Below, we’ve summarized the strategies presented in Health Literacy Online in an easy-to-share, printable list. Use it in your work to help you create clear and accessible digital health materials.
Involve Your Audience in the Design Process
- Recruit people with a range of perspectives, experiences, skills, and abilities — including people with limited health literacy skills.
- Identify and eliminate logistical barriers to participating in research, like lack of transportation or limited access to technology.
- Create plain language research materials, like screeners, consent forms, and moderator’s guides.
- Test whether your content is understandable and actionable.
- Use moderators who are experienced in conducting research with participants with different backgrounds and abilities, including adults with limited literacy skills.
- Pretest your moderator’s guide with participants who have a range of information and accessibility needs.
- Use multiple strategies to ensure participants understand what you want them to do, like reading out task directions and providing them in writing.
- Test your content on mobile devices.
Ensure Accessibility
- Build a digital team that reflects a range of perspectives, backgrounds, and abilities.
- Use people-first design methods to create products that account for and empower people of all backgrounds and abilities.
- Design webpages that can adjust to older devices, slow network connections, and limited data plans.
- Choose language that makes audiences feel seen, included, and respected.
- Make websites available in other languages.
- Make sure your site is accessible to people with disabilities.
Create Actionable Content
- Consider people’s motivations and goals to help you create actionable, tailored health content that meets their information needs and expectations.
- Keep things positive and include clear action steps.
- Write in plain language — use language people can understand the first time they read it.
- Put the most important information first.
- Use links effectively — limit the number of links on a page, label links clearly, and link directly to the most relevant resources.
- Engage people with interactive content and graphics.
- Make content easy to share and print.
- Ensure forms are user-friendly.
Design for Easy Scanning
- Break up text into “chunks” and short lists.
- Use meaningful headings.
- Choose a readable font that’s at least 16 pixels.
- Use white space and avoid clutter.
- Use appropriate color contrast.
- Design for screens of all sizes — use responsive design to make sure your website works well on any device.
- Design buttons that are easy to find and click on.
Simplify Navigation and Search
- Keep your homepage as simple as possible — limit the amount of text and elements on the page.
- Label and organize content with your users in mind.
- Provide easy access to home and menu pages.
- Give users options to browse.
- Include a simple search function.
- Display search results clearly.
Establish Content Governance
- Maintain a style guide that supports health literacy and clear communication.
- Create (and follow) quality guidelines — and make them public to promote trust in your content.
- Check your site regularly for accuracy and accessibility.
- Make a plan for sunsetting outdated content.
