrates them.
Work closely with your researcher and, if you can, sit in on interviews and focus groups. Watch and listen to how people talk and react to different topics. It can help you set the tone for your content.
It’s also worth reading through the researcher’s notes. Check the phrases and words the interviewees used to describe the topic, service or product.
Keep talking to your researcher after you start writing. It’s easy to get swept up in the subject expert’s language or the ‘accurate terminology’ and lose sight of your readers and their language.
The language balancing act
Anyone that’s worked with jargon knows the challenges with writing content that is accurate but still using the words that audiences use. It can be difficult to balance:
“well that’s what it’s called”
with
“this is what everyone actually calls it”
We see this time and time again, particularly with benefits systems, medical and educational jargon.
Balancing education jargon
We faced language challenges when talking about educational support. There was a lot of technical jargon and abbreviations that we and our readers needed to navigate through.
For example:
We know that the most used abbreviation for an Education, Health and Care plan is ‘EHCP’. But the official term used on GOV.UK and everywhere else providing advice and support is ‘EHC plan’.
The word used to describe educational support is ‘provision’. But this is a broad and vague term. We cannot just replace it with ‘support’ because it’s not just support, it can be other things too. Yet, it’s jargon that’s unclear about what it means and what exactly ‘provision’ covers.
Parents also talked about ‘interim reviews’ for EHCPs. The subject experts had not heard this term before. Parents were using it to describe the official ‘early annual review’. But there didn’t seem to be a connection between the two. The school and local authority use different words to parents to describe the same thing.
So, how do we let parents know what they can ask for without using the official terms? How do we help parents if we’re using jargon they do not understand? How do readers know that we’re talking about the same review?
We use both official and unofficial language
We’re using a mixed approach with our language. Our readers will need to know the jargon that schools, government workers, doctors use. But this does not mean we cannot use our readers’ language too.
We write in plain English but give people the terms they need to know alongside the ones they use. For example:
“An Education, Health and Care plan, also known as EHCP and EHC plan, helps your child at school.”
“You can send your comments on the draft EHCP back to the local authority. These are often called ‘representations’.”
Our approach is similar to NHS digital. They’ve moved to using inclusive language that uses words people know and understand while educating them about medical terms.
Testing content
Testing the words we use with our readers help us get it right. People like the terms they are used to and identify with.
For example, we use language from the social model of disability. This says that people are disabled by barriers in society, not by their impairments.
But we found in testing that some readers do not like the word ‘impairment’. Others do not like the word ‘disabled’. So, how our readers self-identify needs to be considered against how we as an organisation talk about disability.
We also do not know how our audience will read the words. How those words will make them feel. How the situation they are in will affect how they interpret meaning. How we describe something can read ‘cold’, ‘formal’ or ‘patronising’.
We have to find ways to reword and get the message across without using language that’s:
- alienating (especially around disability)
- curt, harsh or cold (sometimes a result of short, simple sentences)
- making people feel anxious
And we need to do this while staying true to our tone of voice and principles.
Our language continuously evolves as people and society changes. How people feel about certain words will change. But that insight only comes from testing. Testing lets us know if the language we’re using is not the language that our readers want or like.
