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Clarifying absolutely everything can result in complication
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Clarifying absolutely everything can result in complication
Our understanding of written information is only partly based on the words on the page. We also bring our own world knowledge and mental schemas, and our assumptions about the writer, and their motives.
As information designers and writers, though, we can’t always know what world knowledge our readers have.
I once worked on a government form that was aimed at benefits claimants who were thought to have poor financial literacy – the statistics showed that many would not even have a bank account. As a result, the single question “what is your bank account number” was supported by three full A4 pages of notes– just for that one question. They explained what a bank account is, the different kinds of bank account, the benefits of a bank account, and how to open one.
The information was written in clear English, but it was an example of what David Olson1 calls an ‘explicit text’ (and elsewhere he calls it an ‘autonomous text’). Explicit text makes no assumptions about the reader’s world knowledge, and explains everything.
So this form provided such an explicit and lengthy explanation as to exclude the very readers it was trying to help.
1. Olson, D.R., (1985) ‘On the designing and understanding of written texts.’ In T.M. Duffy, & R. Waller (eds) Designing usable texts. Orlando: Academic Press.