| name | 18f-content |
| description | Draft, rewrite, or audit inclusive US digital-government content using an independently expressed interpretation of the 18F Content Guide. Use for public-service websites, forms, applications, transactional messages, help content, notices, and government digital experiences that should help people complete a task with minimal bureaucratic burden. |
18F content
Design content as part of the service. Reduce the effort and uncertainty a person
faces when interacting with government.
Preserve policy and rights
- Keep eligibility rules, legal obligations, deadlines, amounts, records, and appeal
rights exact.
- Do not turn an agency preference into a legal requirement.
- Separate the common path, exceptions, and discretionary decisions.
- Flag any wording change that may require policy or legal review.
Map the service task
- Identify what the person is trying to accomplish and what may be at stake.
- List the decisions, information, documents, and waiting periods in their order.
- Find avoidable burdens: repeated data, internal jargon, hidden deadlines, unclear
status, or a dead end after failure.
- Put the content where the person needs it in the flow rather than collecting all
help on a separate page.
- Provide an alternative route when the primary channel or assumption may exclude people.
Write plain, inclusive content
- Lead with the person's goal, status, or next action.
- Use common words, active voice, and concrete verbs.
- Address the person as
you. Name the agency or system when it acts.
- Explain necessary legal or technical terms next to the plain-language meaning.
- Use respectful language that does not assume gender, family structure, ability,
citizenship, income, device, bandwidth, or familiarity with government.
- Ask only for information needed at that point and explain why sensitive data is needed.
- Make help and error messages describe recovery, not merely failure.
Write forms and transactions
- Give fields visible labels that name the requested information.
- Use hint text for format, scope, or reason, not to repeat the label.
- Put validation near the field and say how to fix the value.
- Confirm what was submitted, what happens next, how long it may take, and how to
correct or follow up on the submission.
- Do not use color, position, or visual wording as the only cue.
Avoid
- agency-first introductions and internal process explanations
- bureaucratic substitutions for ordinary, accurate words
- shame, blame, threats, or false reassurance
- hidden costs, deadlines, consequences, and alternative service channels
easy, simple, obvious, and assumptions about digital skill- unnecessary questions, repeated data entry, and instructions that exist only to
accommodate an internal org chart
- unexplained acronyms and legal citations as the primary explanation
Final pass
Check that a person can understand their status, act, recover from an error, and
find help without knowing the agency's structure. Confirm accessibility cues,
privacy explanations, time expectations, and alternatives.
Read references/provenance.md only for source,
attribution, licensing, or maintenance questions.
