What they are, why they matter and how to evaluate them.

A man writes notes next to his laptop.
Content designers follow best practices. Image by Kit

Overview

In this article I’ll cover the following:

  • Introduction to design heuristics
  • Critique of existing content heuristics
  • Summary of new heuristics for content design
  • Guide to each content heuristic — including why it matters, how to follow it, evaluation criteria, tips and resources

Introduction to design heuristics

Let’s start with a definition: what exactly are heuristics (in the context of design)?

Design heuristics are rule-of-thumb best practice guidelines that typically improve user experience (UX).

Following heuristics as a designer is a bit like standing on the shoulders of giants: these guidelines are based on years of UX practice and research into what makes interfaces usable.

Tip: Remember that heuristics are only guidelines, not hard laws. In some situations there may be valid reasons to deviate from them (context is everything) — but it’s important to understand the rules before you break them.

The most well-known heuristics in UX are undoubtedly Jacob Nielsen’s 10 usability heuristics for user interface (UI) design. But there are plenty of other design principles, rules and ‘laws’ in UX that are heuristics in all but name.

There’s a lot of design rules, principles and laws. Image by Karl Solano.

For example:

There’s a lot of overlap between these heuristics, but they also each make valuable contributions and address weaknesses or omissions in each other.

Critique of existing content heuristics

Content designers have created their own content-specific heuristics, including:

Similar to their UX cousins, these content guidelines overlap in many areas and they each have distinct strengths. But like-wise they also include some weaknesses, for example:

  • Lack of testable criteria: The value of a heuristic is limited if you can’t evaluate against it.
  • Being too subjective: While you should always leave room for interpretation, concepts like “engaging” and “compelling” are a bit vague and probably too open to interpretation to be practically useful.
  • Duplication and conflation: In some areas concepts are duplicated (‘Readable’ and ‘Simple’) or conflated (‘Accessible’ and ‘Inclusive’, which are obviously related but come with different challenges and criteria).
  • Need for additional context: While content should be strategic and iterative, these concepts require anyone doing a heuristic evaluation to have knowledge beyond the content in front of them (which is what any kind of heuristic evaluation should ideally be limited to).
  • Lack of supporting references: Designers don’t want citations cluttering up guidance. But without sources to back up the ideas, heuristics risk coming off as opinions — the medium between knowledge and ignorance (Plato, allegedly, according to The Internet).

New heuristics for content design

Heuristics are building blocks for good content. Image by NordWood Themes.

The following proposed content heuristics are intended to address some of the weaknesses and omissions in existing frameworks. However, the idea is to build on and complement what already exists — not completely replace it.

The hope is that this new heuristic framework contributes something of value to pre-existing work, and that ultimately content designers can choose which collection of best practice guidelines works for them.

Summary: 12 proposed content heuristics

  1. Accessible: Content should be perceivable, understandable and usable for disabled people.
  2. Accurate: Information should be correct (and regularly reviewed).
  3. Concise: Use the fewest words practically possible.
  4. Consistent: Follow organisation content guidelines.
  5. Discoverable: Users should be able to find and use your content no matter how they choose to access it.
  6. Ethical: Place user needs above organisation goals.
  7. Inclusive: Design for everyone and reflect community diversity.
  8. Prioritised: Present the most important information first, and gradually reveal less important details.
  9. Readable: Content should be easy to read and understand for everyone.
  10. Scannable: Format content so users can understand the information without reading all of it.
  11. Specific: Be precise and avoid jargon, ambiguity or assumptions.
  12. Useful: The purpose of content is to help users find information or complete a task.

1. Accessible

What it means

Content should be perceivable, understandable and usable for disabled people.

Why it matters

Inaccessible content excludes people from accessing services and participating in public life. This causes frustration and distress, and also breaches regulations in many countries.

How to follow it

Design content to be compliant with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.2.

Evaluation criteria

  • Are headings nested and tagged appropriately (H1, H2, H3, etc.)?
  • Does text have strong colour contrast (4.5:1) against the background?
  • Do images have appropriate alternative text (alt text) and avoid text in the image?
  • Do links make sense in isolation, and have you avoided using the same link text for different URLs?
  • Do videos have closed captions (CC) and audio descriptions (AD) where appropriate?

