How the Australian Government is driving better citizen user experience with more Readable Content
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The document discusses using readability analysis tools to improve the quality and readability of government communications in Australia. It describes a case study where the Digital Transformation Agency used VisibleThread tools to audit over 2 million words on a government website, identifying areas for improvement. The tools can analyze documents and webpages, providing metrics on readability levels, passive voice, sentence length and more. This allows content authors to easily check and improve documents before publication to ensure they meet guidelines for plain language and comprehension levels. The solution helps automate the process and monitor improvements across an organization.
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How the Australian Government is driving better citizen user experience with more Readable Content
- 1. Readability & Auditing Solutions Communications Suite Words Matter
- 4. Digital Transformation - Government
- 7. Show Baseline Improvement Metrics
- 8. Case Study A strategic approach to efficient content development & review
- 11. DIIS Findings • Emphasis on quality content (aligned with DTA’s Web Content Accessibility Guidelines) • Significant web page reduction from 3,000 to 1,000 today. • Delegation of content responsibility down the line – has resulted in improved content quality in a faster turnaround time • Useful as an independent ‘arbitor’ especially when working with SMEs to guide them towards improved readability of jargon or overly technical content. • Demonstrates value of continuous improvement. • Improvement and efficiencies across workflow process - prior to VT this work was done manually in Word, with screen scrape of content plagued with time consuming functionality problems • Full corporate knowledge management - content captured in a consistent way. • Excellent driver in demonstrating the difference well written content makes for users’ readability
- 12. Step 1: Create Baseline – Analyse Readability
- 13. Step 2: Compare Language used by Writers, SME’s, Divisions
- 14. Step 3 Create Dictionaries - Language used v Language Preferred
- 15. Case Study Improving Readability & Communication
- 17. “We know there are enormous benefits in keeping online language simple and clear — even when you’re a specialist talking to another specialist. Language that is written as openly and inclusively as possible benefits everyone — not just the 44% of Australians who have a low level of literacy. It also means meeting the WCAG criteria on reading and comprehension which requires a lower secondary education reading level. Our own Content Guide suggests Year 5 reading level for citizen-facing information”. Source: https://www.dta.gov.au/blog/writing-for-everyone/ Background:
- 18. • 44% of Australians have literacy challenges • DTA recommend: • Year 5 readability level in Gov to Citizen communications • Year 8 readability level in Gov to Gov communications • Difficult for staff to automatically write to these standards. • Training/ equipping staff with readability tools & knowledge will support the Digital Service Standard mission. • Difficult for leadership to monitor content improvement • Monitoring solutions needed to score and measure all contributors Key Project Drivers
- 19. • Measure & improve the quality & readability of communications. • Support the Digital Service Standard mission. • Easily Audit & Report on readability improvements across the organisation. Project Objective:
- 20. Audit Methodology: Step 1: Analysed 2,231 pages on http://www.border.gov.au/ website. Analysed a total of 2,476,482 words on this first analysis. Step 2: We then extracted all pages to Excel. We sorted the pages alphabetically, and ran subsequent analysis on these sections: 1. VISAs 2. Travellers 3. Legal & Immigration FAQs 4. About Pages 5. Business Pages 6. Citizenship – General FAQs and Help Step 3: We created a ‘Bad Language’ dictionary, so we can identify specific references. We ran this bad language dictionary against the 6 logical areas.
- 23. How Do We Help?
