Introduction
Writing accessible content for the financial services industry is challenging, and as our reading age shows, we’re often way off the mark
Maria’s third language is English. Last week, she tried to apply for a Nationwide credit card online, but when she got to our terms and conditions she stopped. Many of the words were new to her, and she just felt too intimidated to hit accept. In the end she went to a competitor.
Common issues with our content
Some of the main problems with our content are:
- acronyms
- long sentences
- jargon
- including content purely to mitigate risk and satisfy legal requirements
- complex words
- duplicate content and repetition.
Our audience
Our audience includes all ages and groups. And if we consider:
- 10% of the population have dyslexia
- 6.75 million struggle with literacy
- a growing proportion don’t have English as their first language
It becomes crucial we write in the most accessible way, so nobody is excluded from becoming one of our members.
Whatever their reading ability, most people dislike reading text online, and will tend to scan content. This means, we should only be publishing the minimum amount of text on our digital platforms.
The elements of plain English
Try to reflect these things in your writing:
- Simplicity – always use the simplest word and avoid jargon.
- Acronyms – define an acronym the first time you use it.
- Sentences – keep sentences to 15 words on average and not longer than 25 words. Express one idea, or make one point per sentence.
- Active/passive voice – use the active voice (the footballer kicked the football, not the football was kicked by the footballer) where possible. It gets the point across more quickly and reduces cognitive load.
- Sections and lists – break up content with sections and lists frequently. This helps our users scan for what they need and move on.
Legal and technical content
As a financial institution, we have a lot of complex legal and technical information to communicate to our customers. We do this to let them know about their rights and also to protect ourselves from legal sanctions. Sometimes these two things can seem at odds.
It’s crucial we strike a balance between accuracy and being human. A few ways we can do this are:
- creating summaries of lengthy legal content, such as terms and conditions, with the information our users care about most at the top.
- explaining legal and technical terms in plain English the first time we use them.
Assessing the readability of our content
Tools: there are a wealth of readability tools available online, and many of them are free. We use Readable which crawls a page, checking for where we can improve spelling, grammar, tone, voice, sentence structure. It also provides an overall readability score which acts as a useful metric on a project.
Testing: it’s essential we conduct user testing for comprehension of our content at different stages of a project. If possible, conduct face-to-face testing, so that any pain-points can be discussed further with the participant and richer insight can be drawn.
Common obstacles
“It’s dumbing down!”
No, it’s not. Writing in plain English just allows everyone to access our content, and gets people the information they need so they can get on with their task.
“We’ll be excluding people with a higher reading age!”
There are numerous studies that show the majority of users prefer easy-to-understand language. For example, Christopher Trudeau’s 2012 research into post-graduate lawyers’ use of traditional legal text. Findings showed that most preferred plain language, and the higher their literacy level, the greater their preference for plain language.
We have to use that word, it’s technically accurate!”
That’s fine, but we need to agree a definition for our readers, so they can understand it.
“We have to show it in full otherwise we’re not covered!”
Let’s explore this a bit more. If we create two pages of Terms and Conditions full of jargon, who will read it? We may be subject to litigation for being unclear; not be doing our jobs as well as we should; be left behind by our competitors who are modernising. Ultimately, we risk impacting sales.
Things to check
Have you?
- Always used the simplest word?
- Adopted the active voice throughout? (the footballer kicked the football, not, the football was kicked by the footballer)
- Used short sentences? (12 words max)
- Broken up content with headings and lists where possible?
- Explained any technical term, or acronym, and removed jargon?
- Not buried, or hidden any content in footnotes or tooltips?
- Tested content with users for comprehension?
- Attained the reading age of under 12 years using a readability testing tool?
Tools
Resources / external links
- http://www.plainenglish.co.uk/
- https://gds.blog.gov.uk/2016/02/23/writing-content-for-everyone/
- https://www.gov.uk/guidance/content-design/writing-for-gov-uk
- Readability guidelines: http://readabilityguidelines.wikidot.com
- Christopher Trudeau’s study into plain English: https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1843415
Thank you for your feedback