Our words must be easy to understand and difficult to misunderstand. There should be only one meaning, and it should be expressed in the simplest possible way.
Why
- Some of our users are children.
- For many users, reading is not their preferred way to gain information.
- Users scan web pages and do not read thoroughly.
- Many users are not native English speakers.
- User interfaces should be translatable to other languages.
How
- Use standard and consistent terminology. Don't use more than one term for the same idea or require users to learn new terminology.
- Use the simplest possible sentence structure.
- Put the most important information first.
- Don't use ambiguous words or colloquial expressions.