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UX writingCraft conventionIntermediate

Inclusive Language

Writing that does not exclude, misgender or make assumptions about the person reading it.

Definition

Inclusive language avoids wording that excludes people or embeds assumptions about identity, ability, family structure, nationality or technical knowledge.

Craft convention. True because the industry converged on it. Breaking it costs familiarity, not correctness.

On this page
  1. Definition
  2. Practical rules
  3. Continue from here

Practical rules

  • Use they for a person of unknown gender rather than he or she, or write around the pronoun.
  • Avoid ability metaphors where a plain word exists: 'check' rather than 'see', 'select' rather than 'click' where the input may not be a mouse.
  • Do not assume family structure, marital status or nationality in form fields.
  • Make name fields a single free text field where possible. Structured first and last name fields fail for a large proportion of the world.
  • Make gender fields optional, with an open or non-binary option, and only ask when you genuinely need the data.
  • Avoid idioms and cultural references that do not translate.
  • Use person-first or identity-first language according to the stated preference of the community involved, which differs between communities.

Continue from here

Each link says what the connection is, so you can tell a principle from an alternative from a thing people mix this up with.

Applies when you are designing

A FormSettings

Check your work

Review passes that test whether this was done properly.

Short definition

The one-paragraph version, for when that is all you need.

Related concept

Connected closely enough to change how you apply this.