Writing for the Web

A short tutorial

David Rashty, Isaac Waisberg

Introduction

• Reading from computer screens is about 25% slower than reading from paper. As a result users feel unpleasant when reading online text.

• You should write 30% less text since it's not only a matter of reading speed but also a matter of browsing and scrolling habits.

• Users don't like to scroll: one more reason to keep pages short.

General guidelines

Three main guidelines

1- Be succinct

• When giving overview information, be concise.

• Save the details for those that want them or have the time, but don't slow down the skimmer.

• This doesn't mean skip the details, just keep them from people who don't need them.

2- Scannability

• Because the online experience seems to foster some amount of impatience, users tend not to read streams of text fully.

• Users scan text and pick out keywords, sentences, and paragraphs of interest while skipping over those parts of the text they care less about.

2.1- Writing for scannability

• Structure articles with two or even three levels of headlines.

• Use meaningful headings (i.e., reading a heading should tell the user what the page or section is about)

• Use highlighting and emphasis to make important words catch the user's eye.

3- Hypertext structure

• Make text short without sacrificing depth of content by splitting the information up into multiple nodes connected by hypertext links.

• Each page can be brief and yet the full hyperspace can contain much more information than would be feasible in a printed article.

• Information of interest to a minority of readers can be made available through a link without penalizing those readers who don't want it.

3.1- Hypertext structure

• Hypertext should not be used to segment a long linear story into multiple pages: having to download several segments slows down reading and makes printing more difficult.

• Proper hypertext structure is not a single flow "continued on page 2"; instead split the information into coherent chunks that each focus on a certain topic.

• The guiding principle should be to allow readers to select those topics they care about and only download those pages.

Content and style

Summary of findings

Provide useful information

• Most people use the web to find information that they can actually use.

• Unless your site is for entertainment purposes, make sure that your readers will find your information useful.

• This means useful for them instead of just useful for you.

The more specific, the more useful

• General overview information is fine, and can be extremely helpful.

• But when people want to act on the information you provide give them all the information they require in order to act.

Make sure people know what each page will do for them

• If someone can't figure it out immediately, chances are they'll go someplace else.

• It's best to do this at the top of the page, so people can see what they'll get from you without scrolling.

• People will scroll, but only if they think there's something of interest to them on your page.

Formatting

Summary of findings

Always start with the headline

• Everyone reads them.

• Condense your most important point down to a one- or two-line headline.

• See Nielsen’s Alertbox on Microcontent for more information at: www.useit.com/alertbox/980906.html

Use plenty of subheads

• People skim headings looking for specific topics — so use subheads liberally.

• If you started by creating an outline, your outline headings will automatically become subheads.

Give 'em the gist of it

• Distill longer documents down to their most important facts by creating an "executive summary."

• A summary at the start of each article containing links to the main subheads in an article allow people to see the article at a glance and easily jump to any important point.

Bold text stands out

• It's best to use it sparingly, such as for lead-in headings at the start of a paragraph.

• Bold words scattered inside the text can be confusing.

Examples

Putting things together