A playbook for writing good digital planning services. As well as providing a useful guide for good practice, these principles may also inform future Plan✕ features.

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How to write good questions

How to write good answers

**Language**

Help text

**Tone of voice**

Link text

Error messages

Numbers, dates, time and measurements

Dates

Formatting and punctuation

External content resources

How to write good questions

It's a conversation

Public sector forms are designed like conversations between the service and the citizen. As such most questions use "you" instead of "I".

Statements like "I want to install" can be ambiguous, particularly with people with reading or learning difficulties. It's not always immediately clear who "I" is. Is it me or you?

We also can create ambiguity when we flip back and forth between "you" to "I" throughout the service.