Digital
How designing for low English literacy empowers everyone
February 21, 2025 by deborahamzil No Comments | Category Client communications, Content Design, Scottish Government Design System, Service design, Social Security Scotland
Guest blog from Marta McCullough, Content Designer, Social Security Scotland.
Imagine I’d named this blog ‘Jak projektowanie z myślą o osobach z niskim poziomem znajomości angielskiego wzmacnia pozycję wszystkich klientów’. Most of you, unless you speak Polish, would have thought ‘that page is not for me.’
If I’d written this blog in a language that’s foreign to you, you probably would not have read it. Or you’d have tried and given up.
That’s why I wrote it in English. The language that’s not, or is no longer, foreign to you.
Most Social Security Scotland content is in English. But for thousands of our clients, English is still a foreign language. We’re committed to offering translation support but:
- translations take time
- interpreters are not always available
- we can only arrange alternative formats once the person has already engaged with us
- getting support usually requires people to get help from someone else to ask for it on their behalf
This is why we’re committed to:
- using the clearest, simplest English we can
- designing carefully so that we only tell people what they need to know, at the best time, in a way that they can understand
If we do not, we create barriers for many of our existing clients. We also risk stopping people in Scotland from engaging with our services at all.
The English we use versus the English people learn
This sentence is from an intermediate level English exam:
‘Alexia is looking for a really special necklace for her grandmother’s birthday.’
– Cambridge English B1 Preliminary, 2022
It might seem basic English to you, but the language in this example is difficult for people with low literacy in English or their own language. Let’s compare it to the type of English we use in our notifications:
‘An appeal is when a decision about a benefit you’ve applied for is looked at again by the Social Security Chamber of the First-tier Tribunal for Scotland. This Tribunal is not part of Social Security Scotland.’
– from a letter about redeterminations
If you were in a room with someone with low English literacy, you would not speak to them this way in conversation.
It does not take content design expertise to see these texts do not work for the same group of people. It does take content design expertise to make sure everyone can read Social Security Scotland content. Here are 4 ways content designers do it.
Understand and empathise
Thousands of our clients are English learners. Using plain English and simple, consistent design helps them to understand us better. But writing for them also improves our communication with people who have low literacy for other reasons. For example, people who got fewer educational opportunities to develop literacy.
There’s a direct connection between literacies capabilities and income.
In 2009, 14% of people in Scotland with an income under £9,500 showed the lowest levels of literacy. In contrast, 50% of people earning more than £29,501 per year showed the highest levels of literacy.
– statistics from Adult Literacies in Scotland 2020, strategic guidance publication on gov.scot
These statistics are important to us because most of the people we’re writing for have a low income. Low literacy in English can also be a barrier for people whose first language it is.
As a content designer I do not make assumptions about language and literacy. I use research to understand who I’m writing for. Then I can make empathetic design decisions that I know will:
- increase understanding
- give people a more positive experience of our services
By designing for people who have lower literacy, I make content that works better for everyone, regardless of their first language.
Design and implement content patterns
Patterns are reusable pieces of content. I use them to meet the same user need every time it happens. For example, to end every letter I apply the pattern ‘Yours sincerely, Social Security Scotland.’
Before we had this pattern, we included individual names and roles in letter signatures. But you need to be familiar with a foreign language and culture to know the difference between a name and other types of words.
Job titles are also complicated. ‘Head of client services delivery’ has one clear meaning for people who understand what the words mean altogether. But a person who needs to translate each English word individually may not reach the same understanding. Individually these words could have different meanings. For example, in the Cambridge English online dictionary ‘head’ has 17 entries for its uses as a noun. Only one is right in this context.
By developing and reusing effective patterns, content designers reduce the mental load for everyone by:
- giving them less to understand
- saying the same things in the same way
We say we’ll make communications and processes as simple and clear as possible in our charter. Patterns help us make things clear and simple for everyone.
Develop and align with a digital design system
A design system creates consistency and accessibility using a set of reusable features. Content designers use them to build digital content. These features could be:
- style
- patterns
- components
An example of this design system in use is when you open two different ‘How to apply’ pages on MyGov.Scot for:
Here different content designers used the Scottish Government Design System to apply the same solutions to the same user need consistently. As a result, the reader quickly learns that:
- buttons always have a link to important actions they need to take
- they can search specific information any time because the search function is at the top right of every page
- templates always have navigation at the top, so they know how to reorientate themselves
I use this type of universal messaging so that vocabulary is not the only way I communicate with people. By applying these standards across our platforms, I empower people with low English literacy. It’s empowering because it builds understanding, trust and intuition in everyone. Like anything that is helpful and consistent, people can get used to it.
Design to benefit everyone
A lot of our communication weighs heavily on people’s minds. We’re making decisions about their finances and explaining legal responsibilities. To respect this, I write with empathy: consistently, concisely, clearly, and accessibly.
Using these content design techniques to design for those with low English literacy benefits everyone. Applying content design skills is a form of active allyship. It’ll ensure people do not lose their voice, regardless of the opportunities they’ve had to develop their literacy skills.
By valuing these content design practices, we increase the equality of opportunity we give people to understand their rights and get financial help in Scotland.
Tags: content design, Design and User Experience, digital, digital public services, scottish government
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