Content Style Guide

Necessary, Needed, Useful, and Focused on Patron Needs

Creating and maintaining high-quality content is time-consuming. Remember that any page you create will need to be maintained regularly, so be selective about what you create.  (Don’t create more than you know you’ll be able to properly manage).  Also, the more content we have, the harder it is for us to upgrade, redesign, and migrate our website.

• Focus on creating high-value content (geared towards helping users get their work done). Unnecessary content makes it harder for users to find and use our most high-value content.

• Avoid creating “just in case” content. Too much information overwhelms the user and there is cognitive overload

• Focus on content only the library can provide (avoid creating content that can be easily found via the open web).

• The library website is not an archive or filing cabinet. When content is no longer needed or relevant, retire it (unpublish, delete, or archive it ). It may already be available in the Wayback Machine if you ever need to access it again.

Further Reading

Content should be Unique

Redundant content results in less usable search results, confuse users, and reduce the credibility of the library. Repeating a link that is part of the navigation confuses screen reader users.

Correct and Complete Information

 Content should always be accurate, up-to-date, and complete.

• Don’t publish incomplete or placeholder pages.
• Double check that your information and sources are correct.
• Check that all links work and go to the right place.

Consistent, Clear, and Concise Content

1. Consistent

• Consistent design and language will help our patrons make sense of what the library offers, while inconsistencies will slow them down. 
• Follow all the content style guide recommendations.  Especially use established naming conventions.

2. Clear

• Purpose/scope of the page (why it exists) should be perfectly clear.
• Content communicates clearly and is easy to understand.
• Follow link recommendations.
• Follow language, voice, and tone recommendations.
• Avoid academic, formal, or complex words when simple ones will do.
• Avoid unnecessary library jargon.
• Avoid figurative language.
• Use plain language.
• Use acronyms and abbreviations only when necessary.

3. Concise

• Less is more. Users are often better served by content that is concise as opposed to exhaustively thorough.
• The faster we can get users to the information they need, the faster they will be able to go on and get their work done.
• Keep it simple. The Nielson Norman Group  says “simplicity wins over abundance of choice."
• Avoid preambles and unnecessary description of historical, background information.
• Avoid telling users you’re going to explain something below, instead just explain it below.  (For example, “The following is a brief description about how to…”)
• Use short sentences and short paragraphs.
• Follow language, voice, and tone recommendations.
• Follow list recommendations. Use bulleted lists to group items together or to simplify lengthy and dense paragraphs.

Accessible

• Follow headings recommendations. Use descriptive headings to structure and chunk contents of your page to enable users to quickly skim.
• Follow links and buttons recommendations.
  • Don’t set links to open in a new window.
  • Link labels should be unique and descriptive.
  • Buttons should have action-oriented and descriptive labels.
• Follow language, voice, and tone recommendations. Use inclusive language.
• Follow images, video, and audio recommendations.
  • Use graphics in moderation.
  • Use appropriate image alt text.
  • Videos and audio should provide text-based alternatives.
• Follow table recommendations.  Use tables for related tabular information.
• Follow documents recommendations. Be selective about providing content via linked documents.