Principles

1. Understand context of use

2. Choose what to say

3. Slash everything else

4. Edit sentences

5. Put into logical order

6. Demolish walls of words

7. Choose links

8. Check consistency

9. Rest it then test it

1. Understand context of use

Context of use is shorthand for who, what, where, when, why and how.

Who are you writing for?

Define your users. You need to know who you are writing for. If you write for "just anyone", you'll end up writing for no-one.

What are you trying to achieve?

What is the overall scope of what you are covering? Define your purpose. A clear view of what you are trying to achieve makes it much easier to decide what to put in and what to leave out.

Where, when and why will the users use what you create?

Are your users at home, at work, or travelling?

Will they be visiting while doing something else, like talking on the phone?

WIll anyone be helping them?

Why do they visit your site? Is it for entertainment, to find something, to buy something? If it's an official or government site, are they required to use it or do they have any option?

Are they mainly interested in the financial aspect, e.g. how much they have to pay or how much they'll receive? Or are they mainly interested in information that they'll get from the site?

How are you going to organise the whole?

We'll be editing individual pages, but it will be a lot easier if we understand how each page fits into the overall scope of the site.

Tip: do this well first time to save time

You don't need to repeat this step with every page. If you make sure that you have a really good understaning of context of use, then you'll be able to apply that to the whole of your editing project.

Where from?

"Context of use" is crucial when thinking about usability or plain language. It is a central part of ISO 13407, the international standard for user-centred design. You can buy the standard from ISO.

There is a good summary of ISO 13407 on the Usability Assurance web site.