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Respect your user

Write in a way that respects your reader. Do not tell your reader how to think or feel. Respect the perspective that they bring to using your legal form.

Provide choices that validate the user's identity​

Wherever possible, even if not directly provided on the form, provide space for the user to be descriptive about their identity.

For example:

  • use inclusive options for gender, race, and disability status
  • be cautious in using the "other" category to describe sensitive personal characteristics

Learn more from the UK's NHS

Decide whether to use direct address or a more formal tone​

Direct address uses the word "you" or the person's name in appropriate places throughout the guided interview. Indirect address may use instructions or headings without specifying who should follow them. Affirmations, or other phrases that tell the user that they are on the right track, almost always sound better in direct address.

Direct address

Jane, you can do this!

Direct address

Your phone number

Indirect address

Plaintiff's phone number

Using direct address at appropriate intervals can:

  1. Help clarify who needs to follow instructions
  2. Make it clear that the form is responding to the information the user enters
  3. Provide affirmation and reassurance at emotionally challenging parts of the interview.

Use direct address carefully. Repeated affirmations can come across as phony. In some cultures, using the person's first name may come across as impolite. But done right, applying direct address can create a more welcoming and responsive interaction for your user.

Let your user draw their own conclusions​

Good lawyers persuade by using convincing facts and arranging them in a way that supports a specific argument. Adverbs like "egregious", "outrageous" and other intensifiers can backfire. If your user doesn't trust your intensifiers, they may question the facts and they may be less likely to accept your conclusions.

Avoid adverbs, especially intensifiers, where possible (e.g. 'very'). Intensifiers weaken instead of strengthen our arguments. Use facts to persuade instead.

The University of Texas has a good article on the effects of intensifiers.

Use "need" not "want" when referring to the protections or relief the plaintiff requests​

When someone goes to court it's because they need something, not want it. Using the word "want" can be dismissive of the plaintiff's goals and objectives.

Avoid using 'please'​

Omit the word "please" when asking for information. For example, use "Describe" instead of "Please describe".

The word "please" can sound insincere and slow users down when they are looking for an instruction.

Microsoft follows our recommendation, as do many other writers.