Candour

Best for

• Telehealth clinics in regulated medicine, including Australian medicinal cannabis clinics, where the public site may describe the clinic's care but never the medicine (see "Regulated health in Australia")
• Specialist and second-opinion clinics, long-term-condition and pain services, anyone whose argument is how they decide
• Any business whose trust comes from disclosure: fee-only financial advisers (Plumbline), buyer-only building inspectors (Truelevel), independent assessors, mediators
• Audiences: careful readers who have been sold to before, and their GPs, accountants or partners reading over their shoulder

Less suited to: anything playful, retail, or where the product is the hero; evening, fast-booking GP telehealth (Vigil).

Personality and voice

Plain and accountable, like a good consultant's letter: says what will happen, what won't, and who pays. Never sells, never hurries, never promises an outcome.

• Headlines: "A doctor with time, and nothing to sell." · "Who pays us. In writing." · "Four sections, no shortcuts." · "Ask us, and ask them."
• Buttons: "Book an appointment" · "How we work" · "Replay the record" · "I'm a GP"
• Microcopy: "Booking an appointment isn't booking a treatment." · "The fee is the same either way." · "No clinical details here, please."
• Words to avoid: "eligible", "qualify", "approved", "fast", "easy", "natural", "alternative", "plant", "discreet", "no referral needed", any product, brand, ingredient or strength, and any condition-and-cure pairing.

Colour

Measured contrast (WCAG): ink on paper 15.3:1 · muted on paper 5.9:1 (on well 5.3:1) · claret on paper 7.8:1 · white on claret 8.6:1 · pen on card 7.6:1 · ink on marker 13.4:1 · stamp on card 6.3:1. After hours: ink 15.9:1 · muted 6.4:1 (on card 5.9:1) · claret 7.7:1 · text on claret 7.8:1 · pen 8.5:1 · stamp 6.9:1.

No green, no leaves, no drops. On regulated-health sites green reads as "plant" and "natural", which the TGA and Ahpra treat as promotion.

Typography

• Display: Red Hat Display 600–700: upright and plain, no flourish.
• Body: Red Hat Text 400–600: the same family at reading size, open and calm.
• Record: Red Hat Mono 400–600: times, figures, section letters, form labels.

The signature move: a plain sentence headline that ends in the honest part, in claret ("A doctor with time, and nothing to sell."), and one phrase per section marked with the highlighter, swept in as you reach it.

Layout

• 1180px wrap, gutter max(20px, 4vw). Spacing --s-1…--s-8.
• Hero: copy and three plain facts on the left, the consult record on the right.
• Then the process as lettered sections (A–D), the ledger beside a statement, questions to ask any clinic, flat fees with the struck-out list (packages, subscriptions, discounts), a ruled FAQ, and a signed closing sheet.
• Heavy 2px ink rules head every record, ledger, list and table; everything else uses hairlines and ruled lines.

Shape

• Paper, not glass: --r-s 6px for buttons and inputs, --r-m 10px for sheets, --r-l 16px for the closing card. Sheets carry a stacked-paper shadow (a second sheet peeking under).
• Inputs have a hairline box with an ink baseline, like a form to fill in.
• The brand mark is a record card with its pink margin rule and a claret offset.

Motion language

• The record writes itself: each entry is written left to right (clip reveal, 700ms) as its tick is drawn, one every 900ms, while the length counts up the minutes. "Replay the record" writes it again.
• The ledger stamps: each NIL thumps down with a slight overshoot, one after another, when the ledger is seen.
• The highlighter sweeps across its phrase (900ms) when the phrase scrolls into view.
• Reveals: 14px rise and fade, 600ms. The phone menu unrolls as a lettered contents page.
• Motion switch in the footer ([data-motion-toggle], html.calm, remembered as site-motion, default from prefers-reduced-motion). Calm shows the record written, the stamps down and the highlights on.
• After hours switch ([data-theme-toggle]), remembered as site-theme; theme-color follows.

Imagery and illustration

The paperwork is the picture: the record, the ledger, the lettered sections. Line icons at 1.7px stroke in pen blue. Photography only of the real doctors or staff, at a desk, in daylight, looking at the camera. Never products, plants, leaves, droplets, bottles, pills, smiling "after" patients, or anything that implies a result.

