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Blog posted by: Steven Shukor, Principal Content Designer, 02 May 2024 – Categories: Content, User centred design.

Should you use ‘permission to enter’ or ‘leave to enter’? Is it 'border control' or 'passport control'? What about ‘biometric passport’ or ‘ePassport’?

These are some of the questions about language consistency that the Home Office content style guide has been created to answer.

The easy-to-access guide aims to help the organisation communicate in the same way across all its products and services, whether they are internal or public-facing.

Bookmark the style guide in your web browser so that you can open it with one click.

Designed to provide content guidance on department-specific topics

The Home Office style guide provides advice on what words to use to ensure our language is clear, consistent and current.

The GOV.UK style guide is the main style reference for government departments, but it doesn’t tend to provide guidance on department-specific topics.

Home Office Content Designers need guidance on topics like visas, passports, policing and immigration.

Before the guide, colleagues across the organisation were often using different words to describe the same thing.

When we started work on the Home Office style guide, we knew that for it to be successful it needed to be:

• useful to all Home Office users creating content, not just Content Designers
• published on the web to make it easy to find, share and keep current
• unique to avoid duplication with the GOV.UK style guide

The guide was designed for digital content, but colleagues across the organisation have found it helpful and have been involved in its ongoing development.

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