Author – Janice (Ginny) Redish

Usability for the Web: Designing Websites that Work – Brinck, Gergle, Wood
Content Strategy at Work – Bloomstein
Don’t Make me Think – Steve Krug

Content Content Content

The theme of this book is content = conversation.

We converse both by talking and by writing. You may text others more often than you call them. Either way, you’re still conversing with them.

💡Isn’t social media all about conversations?

To create great web content you must:

• understand the conversation your site visitors want to have with your website or your app.
• satisfy those conversations.
• engage your site visitors enough to make them want to continue in the site or app and come back again.
• meet your business goals(whether your goal is to sell stuff, to be the major source of information on your topic, or to get more members for your organization)

On many sites, people come with questions. Answer those questions and you’ll have a successful website.

You can help site visitors grab and go by:

• breaking your text into short sections with clear headings
• starting with your key messages
• writing short sentences and short paragraphs
• using lists and tables
• writing meaningful links
• illustrating your content

Summary

• People come to websites to satisfy goals, to do tasks, to get answers to questions.
• Navigation, search, design, and technology support the content that people come for.
• The best metaphor for the web is phone, not filing cabinet.
• Every use of your website is a conversation started by your site visitor.
• Social media is pushing the web to be even more conversational.
• To have good conversations through your website:
  
  1. Answer your site visitors’ questions throughout your web content, not only in sections called FAQs.
  2. Let your site visitors’ “grab and go”.
  3. Engage your site visitors.
  4. Market successfully to your site visitors by first satisfying the conversation they came to have.
  5. Improve search engine optimization and internal site search.
  6. Be accessible to all.

Planning

Purposes | Personas | Conversations

Successful writers don’t start by writing. They plan before they write (and they plan while they write and through all their revisions).

Put your goals in terms of what your site visitors should do. A few examples:
We want to sell a lot of shoes. (bad) | We want people to buy shoes from us. (good)
We want to give out a lot of information on this topic. (bad) | We want to answer people’s questions about this topic. (good)
We want to increase subscriptions. (bad) | We want site visitors to feel so engaged with us that they subscribe (good)

To understand your site visitors, start with:

1. Gather information about your site visitors.
2. List groups of site visitors.
3. List major characteristics for each group.
4. Understand the conversations they want to start.

💡Even for experts, conversational style and simple words work best.

A great way to bring your web or app users “alive” for yourself and your team is to create personas.

A persona is an individual with a name, a picture, specific demographics, and other characteristics.

Be sure to select a picture and name that make the team respect the persona.

Summary

• Planning your content is critical for apps, websites, individual web topics, blogs, social media messages – everything you write.
• Planning means asking: Why? Who? What conversations?
• To have successful conversations, you have to know
– what you want to achieve through your content
– who you are conversing with
– what they want from your app, your site, your topic, your message; what task they want to accomplish
• List all your purposes. Try to make them measurable.
• Understand that your readers are not blank slates. We all interpret as we read, bringing the baggage of our past experiences and our own understanding of what words mean.
• Know your readers.
– You have many ways to learn about your site visitors.
– Gathering data from real sources from analytics to social media to site visits and usability testing is much better than making assumptions about your site visitors.
• List major characteristics for each group of site visitors, including:
– key phrases or quotes
– experience, expertise
– emotions
– values
– technology
– social and cultural environments and language
– demographics
• Gather site visitors’ questions, tasks, and stories.
• Use your information to create personas.
• Use your information to write scenarios.
– Scenarios tell you the conversations people want to start.
-Everything on your site should fulfill a scenario.
-Scenarios can help you write good content.

Content Strategy

is about people, processes, and technology.

Understanding roles and skills:

• Who will write? Edit? Illustrate? Produce? Publish?
• Who will be in charge of social media? How active will you be in social media groups or in engaging with people who comment on your blogs?
• Who will decide on future content and keep up the strategy?
• What skills do these people need?
• How will these different people work together?
• What systems will you use?
• What training will you give people in the strategies, processes, and technology you expect them to use?

Develop your content strategy first, and let that drive your system choices-not the other way around. A content management system(CMS) should support and facilitate your content strategy. The CMS should not drive and constrain the strategy.

Think strategically how you use blogs and social media:

• Who will blog? Who will take comments? Will you moderate comments? Will someone respond to comments?
• “Will you invite or allow others as guests on your blogs?
  • Will you place guest content on other blogs? In other places that accept user-generated content?
  • What social media will you use? How will you use each?
  • Will you form groups within social media? How will you use them?
  • Where will the resources come from to write for, monitor, and moderate the social media that the organization participates in?
  • What rules or guidelines will you give people within the organization who are responsible for or have permission to participate in these social media? For example, you might want guidelines for
  – how frequently people within the organization should post to each blog or other social media
  – what topics are desired, what topics writers should avoid
  – how colloquial the style can or should be in different social media

Designing for Easy Use

Your site visitors react to the look of your website or mobile screen before they’ve read anything. If the initial appearance turns them off, you may never get to converse with them.