Signature components

• .record › .record-head (three divs with span + b) › .record-body > ol > li[data-min] (.time, an inline tick svg, p, .who) › .record-foot ([data-len], .sample, button[data-replay]).
• .ledger › h3, p, dl > div > dt (small) + dd (a figure, or .stamp for nil) › .ledger-sign (span, b the signature).
• mark.hl (the highlighter), .asks > div (h3, p, .mark / .mark.no), ol.sections[style="--n:4"], .fees > .fee (.k, b, p) with .nos (span > s), .faq details, .notice / .notice.safety, .close-card (--close-em for its lit phrase), .foot-safe, .foot-reg (the disclosure line).

Multi-page kit

• Phone menu: .menu-btn[aria-controls] opens .site-menu (a lettered contents page); Escape, outside click and links close it; Tab stays inside while open.
• Current page: aria-current="page" (a claret underline).
• Inner pages: .page-head (ruled like a pad) with .crumbs, a .tag and a smaller .h1.
• Fields: .field, .fields, .field-wide, fieldset.field-set, .check, .form-card, [aria-invalid="true"]; form[data-template] shows "This is a template" on submit.
• Tiles: .choices › label.choice > input + span > b + small. Segmented control: .seg (button[aria-pressed] with data-filter/data-value, or label > input + text).
• Gate: [data-gate] with button[data-show="panel-id"]. Slider, switch, tables: input.range, .switch[role=switch], .table / .table.stack, .r. Sheets: .sheet.
• Rendered later: Candour.refresh(root).

Regulated health in Australia

Candour was written for clinics that can describe their care but not the medicines they may prescribe. For an Australian medicinal cannabis clinic (and any clinic prescribing prescription-only medicines), the public site:

• Never names, shows or implies a medicine: no product or brand names, ingredients, strengths, "THC"/"CBD" or other abbreviations, "plant medicine", "natural" or "alternative" therapy, leaves, flowers, droplets or green, and no lists of conditions paired with a treatment.
• Has no eligibility quiz or "check if you qualify" funnel, no "no referral needed", no after-hours or discreet delivery as a selling point, no packages, subscriptions, discounts or half-price first consults, and no testimonials or reviews.
• Describes the care honestly: real-time video or phone consultations of meaningful length (a first appointment of minutes is poor practice), the doctor reviewing history and records, decisions made with the patient that can be no new treatment, no prescribing on request, continuity with the patient's GP, follow-up, and side effects reported to the TGA.
• Declares conflicts of interest: a clinic tied to a pharmacy, supplier or product range must say so; Candour's ledger makes independence (or the lack of it) visible.
• Every page says the site doesn't advertise any medicine, how to report a side effect, and 000 / healthdirect / Lifeline.

These rules reflect Ahpra's guidance for practitioners who prescribe medicinal cannabis (published 9 July 2025) and a study of 54 Australian medicinal cannabis clinic websites (reported by newsGP, 17 January 2025). They are design guidance, not legal advice; check final copy against the current TGA Advertising Code and Ahpra guidance before launch.

• Ahpra publishes cannabis prescriber guidance (MinterEllison)
• Extent of non-compliant medicinal cannabis clinics revealed (newsGP)

Do and don't

• Do put a time, a figure or a signature on every claim.
• Do keep the record honest: it's labelled as a sample and shows a decision that could be no.
• Do publish the ledger, even when it's dull: that's the point.
• Don't use green, leaves, or any picture of a product or a result.
• Don't use the highlighter on more than one phrase per section, or for a price.
• Don't add testimonials, urgency, discounts or eligibility quizzes.

Accessibility

AA contrast throughout (measured above). Skip link, 3px pen-blue focus ring. The record is an ordered list whose content is in the page (the writing is a visual reveal only; calm shows it complete); the ledger is a description list and its stamps are text ("Nil"); question marks pair an icon with words. Forms label every field and mark errors with aria-invalid; required consents are real checkboxes. Tables stack on phones. Responsive to 360px; tested with motion on and off, in Case notes and After hours.

How to make it yours