Tip: You can use free online tools like WebAIM’s WAVE and colour contrast checker to check for some accessibility issues. However, remember that many accessibility issues require manual human validation.

Further reading

2. Accurate

What it means

Information should be correct (and regularly reviewed).

Why it matters

It doesn’t matter how understandable or usable your content is if it’s wrong. Inaccurate information is unprofessional at best; harmful at worst.

How to follow it

Have a process to ensure all content is validated, signed-off and reviewed regularly to ensure it’s up to date (or removed if no longer needed).

Evaluation criteria

  • Has any artificial intelligence (AI) content been validated by a human?
  • Has the content been signed-off by all relevant stakeholders?
  • Is there a plan to review and maintain the information?

Tip: Any content published in the public domain should have been checked and approved by the relevant humans. This principle of accountability is even more important in the age of AI.

Further reading

3. Concise

What it means

Use the fewest words practically possible.

Why it matters

Verbose writing is harder to read and understand, and takes people more time and effort to complete their task.

How to follow it

Focus on saying only what you need to say, using the fewest number of words. It may take several rounds of editing before the content can’t be made any shorter.

Evaluation criteria

  • Have redundant words been removed?
  • Could the content be rewritten to convey the same information using fewer words?
  • Does all the information justify inclusion in the content?
  • Has any information been lost through oversimplification? (Don’t sacrifice clarity for brevity.)

Tip: Use online editing tools such as Hemingway, Grammarly or your AI assistant of choice to make your content more concise.

Further reading

4. Consistent

What it means

Follow organisation content guidelines.

Why it matters

If content varies in style or tone it can be jarring for users. Inconsistent content can undermine user experience and as well as trust in an organisation.

How to follow it

Create, maintain and follow organisation content guidelines. These should set out the style, tone and format for all brand content across different channels and interactions with users.

Evaluation criteria

  • Is the tone of voice consistent throughout the content?
  • Does the content consistently follow style guidance?
  • Are content layouts and patterns consistent with similar types of content?

Tip: Communicate content guidance in different formats so people can access it in a way that works for them, e.g. guides, videos, infographics. Also, ask for feedback so you can make guidelines clearer and more helpful.

Further reading

5. Discoverable

What it means

Users should be able to find and use your content no matter how they choose to access it.

Why it matters

It doesn’t matter how good your content is if people can’t find it. Poor search rankings and confusing navigation will make it hard for users to access your products and services.

How to follow it

Learn search engine optimisation (SEO) content basics, such as using relevant keywords, adding meta titles and descriptions, and avoiding things like broken links and low text-to-code ratios. Also, ensure content is labelled and organised where users would expect to find it on your website.

Evaluation criteria

  • Is the content optimised for search?
  • Will the content be easily found through navigation?
  • Is the content accurately summarised by AI?

Tip: Users are increasingly getting their answers directly from AI assistants rather than visiting a website. Stay up to date with how this trend develops, and adapt your content strategy and management to account for changes in people’s behaviour.

Further reading

6. Ethical

What it means

Place user needs above organisation goals.

Why it matters

Unethical content undermines both user experience and trust in an organisation. This can lead to lower conversions, increased complaints, brand reputation damage and possibility even legal and financial consequences.

How to follow it

Act with benevolent intent, prioritising user needs ahead of organisation goals. Avoid any ill or misdirected intent in which content deceives or manipulates users. In other words, design content based on what’s in the user’s best interests.

Evaluation criteria

  • Does the content avoid any dark patterns?
  • Have appropriate behavioural nudges been added where possible?
  • Does the content comply with privacy and data protection regulations and organisation policies?

Tip: Have a flexible, practical attitude to challenging trade-offs between user experience and business objectives. Don’t die on every hill. Fight the fights that need fighting.

Further reading

7. Inclusive

What it means

Design for everyone and reflect community diversity.

Why it matters

Inclusivity goes beyond making content accessible for disabled people. Inclusive design considers any situation or characteristic that could lead to people being digitally excluded, including age, gender, ethnicity, education level, socio-economic background or access to technology.

How to follow it

Co-design content with the people that you want to use your products or services. Learn from their experiences, perspectives and frustrations. This includes engaging hard-to-reach groups, such as refugee, migrant or asylum seeker communities who may face challenges around language barriers or cultural differences.

