This blog post originally appeared on the Natural Resources Canada internal blog, Digi-Get-It, in 2016.

Avoiding government-speak in your web writing

By Jenn Burke

The Government of Canada has acronyms for everything, from department names (like NRCan for Natural Resources Canada) to programs and services. Internally, these terms form a shorthand language that can simplify our work. To external users, though, these terms often lack context—and as a result, they have little meaning.

Testing has shown users don’t always recognize program names

In multiple usability tests on NRCan content over the past few years, we’ve seen that users often don’t understand program names that might be commonly used internally. Users look for keyword clues, and frequently our program names don’t provide those clues.

After our usability test in 2015, the contracted agency observed:

Participants commented that the use of acronyms and organization-focused language made it challenging to identify a relevant path.  This prompted participants to suggest using plain language keywords, rather than [terminology that reflects] how the information is organized by NRCan. 

Following another task during that test, the agency stated that users “were focused on keywords” and did not realize they needed to identify a program in order to complete the task successfully. They “did not know [the program] and were unable to find this content without assistance.”

Acronyms out of context are difficult to understand

We can’t get away from acronyms—that’s the reality of government. However, acronyms should only be used when you have the space to provide an explanation for them. For example, in the content area of a page, where you can provide the full name behind the acronym before using the acronym on its own.

Acronyms should never be used in the navigation and menus on the page, because they lack the context needed for users to understand them. Users will decide to stay on a page or where to click next within 4-5 seconds and keywords, not acronyms, are essential to facilitate this decision-making process.

Our usability testing in 2015 confirmed this. In one particular task, participants were stymied by the acronyms used in the left navigation:

The left-menu bar only includes acronyms, rather than plain language descriptions.  This proved more challenging for consumers, who are not familiar with the groups working in this sector.

But there are exceptions

In some rare cases, an acronym or a program name may be more recognizable to users than the full explanation of the acronym or keywords. An example of this is the acronym DNA; it is far more recognizable than deoxyribonucleic acid.

Exceptions should be based on measurable analysis. Look at the data from web analytics, usability testing, and public opinion research to inform this decision.

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Digi-Get-It: Digital Communications in a Digital World is a new blog dedicated to sharing best practices, tips and tricks, guidance and news about digital communications topics and how they relate to NRCan’s web and social media presence.

If you have any feedback about this week’s post, please feel free to leave a comment or send me an email. I’m always happy to discuss the topics of web writing, web usability and web analytics. I’m eager to hear if you find these posts useful and helpful as we move toward a digital communications future in the Government of Canada.

Thanks for reading!