Susan Bell Research

I attended the 2-day PLAIN Plain Language conference in Sydney last week. It was excellent.  While many people think of plain language as simple, jargon-free language, it is so much more than that.  Plain language incorporates insights from a broad range of fields including information design.

The best definitions for plain language place the reader, or document user, at the centre.  A document is in plain language if the user can use it in the way intended by the document writer or designer.

Therefore, plain language research is first and foremost research about the document user.

Susan Bell Research specialises in communications and language  research - for any kind of internal or external communications, such as website,  documentation or packaging, and for spoken communication. This research could be:

• Exploratory qualitative research on how people use communication material
• Website, user and readability research. We are the experts in financial disclosure testing.
• Before and after tracking studies
• Ongoing tracking studies to measure the impact of communication improvements
• Semiotic research
• Understanding the nuances in the way people express themselves about a product, service, or brand.