I was lucky enough to judge the USA ClearMark Awards this year, and was assigned to the apps category.

This app blew me away. I'm so pleased it won! 

Show me for Emergencies on the app store 

I like the:

• clear title

• informative subtitle

• sensible 'before, during, after' navigation

• action-oriented statement headings

• short paragraphs with simple words

• link to info you might want to read next

Here are two excerpts from the Plain Language Awards 2022 winner of the legal documents category. 

I love that MAS commits to using we, you, and they

And because it's 'not that simple', a little further on, they define the three roles you and they might have.

To draw attention to the important information, MAS uses:

• colour

• shaded boxes

• numbers

Notice that MAS doesn't use:

• all caps

• the heading IMPORTANT NOTICE

Imagine you need to learn about resident withholding tax. Cringe!

Not an exciting topic, but Inland Revenue does a great job of making the must-know information crystal clear on its website.

Love you, Inland Revenue! 

Imagine you've got a tricky decision to make. You've asked a lawyer for help and they've written you a letter of advice.

Check out this beautiful cascade of information! It answers your questions as they occur to you. 

Imagine you paid a financial advisor to assess your money habits and suggest ways to make you rich.

Which of these 2 report-starters would you rather receive from them? 

Imagine you work at a council. 

• Your council has asked a community panel to work with climate change experts

• The panel's job is to plan a positive future for your local area

• They do their job and write you a report full of recommendations

Notice how easily you can get your head around the recommendations!

Here's an emailed update about the economy.

Well done, Booster, for:

• using everyday language

• drawing us to the contents list with a shaded box and bullets

• giving us a list of links so we can browse the parts of the newsletter that interest us.

Here's an entire set of scannable headings.

This writer doesn't play it safe with 1- or 2-word headings

• They list their key messages in statements and format them as headings.

• This is best practice – copy this writer!

I removed the text from this executive summary so you can see how well the headings work on their own.

Imagine you work for a women's advocacy group. You're researching how New Zealand companies are responding to gender inequality in their workplaces.

You come across this Woolworths webpage. Do you get the impression that Woolworths is walking the talk?

Gary Bandy has inspired me with this rewrite of a finance report. He revolutionised the title by adding the key message. 

Then he served up what I want to know:
- what's happened
- why it happened
- why it matters. 

Here's proof that legal documents don't 'have to' be a certain way to work.

This contract was designed for farm workers in South Africa

It's described as the world's first comic contract, communicating with cartoons and few words. It's been used since 2016.

Here's a screenshot of one of the pages.

This webpage is designed so you notice the:

• keywords in the headings

• icons surrounded by white space

• action button in dark blue

This page gives us 4 ways to make a complaint, but…

The option that’s cheapest for the Department to administer comes first and has a big dark button. We're more likely choose it.

Check out this title to a Consumer article.

In the title, they give us:

1. the bottom line up front

2. an action we can take.

They draw us in by answering 2 of our core questions immediately:

• What's the bottom line?

• What should I do?

Do you think that in the old days, people were okay with formal, difficult writing?

Winston Churchill wasn't. 

During World War 2, he wrote a memo titled Brevity.

My favourite line from this memo? 'Let us not shrink from using the short expressive phrase, even if it is conversational.'

To get the gist of this executive summary, all you need to do is skim the 'question and answer' headings.

These headings and subheadings come from the executive summary of Business Case – A new drinking water regulator – August 2019. It used to be available on the Department of Internal Affairs website.

I love all the emails the Training Practice sends me.

They have nailed:

• consistent formatting that shows the hierarchy of their information

• informative links – you know what you'll get when you click

• concise, helpful text.

Look how easy it is to skim!

Now this is a pretty table!

Steph Hacksley, High Priestess of Clear Communication, has nailed:

• grey borders that give structure but don't fight for your attention

• subheading rows that go all the way across – not sliced through by downward lines

• simple colour palette

• SPACE around everything! Nothing is slammed into a border.

This beauty will be familiar if you own a car. I still remember the first time I opened the envelope with one of these. 

Thanks to all that white space, my eye went straight to the circle with the instructions.

• 'Enter your plate' – I know that off by heart!

• 'and reminder number' – What's that? Oh – it's up there in bold. How convenient! 

I scanned the barcode, renewed the licence, and felt the anti-procrastination glow of a job instantly done.

Waka Kotahi, you nailed this!