A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, I, J, K, L, M, N, O, P, Q, R, S, T, U, V, W, X, Y, Z
B
Banks and building societies
Don’t refer to banks only. Say banks and building societies.
Bold usage
Please don’t use bold. GDS (Government Design Service) advises against using it.
You can use the styles dropdown to apply a style to make some text stand out in the body of the page. (See In-page standouts)
Borough vs Haringey
Try to avoid using ‘the borough’. Try to say Haringey instead. Borough is not a particularly plain English word.
Bullets
Use bullet points to write lists of related content or to break down complicated sentences. Use numbered lists to describe an ordered process. Make sure that:
- you always use a lead-in line
- you use more than one bullet
- the bullets make sense running on from the lead-in line
- you use lower case at the start of the bullet
- you do not use more than one sentence per bullet – use commas or dashes to expand on an item
- you do not put ‘or’ or ‘and’ after the bullets
- you do not make the whole bullet a link if it’s a long phrase
- you do not put a semicolon or comma at the end of a bullet
- there is no full stop after the last bullet
Go to ‘B’ on GOV.UK style guide for more on bullets.
C
Capitalisation
Only capitalise proper nouns. Go to ‘C’ on GOV.UK style guide for more on capitalisation.
Do not capitalise titles, headings or subheadings unless they include proper nouns.
Card payments
When writing about paying by card, be clear that we only accept:
- Maestro
- Mastercard Debit
- Mastercard Credit
- Visa Credit
- Visa Debit
- Visa Electron
Commonly used words that are proper nouns
Certain terms used frequently are treated as proper nouns:
- Council Tax Reduction
- Council Tax
- Business Rates
- Housing Benefit
- Universal Credit
- Local Housing Allowance
- My Account
- Discretionary Housing Payments
- The Coroner
- Tell Us Once
- London Borough of Haringey
- the Mayor
Contractions
Avoid negative contractions like can’t and don’t. Many users find them harder to read or misread them as the opposite of what they say.
Use:
- cannot instead of can’t
- do not instead of don’t
- will not instead of won’t
Avoid:
- should’ve
- could’ve
- would’ve
- they’ve
These can also be hard to read. Other contractions are OK.
D
Dates
Always include the year. Do not write 1st March 2023 or 1 Mar 23. Write 1 March 2023.
Go to ‘D’ on the GOV.UK style guide for more on dates.
Don’t say ‘Results coming soon.’ Try to give context. ‘Results will be available summer 2023’.
E
Emails
Write email addresses out in full and always put the word ‘email’ in front. So put ‘For more info email xxx.xxx@haringey.gov.uk, not ‘For more info get in touch xxx.xxx@haringey.gov.uk. Hyperlink the email address with mailto:xxx.
Because the email address should be seen in full do not hide it behind a button etc.
If the email address is 2 or more words joined together, like treeteam@haringey.gov.uk, capitalise the first letter of each word so it's easy to read and make sense of, so TreeTeam@haringey.gov.uk.
H
Haringey Council – referring to
When referring to Haringey Council, put we or us instead of Haringey Council. This creates a friendly tone and minimises distance between the Council and residents.
For example: 'Contact us to apply for a skip licence', not 'Contact Haringey Council for a skip licence'. And: 'We are always looking for ways to improve our services', not 'Haringey Council is always looking for ways to improve services'.
Headings
Do not capitalise headings unless they include proper nouns.
Heading styles
Use the WYSIWYG toolbar to apply heading styles, options are H1, H2, H3 & H4.
Don’t stack headings on top of each other. This mainly due to accessibility, it helps people using screen readers as it may be interpreted that there is content missing it the reader just goes one heading to another.
Don’t do this:
How to pay your Council Tax (H2)
Pay by Direct Debit (H3)
Do this:
How to pay your Council Tax (H2)
There are many ways to pay your Council Tax. Direct Debit is the easiest way to pay. (body text)
Pay by Direct Debit (H3)
Hyphens and en-dashes
Hyphens and en-dashes serve different purposes. An en-dash is visually longer than a hyphen.