Information design, layout, spacing, fonts, color combinations can help or hinder your site visitors.

Stop using dummy text(greeking; lorem ipsum dolor). The design has to support meaningful content, so we should evaluate design and content together.

All the text on your web pages should get larger or smaller as people adjust the type size. Make it reactive.

As you plan colors:

1. Work with your brand colors.
2. Use light on dark sparingly.
3. Keep the background clear.
4. Keep the contrast high.

Light text on a dark background is called “reverse type”. Most people find reverse text difficult to read for sustained periods, so don’t use it for your main content.

Blank space is a very precious commodity online.

When you plan for space on your site:

1. Create consistent patterns.
2. Align elements on a grid.
3. Keep active space in your content.
4. Beware of false bottoms.
5. Don’t let headings float.
6. Don’t center text.

Create useful active space by:

• breaking the text into small chunks
• using lots of headings
• keeping paragraphs short and putting space between them
• turning sentences into more visual forms, like lists and tables
• putting space into lists
• including pictures and other graphics with a little space around them

Don’t put a horizontal line or a large block of space across your web page. They stop people.

To make headings work well, put more active space above the heading than between the heading and the text it goes with.

Centered text may be lovely on a wedding invitation, but it’s tiring for reading.

Left-aligned, ragged-right(not justified on the right) is best for all web writing.

Unless you are writing poetry, don’t center text anywhere on your web pages.

As designers and content specialists working together:

1. Set a legible sans serif font as the default.
2. Make the default text size legible for your visitors.
3. Set a medium line length as the default.
4. Don’t write in all capitals.
5. Underline only links.
6. Use italics sparingly.

Most websites use sans serif type, such as Arial, Tahoma, or Verdana.

Preference almost always favors the familiar sans serif fonts.

As the default, select a highly legible sans serif font.

Long lines are tiring to read.

Set the default for classic web and tablet to be a medium line length(5070 characters, or about 810 words). Also, set your text to be fluid (liquid layout) so it adjusts and wraps well as people resize their windows or turn their mobiles from one orientation to another.

For website guidelines:

• Use ALL CAPITALS only for a single word or short phrase in specific circumstances where people expect it.
• Use bold or color for headlines and heading, not all capitals.
• Use uppercase and lowercase(like normal sentences) even for important information. If you put a whole paragraph in capital letter to make people pay attention to it, you will achieve exactly the opposite. Most people will ignore it.

On web pages, people assume that anything that is underlined is a link, no matter what color it is. Underlining for emphasis or to indicate a book title is an old-fashioned technique from typewriter days.

Italics have always been the way to show a book title in a printed document. Use that in your web content. Otherwise, use italics sparingly.

Don’t use italics for headings.

Summary

• Integrate content and design from the beginning.
– Answer content and design questions together.
– Use real content throughout the process.
• Build in flexibility for universal usability.
– Make adjusting text size obvious.
– Make all the text adjust.
– Allow other changes – contrast, keyboard, voice, and more.
– Check the colors for color-blind site visitors.
– Think about the cultural meaning of colors.

Color

• Work with your brand colors.
• Use light on dark sparingly.
• Keep the background clear.
• Keep the contrast high.

Space

• Create consistent patterns.
• Align elements on a grid.
• Keep active space in your content.
• Beware of false bottoms.
• Don’t let headings float.
• Don’t center text.

Typography

• Set a legible sans serif font as the default.
• Make the default text size legible for your visitors.
• Set a medium line length as the default.
• Don’t write in all capitals.
• Underline only links.
• Use italics sparingly.

Starting Well

Home Pages

Home pages must satisfy six basic functions:

1. Be findable through search engines. (Which site should I go to?)
2. Identify the site. (Did I get where I thought I was going?)
3. Set the site’s tone and personality. Inspire confidence and trust. (Who are you? Are you credible? Should I trust you?)
4. Help people get a sense of what the site is all about. (What can I do here?)
5. Continue the conversation quickly. (Can I start my task right here?)
6. Send each person on the right way. (Where’s the link I need? Where’s the Search box? Will Search help me?)

Key components of good SEO:

• keywords in the title that shows up at the top of the browser
• keywords in the URL
• keywords in the headline, headings, and copy
• content that other link to

The best way to rank well in the Google search results is to create content that is rank-worthy.

