Guiding Principles

Guiding principles

Our digital content and services should be:

1. Findable: Information is only useful if people can find it. Make sure content is searchable and easy to find quickly.
2. Simple and understandable: Avoid government jargon and use plain language. Content should be easy for people to understand.
3. Accurate and updated: Build trust and confidence with reliable, up-to-date information.
4. Equitable and accessible: Our content and services need to work for everyone, every language, and every device.
5. Relevant: Don’t bury the lead. Organize and prioritize content so it’s helpful and compelling.

What are guiding principles?

Guiding principles are concise guidelines intended to help teams across the government to align on common goals.

Good guiding principles serve as shared reference points for conversations about design, development, and deployment of a product. It can be an evaluative lens for design and implementation decisions.

How we developed these principles

• We drew inspiration from others, like
  • U.S. Web Design System design principles
  • UK GDS design principles
  • SF.gov content principles
• We conducted user research.
• We worked with a cross-department team of communication and media experts to write them.