by E-WRITE's Leslie O'Flahavan

Posts within the category: Government web writing

February 2, 2012

Video Contest: Win a Government Website Usability Test

 What? Monster trucks in government?! It's a video throwdown from GSA's First Fridays Product Testing Program. They're sponsoring a contest: make a two-minutes-or-less video explaining why your agency deserves a free usability test. You could win. That means testing your site or app with real live customers and getting expert guidance on how to improve it.  

Want to do usability testing on your federal website but don’t have funds or staff? Enter the "Win a Free Website Usability Test" Video Contest. Contest deadline is February 29, 2012.

Submit a video (two minutes or less) addressing why your government website or web application is a good candidate for a free usability test. Make a creative video explaining the importance of your site, the problems you think need fixing, and a creative push for why you should win.

  • Your site must be a public-facing .gov or .mil website
  • Your team must work with First Fridays to plan the test
  • Your site stakeholder or designee must observe a First Fridays test
  • If you win, your site stakeholder must attend your usability test

The GSA First Fridays Product Testing Program has tested over 25 government websites. After a morning of in-depth testing with real website customers, the team meets over lunch and identifies quick-fix solutions to the top three problems.

Now’s your chance. Contest winners must be willing to make site improvements within 30 days of the test and learn to do simple usability testing.  Why? Because small changes have a BIG impact on customer experience.

To sign up to observe a First Fridays test, email FirstFridays@gsa.gov

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September 26, 2011

Join the National Dialogue on Improving Federal Websites (ends Sept 30)

Satisfy your urge to give the government a piece of your mind by joining the National Dialogue on Improving Federal Websites. The government wants to know what you think should be the practices, policies, and principles that guide federal websites. To date, 277 ideas have been posted, so you can browse others' input or submit an idea of your own. But you've got to hurry: the Dialogue is open 24/7 until September 30, so join in and provide your feedback soon. If you do participate, please add a comment here to let us know what you had to say and how you liked the online Dialogue experience.

Dialogue topics

You can share your thoughts on any of these topics:

  1. Creating better user experience, navigation, and design
  2. Improving content to make it more readable, engaging, and useful
  3. Improving how services and transactions are delivered
  4. Providing universal access to government content online, regardless of device or technology
  5. Optimizing the way the public is able to search for federal content, via federal websites and commercial search engines
  6. Ensuring content on federal websites is integrated with social media and other third-party websites
  7. Improve how federal websites protect privacy and security
  8. Reaching global audiences and people with limited English proficiency

Discussion schedule

  • Wednesday, September 21, 2011 at 1:00 ET - Social Media
  • Thursday, September 22, 2011 at 1:00 ET - Content and Readability
  • Thursday, September 22, 2011 at 3:00 ET - Usability and Navigation
  • Friday, September 23, 2011 at 12:00 ET - Search
  • Monday, September 26, 2011 at 1:00 ET - Content in other Languages and LEP
  • Monday, September 26, 2011 at 4:00 ET - Services and Transactions
  • Tuesday, September 27, 2011 at 1:00 ET - Practices, Policies and Principles
  • Wednesday, September 28, 2011 at 12:00 ET - Universal Access
  • Thursday, September 29, 2011 at 1:00 ET - Data, Apps, APIs
  • Thursday, September 29, 2011 at 3:00 ET - IT and Infrastructure
  • Friday, September 30th at 1:00 ET - Privacy and Security

Join the Who's Who of web thinkers participating in the Dialogue

A number of experts will serve as volunteer “discussion catalysts,” to guide the various discussion topics. These experts include:

  • Annetta Cheek, Chair, Center for Plain Language
  • Candi Harrison, Former Co-Chair, Federal Web Managers Council
  • Carla Briceno, Co-Founder of Bixal
  • Clay Johnson, Director of Engagement for Expert Labs
  • Craig Newmark, Founder & customer service rep craigslist.org and craigconnects.org
  • Ed Mullen, Principal Edward Mullen Studio; Founder MixTrail
  • Jakob Nielsen, Principal of the Nielsen Norman Group
  • Lee Vann, Founder & CEO Captura Group
  • Sharron Rush, Co-founder and Executive Director of Knowbility
  • Steve Krug, Author and Founder Advanced Common Sense
  • Vanessa Fox, Author, Marketing in the Age of Google

 

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April 5, 2011

Editor reports results of jargon survey: Staff is iffy on some agency terms

For this post, I am glad to welcome guest blogger Sarah Shepard, Senior Engineering Research Editor for the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC). You may remember Sarah; I blogged about her a few weeks ago. She's the plain language advocate who came up with the best strategy ever for showing her colleagues that DEC's jargon compromises clarity. Sarah tested DEC's jargon on DEC itself. Read the original post here: Editor surveys staff to see whether they understand their own jargon.