Your site’s logo, name, and tag line must identify your website

A useful homepage:

• makes it instantly clear what the site is all about
• is mostly links and short descriptions
• includes calls to action (verb phrases) for your primary site visitors that respond to the conversations they came to have

A successful website picks up on the site visitors’ conversation right away.

• Focus on your key visitors and their key tasks.
• Let people start major tasks on the home page.
• Make sure the forms are high on the page.
• Don’t put unnecessary forms up front.
• Send each person on the right way.
• Put the Search Bar near the top.
• Use your site visitors’ words in your links.
• In mobile versions, strip down to the essentials.

💡What are the primary conversations for your site? How can you quickly move those conversations along?

Summary

• Consider the entire site.
• Your keywords must match searchers’ keywords.
• Gaming the system doesn’t work.
• Remarkable content is what matters.
• Identify the site.
• Set the site’s tone and personality.
• Help people get a sense of what the site is all about.
• Continue the conversation quickly.
• Focus on your key visitors and their key tasks.
• Let people start major tasks on the home page.
• Make sure the forms are high on the page.
• Don’t put unnecessary forms up front.
• Send each person on the right way.
• Put Search near the top.
• Use your site visitors’ words in your links.
• In mobile versions, strip down to the essentials by thinking about who uses your site on a mobile and the information and tasks that they most want when using a mobile.

Getting There

Pathway Pages

1. Site visitors hunt first.
2. People don’t want to read while hunting.
3. A pathway page is like a table of contents.
4. Sometimes, short descriptions help.
5. Three clicks is a myth.
6. Many people choose the first option.

The smoothness of the path is more important than the number of clicks.

• Think carefully about the order of information on pathway pages.
• Put the most important links high on the page.
• If you want people to select one option over another, put the one you want them to select first.

Summary

• If your site is large enough, you may need pathway pages between the home page and the information people want.
• Pathway pages are just that – a way to navigate down a path to the information, product, service, or task the site visitor needs.
• Site visitors hunt like bloodhounds for what they need.
• They don’t want to read while hunting.
• They don’t want to be distracted.
• Welcoming messages and long marketing messages don’t work well on pathway pages.
• A pathway page is like a table of contents. It should be mostly links.
• Sometimes, short descriptions help. However, remember these points:
• Watch the jargon.
• Don’t assume a picture is enough with no description or specs (especially for technology products).
• It’s okay to write in fragments.
• Three clicks is a myth. The smoothness of the path is more important than the number of clicks (within reason).
• Don’t make people think on pathway pages.
• Keep people from needing to go back.
• Many people choose the first option, so think carefully about what you put first.

Breaking up and Organizing Content

Most people come to the web for information, not for a complete document. They don’t want the manual; they want instructions for the task they are doing. They don’t want the handbook; they want the answer to a question. They want usable, manageable pieces.

Think of three or four scrolls’ worth as a maximum length for a web page.

Summary

• Think “information,” not “document.”
• Divide your content thoughtfully by
  – questions people ask
  – topic or task
  – product type
  – information type
  – people
  – life event
  – time or sequence
• Consider how much to put on one web page.
  – What does the site visitor want?
  – How long is the page?
  – What’s the download time?
  – How much do people want to print?
  – What will I do for small screens – and for social media?
• Use PDFs sparingly and only for good reasons.

Focusing on Conversations and Key Messages

7 guidelines for focusing on conversations and key messages:

1. Give people only what they need.
2. Cut. Cut. Cut. And cut again.
3. Think “bite, snack, meal”.
4. Start with your key message.
5. Layer information.
6. Break down walls of words.
7. Plan to share and engage through social media.

A good mantra for websites and social media is less is more.

Think of people’s questions is a great way to analyze web content even if you do not end up using question-and-answer format in your writing.

Bite = headline, link, or both plus a very brief description.
Snack = key message or brief summary. The snack can be a bit on the homepage, a separate bold or italic line at the top of an article, the first bit of information in a blog post, or the summary to a very large report.
Meal = the details. The meal can be the rest of an article or blog post, a deeper web page linked from snack, or the full report.

Whatever your key message is, put it first. Put it in the headline(the bite) and elaborate it quickly in the beginning of the text(the snack).

On the web, each small section needs its own heading. Each question and answer needs the question as a heading and the answer in short sentences or as a bulleted list.

Summary

• Give people only what they need.
• Cut. Cut. Cut. And cut again.
• Think “bite, snack, meal”.
• Start with your key message. Write in inverted pyramid style.
• Layer information.
• Break down walls of words.
• Plan to share and engage through social media.

Finding Marketing Moments

On the web, your first worry should be how to not drive away the people who have chosen to come to your site.

