As explained in Using the Briefing Panel Editor, the Briefing panel is the core learning content for a lab.
Creating great labs helps your users engage deeply, learn effectively, and enjoy the process. Follow these simple guidelines to write labs that are clear, professional, and approachable.
Be conversational
Use contractions
Contractions add a layer of informality, making your text more approachable.
For example:
- “You will” > “You’ll”
- “Is not” > “Isn’t”
- “Will not” > “Won’t”
Address the reader directly
Use the second person, “you”, to engage your users.
For example:
“In this scenario, you’re a member of the SOC team.”
Write how you speak
Connect with your user on a human level with language you’d use in real life.
For example:
- Ask rhetorical questions
- Use discourse markers like “so” and “well”
- Begin a sentence with “and” or “but”
Don't be sloppy
Sounding overly informal can become distracting, erode your authority, and lower trust. You still want to sound professional.
For example:
- “Limit system access to prevent users reading or deleting sensitive files.” ✅
- “Make system access difficult to stop users reading or scraping private stuff.” ❌
Why this matters
Instructional messages with social cues
Research on discourse processing shows that people try harder to understand material when they feel they’re in conversation with a partner, rather than simply receiving information.
Activation of social response
Social cues signal to the learner that they should work hard to understand what their conversational partner – in this case, the lab text – is saying to them.
Increase in active cognitive processing
This makes the user more likely to engage with and remember the text of your lab.
Increase in quality of learning outcomes
The user learns the content and improves their cyber resilience.
Be concise
- Use simple, everyday language.
- Keep paragraphs short (four lines maximum).
- Break up text with bullet points or numbered lists.
- Avoid long sentences (aim for 20 words or fewer).
This makes labs more accessible for neurodivergent users and for readers who speak English as a second language.
Be conscious
Avoid non-inclusive, socially charged, or biased language.
- Black/white hat hackers > Non/Ethical hackers
- Blacklist/Whitelist > Denylist/Allowlist
- Master/Slave code > Leader/Follower, Primary/Replica, Primary/Standby
Avoid gendered pronouns and psychologically unsafe terminology.