I asked Sarah to get in touch when the survey was complete, and here's what she has to say:

"Results from the DEC jargon survey are in and I am surprised. The response was huge. Almost 30% of the 3,000 people in our agency responded. As surveys poured in, I realized people were motivated by more than the desire to win the pizza we’d offered.  Why did so many take the survey? On my good days, I think the survey resonated with those who are frustrated with how we communicate with the public. On my not-so-good days, I think some people completed it to protect their own jargon.

They claimed to know lots of terms
I was surprised that 80% of DEC knew what brownfield, consent order, and aquifer meant. Really?  We'll never know for sure because we didn’t ask people to define the words they claimed to know. Take the term angler days, for example. Within our Plain Language group, some thought it meant the days you could fish for free. Others thought it was the length of the fishing season. Neither is correct, but everyone thought they knew what the term meant, so highly confident responses on the survey have to be viewed with some skepticism.

They admitted to being iffy on some terms
In contrast, the data from the “I’m not familiar with this word” and “I’ve heard it, but I don’t know what it means” categories was clear. Less than half of our staff knows what anadromous means. Ditto for viewshed and down wood. Climate change lingo -- carbon sequestration, low-carbon economy, and green-collar workforce -- was equally unfamiliar. Despite confusion about these terms, the survey showed our staff is in command of much of our jargon, although reluctant to label it as such. “Ruminant is not jargon,” I was told, but a “legitimate scientific term that everyone should know.”

We surveyed the public and they were stumped too
Curious about which terms the public did know, I opened the survey to them. Well, not exactly the true public, but family and friends of DEC staff. As expected, the public was even more unfamiliar with the terms that stumped us.  But there were a few surprises. Seventy-one percent of our slice of the public thought they knew what riparian meant. An even higher percentage said they knew the meaning of non-point source and biosolid. Could this be? Even if it’s true, that still means about 30% of those outside DEC don’t understand these words. That’s a lot of people. We need to be careful where we use such words. 

If you want more detail about survey results, scroll to the bottom of this post.

Thanks for your interest in DEC's jargon survey
Our jargon is just the tip of our non-plain language iceberg. The heavy lift will be taming the use of  wordy, inflated language. We have been known to write shoreline recreation amenity when we mean beach. More (and more carefully designed) surveys are planned, in which we'll test selected words on targeted audiences. I’m happy to share the results of this jargon survey with anyone interested, including those of you who have already contacted me to express your (much appreciated) support. E-mail me. Let's keep in touch!"

Survey participation

  • Total number of DEC staff who took survey: 894 (out of 3008)
  • Total number of public who took survey: 413

Survey options

  • Not familiar = I’m not familiar with this word
  • Seen/heard = I’ve seen/heard this word but I don’t know what it means
  • Unsure = I think I know what this means, but I’m not sure
  • Know = I know the meaning of this word

Least familiar scientific jargon: anadr0mous       

  • Not familiar: 43.8% (DEC); 53.8% (Public)
  • Seen/heard: 10.5% (DEC); 10.9% (Public)

Least familiar regulatory jargon: attainment area 

  • Not familiar: 25.5% (DEC); 30.5% (Public)
  • Seen/heard: 14.8% (DEC); 16.2% (Public)

Most familiar jargon: invasive species

  • Know: 95.4% (DEC); 93.9% (Public)    

Largest difference in familiarity between DEC and public: non-point source

  • Not-familiar: 8.4% (DEC); 20.6% (Public)
  • Seen/heard: 4.1% (DEC); 6.5% (Public)

Shouldn’t everyone at DEC know the term environmental stewardship?

  • Not familiar: 2.8% (DEC); 3.9 % (Public) 
  • Seen/heard: 4.3% (DEC); 3.6% (Public)
  • Unsure: 15.1% (DEC); 16.5% (Public)

The public understands  some terms better than DEC does

  • Know the meaning of  low-carbon economy: 35.2% (DEC); 45.3% (Public)
  • Know the meaning of green-collar workforce: 38.9% (DEC); 44.6% (Public)

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March 2, 2011

Update: Federal Plain Language Guidelines - March 2011

Many thanks to the folks at PlainLanguage.gov who have just updated their Federal Plain Language Guidelines and published them at their site. I'm so excited about this wonderful resource that I'm presenting the entire Table of Contents here so you can easily click through. You can also download the Guidelines (PDF). I hope you'll use these Guidelines to nurture clear writing in your organization or to help you develop a style guide of your own.

