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What is a detailed guide?

Detailed guides tell users the steps they need to take to complete a clearly defined task.

Use this format for content that is regularly updated, for example, if the process to complete a task changes.Image Removed

A detailed guide:

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For example, guidance for mainstream audiences (citizens and any general audience) is created by the Government Digital Service (GDS) and then fact-checked by the agency.

Examples:

• https://www.gov.uk/guidance/tick-surveillance-scheme
• https://www.gov.uk/guidance/the-uks-exit-from-the-eu-important-information-for-uk-nationals
• https://www.gov.uk/guidance/register-your-clients-trust

Why use the detailed guides format

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Best practice for detailed guides

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Titles

You should:

• make titles active (for example, ‘Submit Statutory Declarations’ not ‘Using and submitting Statutory Declarations’)  
• use a colon as a separator, if you need one (for example, ‘Breast screening: education and training’ or Brucella: laboratory and clinical services)

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• technical terms in section titles unless unavoidable - and then only if you’ve already explained them
• ‘introduction’ as your first section – users do not want an introduction, they want the most important information
• questions in section titles
• FAQs - you will not need them if your content is concise, well structured and written in plain English
• ‘we’ - users can arrive at your page from anywhere, so ‘we’ may not be clear to them

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We hope this article was useful.

To share this article with a colleague, please send them this link: https://confluence.collab.test-and-trace.nhs.uk/x/vAIYIg

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