Use a hyphen when connecting two words – for example ‘check-in’ and ‘father-in-law.’
Use an en-dash – to separate two parts of a sentence as in the previous sentence.
J
Job titles and teams
Lower case team names, except for Customer Services which is capitalised, so Customer Services, not customer services.
For job titles, if it's used with someone's name, capitalise, if not, don't. So: the chief executive is the most senior management position in a council vs Andy Donald is the Chief Executive of the London Borough of Haringey.
L
Links
Anchors
Otherwise known as internal links. We should use anchors sparingly. When users click them and they are taken somewhere else on the same page, they often do not realize where they have been taken.
If a page is so long it needs to have anchor navigation, think about whether you are using the correct content type? Maybe a guide might serve your user needs better.
Hyperlink text
When hyperlinking, be clear in the text where you are sending someone. Include the name of the website in the link text.
Example:
Find out more about who can register a birth on GOV.UK.
If the link feels too long, don’t include words like ‘find out more’ or ‘go to.’ For screen readers it is more important to include the site you are sending someone to and include the page title.
External links
If linking externally, apply the external link style in the LGD toolbar. This applies a red icon showing it is an external link.
Example: Google
Do not apply this style for council-managed websites such as Commonplace and Modern.gov.
Linking to forms in ‘My Account’
When linking to a form that sits behind ‘My Account,’ do not add 'in My Account' to the button text. Keep buttons short using active language (see ‘start buttons’).
Add a line above the button saying that someone will be taken to ‘My Account’ if the form sits behind an account.
Example:
To apply, you first need to register or log in to My Account.
Related links
Add related links to pages where you think there is a user need to make them aware of other pages connected to the subject they are reading about. For example:
- adding a link from ‘Council Tax for landlords’ to ‘housing and landlords’
- adding a link to ‘Blue Badges’ from ‘Finance in adult social care’
Related links can only be added on service pages:
- go to the ‘Related content’ tab.
- uncheck the ‘Hide the related topics panel button
- check the ‘Replace automatically generated links button’
Image
N
Names
Write last name, not family name or surname.
Write first name, not forename.
Numbers
When writing number like 1st, 2nd, 3rd etc, spell out first to ninth. After that use 10th, 11th and so on. In tables use numbers throughout.
P
Page titles
The page title holds the SEO value. Make sure you create page titles that are unique. Do not call a page ‘Tell us about a change.’ Make it specific. Example: ‘Tell us about a Council Tax change.’ When people search, there cannot be multiple pages with the same title.
Questions
Avoid using questions as section headings or page titles, or guide titles, or step by step titles. They take users longer to scan and understand than simple headings, and users cannot take any meaning from them at a quick glance. This makes it harder to find the information they need quickly.
Phone numbers
For landlines, write the number in a 3, 4, 4 format: 020 8489 1000.
For mobiles, write the number in a 5, 3, 3 format: 07756 334 334.
Q
Quotes
To add quotes, use the ” function on the LGD toolbar. It will apply a blue/green box around the quote. Below the quote (but within the box) you can attribute the quote to someone. Use bold to make it stand out.
S
Sex and gender
Our equalities guidance uses sex and not gender, so use ‘sex’. The Haringey equalities form uses these terms:
‘Please tick the box that best describes your sex:
- Male
- Female
- Prefer not to say
- I use another term'
Sign in vs log in
Use ‘sign in’ (as GOV.UK do).
T
Tables
Tables can be difficult to navigate for people with accessibility needs and those using mobile devices. For this reason, only use the table format when absolutely necessary.
Do not use bullets within a table.
If a table is the best format, you must check how it displays on mobile. You may need to leave the top left row/column heading blank, while selecting both rows and columns as headers, so it displays properly.
If appropriate, you can make your table caption the H2 or H3. Do not put the word 'Table:' in front of the caption.