Prodigy did not have a technical writer nor a style guide, so I created a procedure template loosely based on the Information Mapping design. The two-column design separates the descriptive headers from the actions.

Knowing that employees skimmed quickly, I used a bullet point before the procedural information in step one to catch their attention and indicate a caution.

I utilized the contrast, repetition, alignment, and proximity (CRAP) method while maintaining brand consistency.

• Contrast: I created a stark difference with the white background and the company’s colors.
• Repetition: I repeated the same styles for each row, which included bolding the names of buttons and italicizing the names of fields, tabs, or pages.
• Alignment: I used a hard left alignment for the beginning of sentences and for bullet points.
• Proximity: I kept relevant, bullet information next to its action step.

To make the procedures easy to navigate for employees, I implemented helpful aids as outlined below.

• Acronyms
• Colored and bolded names of reference documents
• Navigational information for table breaks

Although employees knew terms by their acronyms instead of their full terms, I wanted to create inclusivity for varying experience levels. I spelled out the term on its first instance and used the acronym in subsequent instances.

For reference documents, I colored and bolded the title for easier scannability.

For tables that had to break between two pages, I added a heading row indicating the name of the section with which information was continuing.