Simply Put - A Guide for Creating Easy-to-Understand Materials

This guide is intended to help design clear and understandable health materials. It provides steps (and checklists) with detailed information and tips for developing health communication materials that are evidence-based, user-friendly and culturally appropriate under the following topic areas:

• developing a clear message
• choosing appropriate font style and size
• using visuals to help communicate your message
• choosing a layout and design that is appealing to your audience
• engaging members of the target audience in the development (messages, design, translation to other languages, etc.) of materials
• testing for readability

The initial steps identified in this guide are expanded on in Clear & Simple, one of the Clear Communication resources from NIH.

Other resources to help create health messages for participants can be found on the Health Literacy and Plain Language page. Plain language training is also available.