Evaluation criteria

  • Can the content be used in different situations? (For example, low lighting, noisy environment or slow Wi-Fi connection.)
  • Does the content use inclusive language? (For example, words related to age, gender, ethnicity, etc.)
  • Is content representative of community diversity? (For example, featuring a mix of characteristics across images and video.)

Tip: Making your team more diverse will help to reduce bias, challenge assumptions and bring different perspectives and experiences which is beneficial to content design.

Further reading

8. Prioritised

What it means

Present the most important information first, and gradually reveal less important details.

Why it matters

Users shouldn’t have to work hard to find what they need, or be overwhelmed by information. Content should be designed to tell users what they need to know, when they need to know it.

How to follow it

Use the progressive disclosure / inverted pyramid techniques to present the most important information first, and gradually reveal less important details. Use design components to guide the user’s eye through the content in a logical order.

Evaluation criteria

  • Is the most important information prominent?
  • Is less important information revealed gradually?
  • Is there a clear visual hierarchy to the content?

Tip: News articles are a good reference point for understanding progressive disclosure — notice how the key details are presented in the title and first few paragraphs, with the rest of the content adding further context and perspectives.

Further reading

9. Readable

What it means

Content should be easy to read and understand for everyone.

Why it matters

If people can’t understand your content, they can’t use it to find information and access services they need. In England, 18% of people have very poor literacy skills and overall in the UK around 7 million people read at or below the level of an average 9 year old.

How to follow it

Write using plain, simple language using common, everyday words. This benefits everyone — especially people with dementia, a learning disability or language barriers.

Evaluation criteria

  • Is the content written in plain English?
  • Does the content use the active voice?
  • Are sentences short (under 25 words)?
  • Are acronyms and initialisms explained when first used?

Tip: If you need to publish technical, legal and complex information, include a plain language summary alongside it.

Further reading

10. Scannable

What it means

Format content so users can understand the information without reading all of it.

Why it matters

Users don’t read online — they scan. That means we need to design content with this expected user behaviour in mind.

How to follow it

Make use of various formatting techniques and interface components so users can understand the information even if they only read about 28% of the page.

Evaluation criteria

  • Are titles and headings written in sentence case?
  • Is the content structured with clear, descriptive headings?
  • Are paragraphs short (possibly only 1–2 sentences)?
  • Is the purpose of every link clear on its own?
  • Is bold text used to highlight important details?
  • Are bullet points used to format lists?
  • Are tables used to present tabular data?

Tip: Be careful not to over format content, e.g. too much bold text — if you highlight almost everything you’re effectively highlighting nothing.

Further reading

11. Specific

What it means

Be precise and avoid jargon, ambiguity or assumptions.

Why it matters

Vagueness, jargon and ambiguous content leads to uncertainty, confusion and frustration — and takes users longer to complete their task.

How to follow it

Be precise: provide clarity and avoid assuming users already understand a topic and write in language that’ll make sense to them.

Evaluation criteria

  • Is the information precise where relevant? (For example, we’ll update you monthly, not regularly.)
  • Has ambiguity been avoided? (For example, if the content states ‘We will…’ is it clear who we are in context?)
  • Does the content avoid jargon and buzzwords? (For example, ‘horizon-scanning’ or ‘flattening the curve’.)
  • Has the content avoided making assumptions?

Tip: Treat every piece of content as the first time the user may have come across that subject. Provide a clear explanation of the topic before moving on.

Further reading

12. Useful

What it means

The purpose of content is to help users find information or complete a task.

Why it matters

Users don’t browse our content for fun. They have a goal in mind, whether that’s finding answers or accessing a service. This means content should be designed to be used — and people should find it useful.

How to follow it

Do your research and analysis to understand user needs, plan using techniques like job stories, then create and improve the content based on feedback. This process is difference between designing content and simply writing (or AI-generating) content. The content’s final form should reflect its purpose to have utility.

Evaluation criteria

  • Does the title and lead text make it clear what users can expect to find and be able to do?
  • Is the heading structure based on user needs and questions?
  • Is the next step in the user’s journey clear? (For example, a button for the call-to-action link.)
  • Has the content and design been kept minimal to reduce cognitive load?

Tip: Adopting a user-centred design (UCD) mindset will help ensure your content focuses on meeting user needs and doesn’t end up reading like a Wikipedia article.

Further reading

12 heuristics for content design was originally published in UX Planet on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.