06
Design pack
UCD Writer: The design
Plain English, enforced. Every edit explained. UCD Writer rewrites interface copy to GOV.UK style and your chosen reading level, then shows you each change, the rule behind it, and why.
Status: designed. Drop-in package v0.1 built. A standards engine that runs in your own AI tool.
1. Purpose
For: product owners, delivery managers and writers on public sector services. Job: rewrite interface copy to GOV.UK standards at a chosen reading level, and explain every change in plain English. Seat: enforces the standard. The content designer still owns meaning, policy accuracy and voice decisions.
2. Boundaries
- Never changes the meaning of legal, policy or eligibility text. Flags it for a human instead.
- Never removes information to hit a reading score. Splits or restructures instead.
- Never invents facts, dates, amounts or rules.
- Never makes an edit without a stated reason.
- Uses British English and the GOV.UK style guide. No idioms, no jargon, no "please note".
3. What it touches
| Tool | Access | Used for |
|---|---|---|
| Reading-age analyser (local) | Read | Flesch-Kincaid grade, sentence length, syllables |
| Style checker (local rules) | Read | Passive voice, adverbs, complex words, banned words list |
| Confluence (later) | Read | Pull existing copy |
| CMS (later) | Write after gate | Push approved copy |
v1 needs no external connections. The value is the rules engine.
Reading level: the user sets a ceiling of grade 8 or grade 9. A stricter option, GOV.UK's reading age of 9 for general audiences, is available as a third setting.
4. When a human steps in
| Gate | Human sees | Decision |
|---|---|---|
| Each highlighted edit | Before, after, reason, rule cited | Accept / reject / try again |
| Flagged meaning risk | The sentence and why it was not changed | Human rewrites |
| Before CMS write (later) | Final copy diff | Yes / no |
5. How you know it is working
- Test set: 30 real GOV.UK and public-sector page extracts, including deliberately poor copy.
- Pass marks: output at or below target grade; zero meaning changes on 10 legal/eligibility sentences (judged by a content designer); every edit has a reason; banned-word list hits = 0.
- Human review: a content designer scores "would publish with light edits". Release bar: 85%.
Output
Drop a draft in inputs/ and say "Check this against GOV.UK style". You get a markdown report: the rewrite, then a table of every edit (before, after, issue type, rule, reason). Issue types are labelled in words, never by colour alone. Reply with the edit numbers to accept or reject.
Components
instructions.md · skills: reading-level enforcement, jargon detection, passive voice, inclusive language, GOV.UK style, explain-the-edit · tools.md · manifest.md · guardrails.md · memory.md · evals/