SF.gov newsletter

March 2023

Hi SF.gov editors,

Hope you've been staying warm and dry!

GET UPDATES

Monthly shareout

This month's shareout will be Thursday, March 30 at 2 pm. You can join the meeting directly from the ADM--SF.gov General channel on Teams or email persis.howe@sfgov.org if you want a meeting invite.

This month we'll be focusing on buttons, also known as CTA or call to action. We'll also talk about our new Translations training and more SF.gov updates. 

GET HELP

Training and support

Sign up for trainings

Visit our new bookings page to view our training schedule. You can sign up for the following trainings:

• SF.gov concepts and structure
• Working in the SF.gov content management system
• Writing for SF.gov
• Meetings on SF.gov 
• Translations on SF.gov

Revisit past trainings

Refresh your memory by watching videos of past training sessions. We record our sessions so that you can review the material whenever you need to. Watch the following:

• Intro to SF.gov

• Writing for SF.gov

• Choose your content type

• Meetings on SF.gov

• Working in the SF.gov CMS
• SF.gov concepts and structure
• PDFs on SF.gov 

If you have any questions, you can also:

• Book an appointment or drop by office hours
• Ping us on Teams

PUBLISHING TIPS

Best practices

Use a content type template when writing for SF.gov

Each of our content types serves a specific user need. Before you start writing content for SF.gov, view our content type guidance to learn how each content type works. It’s important to choose the most accurate content type for your user need. 

We have templates (with hints) for most content types in both Google docs and MS Word. All the templates include helpful guidance on what to write in each section. 

To find the templates:

1. Visit our content type guidance
2. Click on the content type you want a template for
3. Scroll down to the section called "Content template to copy and use"
4. Open the template and make a copy 
5. Use the new copy you created to start writing your page

Buttons

You should only have 1 button on a page. And you should only use a button if there is a specific action you want the user to take. Even if you have more actions on the page, you should only have 1 button for the primary action.

Your button can be up to 25 characters long but make it short. Some screen reader users skim through buttons so also make it descriptive.

Check out more examples and view our complete button text guidance.

GOOD READS

What we're reading

“Learn More” Links: You Can Do Better

The Nielsen Norman Group is a leader in the user experience field. The phrase ‘Learn More’ is increasingly used as a crutch for link labels. But the text has poor information scent and is bad for accessibility. With a little effort, transform this filler copy into descriptive labels that help users confidently predict what the next page will be. 

Dealing with Technical or Professional Jargon

Answer two questions to decide how to handle technical terminology in your writing:

1. How many readers will know this term?
2. How important is the term in your context?

Hope to see you on Teams! Happy editing!

Thanks as always for being fantastic partners, getting services and information to all San Franciscans.

Liz, Persis, Sharon, Joanne, and the SF.gov team

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