Content Style Guide: Prioritization Scale

One of the best ways to ensure that our website is user-friendly is to follow industry best practices, keep the content focused on key user tasks, and keep our content up-to-date at all times.

Must / Should / May / Don't

Given limited resources, it can be helpful to use a Must / Should / May / Don’t scale to prioritize throughout a project.

Possible Uses

  1. Prioritize user tasks, goals, or features.
  2. Prioritize process or to-do lists.
  3. Solicit team feedback: when giving feedback on designs and content, it’s helpful to suggest a priority level so we can focus first on resolving the musts and shoulds.
Label Description
Must
  • Critical items only.
  • Items vital to success and could not launch without these.
  • Not executing well will cause major roadblocks for users’ ability to accomplish key tasks.
Should
  • Important to do.
  • May improve adoption, quality, usability.
May
  • Nice to do but maybe optional.
  • Minor content or design needs.
  • Few users would benefit.
  • Do if it can be done easily, otherwise could be noted for future iteration.
Don’t
  • Just don’t do.
  • Things you intentionally don’t want to include.

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Credits

Guide content originally created by Suzanne Chapman for the University of Illinois Libraries. Licensed for reuse under the Creative Commons By 4.0 license.

  • Last Updated: May 2, 2025 12:16 PM
  • URL: https://libguides.gvsu.edu/styleguide