Simplification training
We are often asked to deliver short courses on simplification – usually for large organisations with complex information to communicate. For example, we've recently been helping the Office for Students to write more effectively about how they measure teaching quality. Other recent clients include the NHS and the Veterans Agency.
Courses are designed specifically for each client, and often related to consultancy projects. Our workshops include practical exercises. Typical topics include:
- Document literacy and strategic reading: what do people do with documents, and what do they need.
- Defining our audience – who are we writing for, and what do they need.
- Graphic-editing (looking for opportunities for headings, graphic structures, etc)
- Critiquing: discovering what good looks like.
- Readability and clarity.
- Confidence: how to write in simpler language without feeling you are dumbing down.
- Channel strategy: web, social media, PDF, paper etc. and how they combine.
- Layering and other strategies for dealing with complexity.
- Genres: applying features from user-centred formats (such as user guides or wayfinding systems).
- Team structures, roles and processes.
Ask us about how we can help your organisation write and design more clearly.