The JNCC Technical Skills Framework – a strategic approach to training The majority of staff at the Joint Nature Conservation Committee (JNCC) are scientists. We also have a dedicated technical development team but how do we know that we have …
Back in November, Alex Coley blogged about being comfortable with risk – explaining the risks we consider when making our data open and the simple tool we use to help assess them. The Open Data Risk Assessment Tool was developed by the Environment …
How Defra designs content in plain English that's easy to use and legally correct.
How Defra designs content so it's legally accurate, easy to find and easy to read.
Advice for SMEs and policy leads on writing strong user needs and what help you can get from the Defra content team user needs panel.
When producing Defra’s Smarter Guidance for GOV.UK, some people ask: ‘how long should we make this guide?’ The shortest guide I’ve seen was a single url. The longest was 40,000 words. These examples don’t show the acceptable range of a …
Would you read government guidance if you didn't have to? "Of course not," says the average citizen. That's why every new page that the Smarter Guidance team creates has to have a user need. If there's no need for someone …
This month we launched a new farming topic page on GOV.UK. It brings together all farming content, hopefully in a way that makes it much easier for people to find what they’re looking for. It also allows government to point farmers to …
We use plain English so you can understand anything we publish quickly and easily. Still with me? Thought so. I could’ve said: Simplifying language facilitates the comprehension process of our written guidance. You’d just about get it, but you’d probably …
One of the dubious privileges of my suburban upbringing was watching my Dad assemble flat pack furniture on rainy Sunday afternoons. As the hours passed and the chair, barbecue or desk started to emerge with missing legs or extra arms, …
