1 / 20

Writing for the Web

Writing for the Web. Do humans read faster on the web or on print?. The F Pattern. Jakob Nielson 2006. Implications of the F pattern. Users won't read your text thoroughly. The first two paragraphs must state the most important information.

jaxon
Download Presentation

Writing for the Web

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript

  1. Writing for the Web

  2. Do humans read faster on the web or on print?

  3. The F Pattern Jakob Nielson 2006

  4. Implications of the F pattern • Users won't read your text thoroughly. • The first two paragraphs must state the most important information. • Start subheads, paragraphs, and bullet points with information-carrying words • Exercise: Phantom of the F

  5. Dilemma of Headlines

  6. Consider… “Nicks Nixes Flicks”? Dumb computers don’t get it.

  7. Also consider… “Green Bean Comes Marching Home”? What green bean? Ambiguity: Bad for SEO

  8. Ambiguity is NOT only an SEO problem… Farmer Bill Dies in House Iraqi Head Seeks Arms Kicking Baby Considered To Be Healthy

  9. Headlines should be… • Accurate • Informative • Invitational • Free of ambiguity

  10. Short sentences and paragraphs • Use concise sentences/short paragraphs to aid scanning • Use active voice mostly.

  11. Story structures

  12. Layered stories • Chunking: Breaking a complex story into easily understandable sections. • Encourage readers to proceed to the next chunk. • Use multimedia to complement text (or the other way around)

  13. China environment story • The structure? Advantages? • As an everyday reader, how would you read the story? Which parts would you read first? How does the structure work for your reading flow? • What strikes you the most in terms of narratives?

  14. China environment story

  15. Bullet points and lists • Use bullet points at the beginning of story by giving an overview of its main parts (example). • Use ordered (numbered) lists only when the order is important.

  16. Why hyperlinking?

  17. Quality, not quantity

  18. Main story links • Fit them naturally in the text • Avoid using “(click here)” • No more than 6 words • Information-heavy words (action-packed verbs and/or informational nouns) • Try to make clear where the link will lead readers to • Link to specific web pages, not the home page

  19. Link functionality and maintenance • Always test the links in your story before publishing • Make sure accessing the story doesn’t require subscription or special privilege. • Clear all browser cookies and access the link • Log out your account on the link’s website • Access the link outside your organization • Check and update links from time to time

  20. Four Questions for Hyperlining • Does the URL to which I am referring the reader reward him or her with additional content that a reader of this story likely did not know, or know how to get easily? • Does the text I am selecting to link this text give the reader an obvious clue as to what the hyperlinked page will contain? • Am I using the shortest possible amount of text to provide that clue? • Would the content of the linked text, or the context surrounding it, reasonably mislead the reader into believing that the linked page contains something other than what it does?

More Related