This post by Marie Ennis O’Connor, a consultant on global trends in patient engagement, digital health and participatory medicine, provides a handy checklist to guide the design patient information materials. Tips include:
- Consider the purpose behind creating this information
- Use plain English
- Communicate from the perspective of a patient
- Write as you would speak to the reader, using pronouns such as “we” and “you”
- Use active voice
- Follow plain language principles such as using short sentences and lowercase letters
- Keep paragraphs short, separated with headings
- Choose typography and fonts carefully
- Think about the design and how you want the information to look
- Include images and graphics
- Use consistent design throughout
- Tell people what other information and resources are available
Read the informative blog post here.