Last year, Éducaloi’s team developed a poster to help people better understand how Quebec’s language laws apply to different areas of everyday life. On May 13, the poster won the “Posters and Flyers” category at the 2026 ClearMark Awards! This international recognition highlights Éducaloi’s leadership in clear legal communication. Two people from the team behind the poster share what happened behind the scenes during the creation of the tool.
The ClearMark Awards are organized every year by the Center for Plain Language. The event highlights outstanding examples of clear, accessible communications that make complex information in various fields easier to understand and use.
Judges evaluate entries using criteria focused on how well a document serves its audience. The criteria are based on four principles presented as questions:
- Do readers get what they need?
- Can readers easily find what they need?
- Can readers easily understand the entry?
- Can readers easily use this entry?
If these principles sound familiar, it’s no coincidence; Éducaloi’s own clear legal communication process is based on the same principles, as is the first internationally agreed-upon Plain Language Standard developed by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO).
This process guides the development of all Éducaloi’s legal information tools, like the poster that won in the “Posters and Flyers” category.
Navigating Quebec’s language laws
The project emerged following the adoption of Bill 96, which introduced changes to the Charter of the French language and affected many areas of daily life in Quebec.
Community organizations serving English-speaking communities across the province were receiving questions from people trying to understand when they could still communicate in English and when French would be required.
“So we wanted to create a tool that gave an overview of [the rules],” explains Rebecca Schur, lawyer and senior plain language specialist at Éducaloi. People knew about Bill 96, but they wanted to know, at a glance, how it affected their rights and applied in everyday life.
Initially, the poster was designed mainly to explain what was still possible in English and reassure the public. An early version included a front page giving an overview of what is possible in English and a back page with additional information like eligibility requirements and exceptions.
Front side of an early version of the poster
Back side of an early version of the poster
“As we worked on [the poster], we came to find that while the question people might have is ‘What can I do in English?’, the answer to that question is not always what they would have liked to hear,” says Schur. “Eventually the angle shifted to be more about navigating language laws.”
The team wanted to avoid oversimplifying the rules or giving readers false expectations. In some situations, it was just as important to communicate the limits of what was possible as it was to explain available rights.
User testing revealed unexpected challenges
Before coming up with the next version of the poster, Éducaloi tested the tool in collaboration with YES Employment + Entrepreneurship to see how people interacted with the poster.
Other than showing the importance of shifting the content’s angle, the testing quickly showed that the poster’s design also needed work.
One issue involved the original visual concept. The first version used a dotted path traced across the page by a paper airplane to connect different topics. While visually appealing, it unintentionally suggested that readers had to follow the information in a specific order, starting from the bottom left corner.
Final version of the poster
“The design invited people to read in a way that wasn’t natural,” explains Andréanne Proulx, graphic designer at Éducaloi. “People were focusing more on figuring out how to use the poster than on the information itself.” In clear legal communication, the design and visual components of a tool should contribute to its communication goals. Proulx joined the project team following the user test to help achieve that.
Another problem was that participants wanted all the information on each topic to be in one spot; having to flip the poster for details was tedious.
That feedback pushed the team to rethink the tool completely.
Legal design and clear legal communication
Schur and Proulx worked closely to rework the poster into a clearer, more intuitive tool.
“The goal wasn’t just to make something visually pleasing,” explains Proulx. “It was to make sure people didn’t feel overloaded with information and still wanted to read the tool. It’s finding a balance between making sure there’s enough information for the public to be informed, but not too much to overwhelm the readers.”
To improve usability, the team simplified the layout and removed decorative elements that did not actively help readers navigate the information.
“You have to choose your visual elements to ensure clarity,” explains Proulx. For example, the original icons used were useful, not just visually pleasing, while the paper plane’s path in the earlier version only made the information harder to understand.
The final design organizes information into distinct sections representing different areas of daily life, such as education, healthcare, and work. Icons, headings, spacing, and visual hierarchy help readers quickly find the information most relevant to them.
The team also reworked the wording of the legal information so everything could fit on one page. The final version of the poster summarizes what can be done in English and what the limits are in each section. Readers can access additional information by scanning a QR code.
Recognition at the ClearMark Awards
For both team members, the award reflects the many conversations, revisions, and adjustments that shaped the project over time. For Éducaloi, it also represents important international recognition of the organization’s work and leadership in clear legal communication.
“There was a lot of back-and-forth between Rebecca and me,” recalls Proulx. “At one point, we sat together at my desk and reviewed every detail of the layout in print and online. It’s rewarding to see that the work was useful and recognized.”
The project also reinforced the importance of user testing. “This was the first time I had done usability testing,” says Schur. “And one of the highlights of the project for me was seeing how people actually used the tool and learning all kinds of surprising things that I will bring with me into future projects.”
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Want to see the current and past winners in each of the categories at the ClearMark Awards? Visit the Center for Plain Language’s website. |
The interview with Rebecca Schur and Andréanne Proulx was conducted in French and in English. Some quotes in this text have been translated into English.