Service Content
Search Information Management and Technology Policy Manual
Standard
Information about services will be written in a way that helps users to easily find, understand and access GNWT services.
Rationale
The primary purpose of the GNWT website is to connect users with government services. The GNWT website is used as a channel in almost half of all service transactions (Citizens First 7). This standard facilitates the development of information about services that meets user needs.
Guidelines
Identifying Service Content
- Service content is information that helps users complete a task. Tasks might include applying for a permit, paying tax, appealing a decision, locating a service centre, inquiring about funding or reporting an incident. An online tool (like a searchable registry or a map viewer) is considered a task, so information on how to use an online tool is service content.
- Service content should be focused on a single task and should cover the task start-to-finish.
- Information about the government that isn’t task-oriented is considered “information” and not service content. For instance, information about an agency or information describing the benefits of a program.
Planning Service Content
- Consider the needs of your audience. Make use of feedback, analytics, peer review and research to inform content decisions.
- Take a corporate perspective. Consider how your service relates to others and help users navigate to the right information. The public is generally ignorant about departments, agencies and jurisdictions of government, so don’t assume the user is on the right page or site.
- Avoid duplication. Link to content if it already exists.
- Keep it short and simple. Only show information related to completing the task.
- Avoid marketing or promoting the benefits of the service within the service content. Instead, create and link to an informational page, if desired.
- If a detailed guide for a service already exists (e.g. Sport Fishing Licenses), keep the service content on the web high-level and scannable, but link to the full guide.
- Write all content should be written in plain language at a suitable reading level.
- Refer to the Canada.ca Content Style Guide for additional guidance on writing for the web.
- Do a comprehensive review of service content once a year.
Elements of Service Content
Service page content must be designed with the particular needs of the audience in mind. Guidelines for service content are given below, broken down by element. The elements are given in the order they should appear within the service content.
Page Title
- Titles should be short, clear and task-oriented. (“Good Services are Verbs”)
- The nature of the task should be evident from the title.
- Titles should be clear and unambiguous across the whole organization.
Do Don’t Renew your health care card Health care card Pay your fuel tax Make a payment Hunting Licences for Aboriginal Harvesters Aboriginal harvesters
Subheadings
- Subheadings should be used to break content up into small scannable sections.
- Organize sections with logical flow according to how users complete the task.
- A suggested structure follows:
Section Suggested Subheadings Typical Content Audience - Who is it for?
- Who is eligible?
- Residency requirements
- Age restrictions
Output - What you’ll get
- Funding
- Permit or license
Prerequisites - What you need
- Before you start
- Required documentation
Fees - How much does it cost
- Cost or fees
Instructions - How to get the service
- How to access
- Instructions
- Procedures
- Steps
Call to Action - How to pay
- How to claim
- Application forms
- Self-Service button
Complaint - How to complain
- How to appeal
- Special contact information
- Process details
Contact Information
- Provide contact information in context as part of the service content and not only on a separate page.
- Make sure contact information is as specific to the service as possible.
- Avoid using personal names.
Related Pages
- Include information that is related to or easily confused with the service, to help users find what they need.
- Don’t be restricted by bureaucratic or jurisdictional boundaries. e.g. If a user is likely to be confused with a similar federal service, or also require a federal service, provide a link to the federal service.
Images
- Use images sparingly and only if they help the user in completing the task.
References
-
Canada.ca Content Style Guide (Note: This guide is written for the Government of Canada. Some policies do not apply to the GNWT but it is still useful as an overall guide.)