How to do digital better

Duncan Stephen
Thursday 2 October 2014

9 content tips to help you build a better digital service

Gov.uk share nine content design tips. I particularly like item 5, something I have been advocating for a while:

Don’t explain the interface – improve it

One of the questions in the Electoral registration service is ‘Do you also live at a second address?’.Originally, the options were ‘yes’ or ‘no’. But during testing, we found that users weren’t sure whether their situation ‘counted’ as having a second address.

We didn’t want to write a long explanation of what counts as a second address for electoral registration purpose. It would be hard work for the user, and we couldn’t be definitive anyway (ultimately, it’s up to local electoral registration officers to decide).

Instead, we added an extra radio button. We don’t actually need to know whether someone is a student or they have a second home, but we found that it’s easier for the user if they can choose an option that describes their situation.

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