- 25. http://www.visiblethread.com/products/visiblethread-marketing-suite/ VisibleThread Communications Suite – Supporting your Lifecycle Solutions for Audit and Oversight VT Docs Audit thousands of docs VT Web Audit thousands of webpages
- 26. http://www.visiblethread.com/products/visiblethread-marketing-suite/ VisibleThread Communications Suite – Supporting your Lifecycle VT Readability Readability analysis for a single doc, URL or Text. Solutions for Content Creators VT Readability eMail Service Submit PDF or Word doc for score. VT Usage Monitor Monitor adoption & usage
- 27. Solutions for the Improvement Journey:
- 28. User authors content in an MS Word document (.docx)* Content Author User Journey - step 1:
- 29. User submits document via email (as an attachment) to a dedicated email address (e.g. analyze@readability-<your-domain-name>.com ) Use of VisibleThread email address will remove the need for any internal IT workload. Document is processed by VisibleThread Readability Engine Content Author User Journey - step 2:
- 30. On completion an email is sent to the user with the following: - Top line stats (coloured) Long Sentences, Passive Voice, Readability, Grade Level Content Author User Journey - step 3:
- 31. Annotated document as an attachment is returned to user. Note: If user submits a PDF or Word Document instead of a.docx then an excel output will be returned instead of annotated output Content Author User Journey - step 4: Fix the content in MS Word & re-submit
- 33. Step 5: Policy & Contract Efficiencies:
- 34. References & Digital Service Standards
- 35. Helpful Resources: Testing Content: https://gds.blog.gov.uk/2016/04/06/guest-post-looking-at-the-different-ways- to-test-content/ Christine Cawthorne & Emleigh Barnes Readability versus Comprehension: https://www.nngroup.com/articles/cloze-test-reading-comprehension/ Jakob Nielsen
- 36. Helpful Resources: Source: Harvard Kennedy School Digital Transformation - Government
- 37. How to do this consistently, accurately and measurably? Checklist for Plain Language Write for the average reader Organize to serve the reader’s needs Use active voice Use short sentences Use “you” and other pronouns Use short sections Use the simplest tense possible Use base verbs, not hidden verbs Avoid noun clusters Use concrete, familiar words Omit excess words Place words carefully Have useful headings Use lists Use tables Use “must” not “shall” to express requirements
- 38. TBS Style Guide: • Plain Language • Active Voice • Avoid Jargon • Short Sentences • Verify Readability • etc. How to do this consistently, accurately and measurably?
- 41. Questions & Next Steps
Editor's Notes
- The UK Govt Digital Service (GDS) is the poster child for all of the innovative Digital governments and transformation offices launching digital services. They created the GDS mould and radically changed some services in the UK. The US Digital service, the Australian- DTA, and the Canadian – Treasury Board (of whom the CIO is now driving the gov digital strategy (GDS) all try to emulate and admire their work. Their case study still influences all new transformation initiatives in Gov worldwide including in Ireland. I met numerous parties from commonwealth and state bodies that are starting this jouney just now and refer to GDS and USDS as templates for their own plans. The individual innovators are change agents in Gov but tend to make org. changes, embed or try to embed and move on. Most departments had innovation labs and progressive states also still have innovation labs for prototyping new services. One the areas that was most innovative was CIVICtech within HHS. Their principal focus is on user design thinking and agile with a social conscience. It is important to realise that these innovators and their programs start, make changes but do not always stay in the same agency. We also need to be cognizant that a lot of these innovators that served as coder for Americas and joined PIF.gov are likely to migrate out of central government into local/state, NGOs, private sector – yes they are social democrats, ethical and liberals in the main. In organisations that value digital their Chief Digital officer is focussed upon strategy, data analytics & product management of services whilst the CIO is focussed on support, development and service delivery. In countries where Digital is embedded in policy and budgeted these CDOs have been successful. The flowdown is Policy, Programs through to Citizen Services. Learn their language – “user first” and “design thinking”. This learning underlines the need for us to report improvement KPIs to their leadership, they are on a journey to make Gov more business like and more user focussed and need metrics. Overall, we need to understand the policy priorities and the prioritized programs so we can pitch our value proposition to those “product managers” and program managers. Those organizations that have innovation labs and have product managers are the ones that we need to target first as they are the innovators and market leaders. (fortunately I met a bunch of them this week). Like the commercial sector product managers own the user experience. UK DIGITAL SERVICES - Background