Design principles for Digital Marketplace legal content

Written in March 2017.

On the Digital Marketplace team, we write a lot of legal content. That means content designers and lawyers often need to work together closely. But we often have different ideas about how we should approach the content we write. Resolving these differences can be time consuming when we’re working to tight deadlines. That’s why we decided to agree to some design principles before we started work on the contracts for G-Cloud 9.

1. Contracts are part of the service

To buy or sell anything on the Digital Marketplace, users have to read, understand and agree to the terms of a ‘call-off contract’ and a ‘framework agreement’. That means legal contracts are part of the service. We should write them with the Government Digital Service (GDS) design principles in mind.

2. Be fair

Writing in simple, clear language means we’re not giving one group of suppliers an advantage over another. It makes it easier for smaller organisations without dedicated legal teams, for example, to review framework agreements and compete with larger organisations for government contracts.

Read how the Digital Marketplace aims to:

• create simpler, clearer contracts
• design contracts for the digital age
• make the buying process fair

3. Be clear

Users must know what they’re signing up to and not be confused by language that’s unfamiliar or open to interpretation. If users are clear about what they can and can’t do, it will reduce the risk of a dispute later on.

Read:

• some words to avoid
• how being clear can reduce the work involved in dealing with errors
• about Clarity, an organisation which promotes plain legal language
• curiouser and curiouser excuses for legal jargon (PDF)
• the plain English Campaign’s A to Z guide to legal phrases (PDF)

4. Keep it simple

If a subject is complex, the language we use shouldn’t be.

Research into legal communication, by Christopher Trudeau, professor at Thomas M. Cooley Law School in Michigan, found that the more complicated the subject, the greater the reader’s preference for plain English. It also found that the more educated the person and the more specialist their knowledge, the greater their preference for plain English.

Read the GDS guidance on:

• making things simple
• writing content for specialists
• writing legal content

5. Be accessible

We mustn’t exclude users. We need to remember that a lot of our users have some kind of difficulty reading. 1 in 6 adults in the UK struggles to read and 10% of the UK population have dyslexia.

Based on those numbers, of the 40,000 users who visit the Digital Marketplace each month:

• 6,667 have to read our in-app content, guidance and legal guidance with dyslexia
• 4,000 have to read our in-app content, guidance and legal guidance with some kind of reading difficulty

If we don’t write our legal content with these users in mind, our service won’t be meeting their needs.

Read:

• how to make content easier to read for users with reading difficulties
• research into how people read
• writing for a dyslexic audience
• why accessibility matters

6. Be accurate

Whenever we simplify language, we must not misrepresent the law. We must be clear about what people’s rights and obligations are. The language we use should be accurate, specific and unambiguous.

7. Respect users’ time

It saves users of all literacy levels the time and effort of deciphering content if we do the hard work to keep it simple. We can save users time if we write in plain English and don’t duplicate content.

8. Be consistent

If content changes in tone or style, it can shake a user’s confidence in what they’re reading. If we agree to use the same style guide upfront, it’s easier to work together and be consistent.

Most government departments now follow the GDS style guide. Continually improved based on testing and user research, it’s a good authority for government-specific content.

If the GDS style guide doesn’t answer a style question, check:

1. The Guardian style guide
2. The Economist style guide
3. The Oxford Dictionary for Writers and Editors

9. Work together

No-one can judge what’s both correct and clear at the same time. That’s why content designers ‘pair write’ with subject matter experts to create content that’s both accurate and understandable.

Read:

• how to use pair writing
• why content designers need experts
• how ‘Register to vote’ worked with lawyers to make things better for users

10. Give the work the time it needs

It takes time to write good content for contracts. Don’t underestimate the amount of work involved. Plan ahead for:

• a product, legal and content audit of any existing content
• the full pair-writing process
• iterating based on user feedback before publishing

11. Help suppliers do the right thing

We ask suppliers if they’re environmentally responsible. We shouldn’t make it hard for them. Some suppliers have told us they need to print their contracts to review them. This can have an impact on their:

• printing costs
• green credentials
• the environment

By making sure we write clear, concise contracts, we can remove the need to print and help suppliers meet the standards we set for them.