Federal Plain Language Guidelines

Introduction

  1. Think about your audience
    1. Identify and write for your audience
    2. Address separate audiences separately
  2. Organize
    1. Organize to meet your readers' needs
    2. Address one person, not a group
    3. Use lots of useful headings
    4. Write short sections
  3. Write your document
    1. Words
      1. Verbs
        1. Use active voice
        2. Use the simplest form of a verb
        3. Avoid hidden verbs
        4. Use "must" to indicate requirements
        5. Use contractions when appropriate
      2. Nouns and pronouns
        1. Don't turn verbs into nouns
        2. Use pronouns to speak directly to readers
        3. Minimize abbreviations
      3. Other word issues
        1. Use short, simple words
        2. Omit unnecessary words
        3. Dealing with definitions
        4. Use the same term consistently for a specific thought or object
        5. Avoid legal, foreign, and technical jargon
        6. Don't use slashes
    2. Sentences
      1. Write short sentences
      2. Keep subject, verb, and object close together
      3. Avoid double negatives and exceptions to exceptions
      4. Place the main idea before exceptions and conditions
      5. Place words carefully
    3. Paragraphs
      1. Have a topic sentence
      2. Use transition words
      3. Write short paragraphs
      4. Cover only one topic in each paragraph
    4. Other aids to clarity
      1. Use examples
      2. Use lists
      3. Use tables to make complex material easier to understand
      4. Consider using illustrations
      5. Use emphasis to highlight important concepts
      6. Minimize cross-references
      7. Design your document for easy reading
  4. Write for the web
    1. How do people use the web?
    2. Write for your users
    3. Identify your users and their top tasks
    4. Write web content
    5. Repurpose print material for the web
    6. Avoid PDF overload
    7. Use plain-language techniques on the web
    8. Avoid meaningless formal language
    9. Write effective links
  5. Test
    1. Paraphrase Testing
    2. Usability Testing
    3. Controlled Comparative Studies
    4. Testing Successes
      1. Paraphrase Testing from the Veterans Benefits Administration
      2. Usability Testing from the National Cancer Institute

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February 15, 2011

Join me for the Content Managers' Playbook course on February 23

On February 23, 2011, I am teaching a day-long course for Web Manager University in Washington, DC. Content Managers' Playbook: Proven Strategies for Getting Readable Content  is ideal for anyone who manages content and the people who write it.  I've provided the full course description, below.

During the course, I'll share some of the interviews I've done with forward-thinking content managers. If you'd like to be interviewed, or know a content manager who would, e-mail me.  I may not be able to use your interview in next week's course, but I'll try!

If you'll be in DC on February 23, I hope you'll consider joining me for the Content Managers' Playbook course.

Course Description

Your content management system is in place, you've got support from the higher-ups, and you've hired all the right people for your own web team. Yet you still struggle to get worthwhile content from the subject matter experts in your agency who are supposed to supply it. They don't think writing content for the Web is their job. They are not motivated to update their web pages. Sometimes they feed you unreadable content and ask you to "webify" it. Other times they just want to post a long PDF. Their resistance or lack of skill threatens the distributed publishing model you've worked hard to establish.

In this hands-on workshop, you'll learn how content managers in corporations, government, and nonprofits have cultivated their subject matter experts' content writing skills. You'll receive a Content Managers' Playbook with case studies and strategies for training and motivating content contributors, and helping them understand their role in the overall content publishing cycle.

What you'll learn

  • How to diagnose content problems. Are contributors suffering from a lack of skill, motivation, or both?
  • How to help contributors understand, and care about, users' content needs
  • How to establish and enforce content quality guidelines
  • How to use content case studies to provide models of excellence
  • How to help contributors see the business value in writing quality content
  • What types of ongoing training content contributors need


How you'll benefit

  • You'll review real-world examples of the strategies other content managers have used to solve their content problems
  • You'll receive three models for organizing content contributors and consider which model will work best for your organization
  • You'll learn how to make the business case for contributors to produce good web content


Who should attend

  • Web managers and content managers
  • Program managers who want their employees to produce better web content
  • New media and public affairs staff who are responsible for web content

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