In October 2025, the User Experience Service ran a survey to learn about how University staff use the editorial style guide. In this post, Digital Content Style Guide Intern Hannah Watson summarises and analyses the responses.

About the survey

This survey focused on the usage and experience of those who have interacted with the style guide. We ran this survey to improve our understanding of how and why users interact with the style guide. We also wanted to explore any issues or opinions users might have on the guide.

Editorial style guide

In the survey, we asked five questions:

• Have you used the editorial style guide recently?
• The last time you looked at the guide, what did you use it for? (Choose any that apply.)
• Did you find what you were looking for?
• Which version of the editorial style guide did you use?
• Any other thoughts about the style guide?

The survey had 39 participants, most of whom answered all of the questions; however, some did leave answers blank.

Results

Each section had a varied response rate, with some questions answered by all participants and some with blank responses.

When did the participants last use the style guide?

The results of this question were as follows:

• Longer ago: 29
• Within a week: 6
• Today: 2
• At beginning of job: 1
• Can’t remember: 1

Of all the participants, 29 said they had not used the style guide recently, choosing the option longer ago. This makes up the vast majority of the responses, and 1 other response said that they used the style guide when they began working at the University (although it is not specified when this was). Only 2 participants said they had used the style guide the same day as taking the survey, and 6 had used the style guide within a week of taking the survey. The final response states that they cannot remember when they last used the style guide. This means that 20.5% of respondents used the style guide recently, compared with 79.5% who used the style guide a long or unknown time ago.

This suggests that while the style guide was well used among these participants, they do not return to it frequently.

What did participants use it for?

The results to this question were as follows:

• Dates and numbers: 21
• Formatting: 16
• Spelling style: 15
• Language and tone: 14
• Abbreviations: 10
• Punctuation: 7

For this question, responses mentioned multiple sections of the style guide more often than not. Dates and numbers was the section mentioned most frequently chosen, with 21 responses citing this. Language and tone, spelling style, and formatting had 14, 15, and 16 responses respectively. Abbreviations was mentioned 10 times, often alongside dates and numbers. Finally, punctuation was the last section mentioned, and it was present in 7 responses. Dates and numbers, formatting, abbreviations, and spelling style were the sections mentioned on their own, all more than once except for abbreviations.

This might suggest that these sections are the ones where people are looking for guidance on specific details, or do not have any additional guidance beyond the style guide.

Did participants find what they were looking for?

The results to this question were:

• Found what they were looking for: 33
• Did not find what they were looking for: 2
• To an extent: 1
• Can’t remember: 1

Almost all of the responses (33 out of 37) said that they found what they were looking for. Only 2 participants directly said that they did not find what they were looking for, with a further 1 stating they couldn’t remember, and another 1 saying that they found what they were looking for ‘to an extent’.

Which version did participants use?

These results were:

• Web version: 27
• PDF: 8
• Unsure: 3

Of 38 responses to this question, 27 said that they used the web version, compared to 8 that said they used the PDF. The remaining 3 responses were unsure which version they had used.

Other thoughts about the style guide

The responses to the free text responses to this question can be summarised thematically as follows.

The PDF requires updating with most recent information

Four participants mentioned this theme.

The most frequent response to this section of the survey was that people are aware that the PDF version of the style guide is not up to date with the web version, and are frustrated by this, since they prefer to use the PDF version. This also links to the the theme of people requesting the web version to have a search function, since this is why many people prefer the PDF.

Not enough people use the style guide

Three participants mentioned this theme.

The second most common response to this prompt was participants stating that they do not believe enough people use the style guide. Some people appear to feel quite strongly that the editorial style guide is a very useful tool that would benefit their team if more people engaged with it, either properly or at all. This is not necessarily within our team’s control but is interesting to note how highly the guide is valued by some users.

The style guide has too many sections

Two participants commented that the web version of the style guide has too many sections. One response said that this makes information hard to find, and the other said that the number of pages seems unnecessary to them.

Issues with guidance on stylisation

Two responses mentioned more general issues with guidance on style, such as with formality based on who the piece of content is for.

The web version needs a search function

Two responses included requests for the web version of the style guide to have a search function to make it easier to navigate. This lines up with people favouring the PDF and wanting it to be updated more frequently.

The style guide needs more detail

The free text responses also included suggestions as to how more detail could be added, such as:

It would be good to have instructions on image sizes and formats in the style guide as well.

The one that I always have to check is masters, master’s, etc. I’m still unsure if I’m always using it correctly – and there is a lot of variation in how it’s used by others across the University. It would be great to have more examples…

What’s happening next

Thanks to everyone who filled out the survey. We are taking these comments and answers into account and using them to help us to implement changes to the style guide.