Background To ensure best practice and legal compliance we needed an easy reference handbook detailing the procedures and guidelines for our retail teams that was set out in such a way that anybody, regardless of their role could pick up and independently and efficiently find the solution to any issue or information they need at a glance.

Aims We wanted to create a handbook that was user-friendly by looking at the effect of typographical features on how efficiently the text can be read; typographical features include things like font choice, text size, colour (Horstmann & Herwig, 2016; Miller, 1956) and contrast.

Methods Jan 2021: Research led by a psychology graduate with special interest in cognitive psychology into legibility and the effect of typographical features. Particular focus was given to needs of individuals over the age of 60 (Bernard, Liao & Mills, 2001) and those with dyslexia. Jan – March 2021: Formatting of all text in line with research recommendations. May – Jun 2021: Consultation with staff and volunteers for feedback.

Results The feedback we have received so far (examples below) from our staff and volunteers has been extremely positive.

• ‘Easy to read because of the coloured boxes. If I see a red box I know I legally need to comply!’

• ‘Text is big enough that I can read it without my glasses.’

• ‘Easy to digest the information because the important points were highlighted, you could focus, you weren’t having to read it worrying you might miss something important! Easy to access certain topics if need to refresh knowledge, check a procedure or train a new volunteer.’

Conclusion Having the correct organisation and layout significantly improves the readability of our handbook. We have a format which can be deployed across all communication to our retail teams to attract the attention of the reader and to improve reading comprehension and memory.