How to create content in a crisis

In a crisis, people rely on gov.ie as a source of information much more than usual.

There is a temptation to get content up quickly and not be as concerned about plain English and meeting user needs.

This will deny vital information to many people.

Many users find reading very challenging in normal circumstances. Easily understood, factually correct content reassures the user, increases trust and reduces the need for emails, phone calls and office visits.

The content should be written by a trained and experienced content manager, not the subject matter experts.

The content manager must be empowered to make decisions on the presentation of the facts provided to them, so that content quality is kept high during the crisis.

If you are creating a new service – please reach out to the gov.ie content team. In a crisis, people rely on gov.ie as a source of information more than usual and the gov.ie team can help.

FAQs are easy for writers but not for readers. People come to government for answers - not for more questions.

Well-structured content will answer the user’s questions.

FAQs:

• make it hard to access information easily
• lead to content duplication and confusion
• force users to read lists

Compared with a normal webpage - PDFs are harder to use, find and maintain.

PDFs are undesirable, especially on mobile, as they:

• do not resize in browsers
• are designed for print, not screens
• are difficult to make accessible

We are not here to entertain; we are here to inform.

A plain text page can almost always transmit facts faster and more reliably than images.

During the COVID-19 pandemic to date - two thirds of our content is being consumed on mobile devices. Content needs to be easy to consume or the user will not read the content.

See how your page will look and perform on a mobile device using the following desktop browsers:

• Google Chrome
• Microsoft Edge
• Mozilla Firefox
• Safari

In a crisis, people can be concerned if they feel they do not have all the information they need. Try to keep all the content about one topic coherent even if it comes from different government departments and agencies.

The user does not care which organisation the information came from. They will be reassured when they can easily find everything in one place instead of having to search around gov.ie.

The gov.ie team can help coordinate cross-government information on gov.ie.

The gov.ie content team is available to talk, consult or advise on anything you are thinking about creating.

Content on gov.ie has been prepared by the content designers at plain.ie.