The way to market on a website is to join the conversation that site visitors bring to you. Then, you can cross-sell and upsell, but only after your site visitors have satisfied at least part of the conversation they started with the site.

Marketing Moment – a time and place on the website when site visitors are ready for a marketing message. A marketing moment is not meant to distract your site visitor. A marketing moment is a natural follow-on or complement to what your site visitor is doing.

Many ways to continue the conversation:

• Give site visitors related links.
• Market related opportunities.
• Offer live chat.
• Engage site visitors in your social media.
• Allow them to provide recommendations, comments, or other feedback.
• Give them “contact us” information in the main content area as well as in the global navigation.

Announcing your Topic with a Clear Headline

The headline has to:

• entice and engage the people for whom it leads to useful content.
• not entice people who will be frustrated because it is a wrong choice for waht they need.
• signal to search engines what the content that follows is all about.

7 guidelines for headlines that work well

1. Use your site visitors’ words.
2. Be clear instead of cute.
3. Think about your global audience.
4. Try for a medium length(about eight words).
5. Use a statement, question, or call to action.
6. Combine label(nouns) with more information.
7. Add a short description if people need it.

Summary

• Use your site visitors’ words.
• Be clear instead of cute.
• Think about your global audience.
• Try for a medium length(about eight words).
• Use a statement, qustion, or call to action.
• Combine labels(nouns) with more information.
• Add a short description if people need it.

Including Useful Headings

Headings with keywords your site visitors are using in their searches help your SEO.

11 guidelines for writing useful headings:

1. Don’t slap headings into old content.
2. Start by outlining.
3. Choose a good heading style: questions, statements, verb phrases.
4. Use nouns and noun phrases sparingly.
5. Put your site visitors’ words in the headings.
6. Exploit the power of parallelism.
7. Use only a few levels of headings.
8. Distinguish headings from text.
9. Make each level of heading clear.
10. Help people jump to content within a webpage.
11. Evaluate. Read the headings.

An outline is just your headings in order. Don’t stress about using roman numerals, letters, or an elaborate numbering scheme.

Starting by writing the questions that people ask and then putting those questions into an order that will make sense to your site visitor.

Your three main choices for headings are questions, statements, or verb phrases(call to action).

When writing questions as headings, consider these four points:

• Answer your site visitors’ questions.
• Write from your site visitors” point of view.
• Keep the questions short.
• Consider starting with a keyword.

The best content is in small pieces with lots of headings, but that hierarchy of those headings shouldn’t go very deep. A typical web article or blog should have:

• one (h1)
• at least two or more (h2)
• rarely, (h3)

Distinguish headings from text:

• Don’t use blue for headings. Save blue for links. Most site visitors assume that anything in blue is a link, even if it is not underlined.
• Don’t use your web site’s link color as a heading color. You don’t want site visitors to be frustrated trying to click on a heading when it is not a link.
• Don’t make bold versus color the only difference between heading levels. People have a hard time figuring out whether bold is more important than color or vice versa.
• Avoid italics. They are not as effective as bold to indicate a heading. Italics don’t stand out enough on the screen.
• Underline a heading only if it is a link. Most site visitors assume that anything that is underlined is a link.
• Avoid ALL CAPITALS for all the reasons.
• If you use color for headings, make sure the color is legible against the background of your web page.
• Don’t center headlines or headings.
• Put lines (rules) over, not under.

If your web page has several sections with a heading over each section, consider giving people a table of contents at the top.

• Put same-page links first under the headline
• Don’t put off-page links at the top of the content area
• Don’t put same-page links in the left navigation column

Summary

• Good headings help readers in many ways.
• Thinking about headings also helps authors.
• Don’t slap headings into old content.
• Start by outlining.
• Choose a good heading style: questions, statement, verb phrases.
• Answer your site visitors’ questions.
• Write from your site visitors’ point of view.
• Keep the questions short.
• Consider starting with a keyword.
• Use key message bites as headings for sections.
• Give calls to action with imperatives.
• Use gerunds (“-ing” forms) for activities that aren’t direct calls to action.
• Use nouns and noun phrases sparingly.
• Put your site visitors’ words in the headings.
• Exploit the power of parallelism.
• Use only a few levels of headings.
• Distinguish headings from text.
• Make each level of heading clear.
• Help people jump to the content they need on the page.
• Put same-page links first under the page title.
• Don’t put off-page links at the top of the content area.
• Don’t put same-page links in the left navigation column.
• Evaluate! Read the headings.
• Review your content by “channeling” relevant personas.
• Read only the headings and see if the content is useful to the personas.”

The New Life of Press Releases

Make your news visual as well.

content = conversation

Writing conversationally in plain language with short sentences and short words is not dumbing down. It’s communicating clearly. It’s respecting your busy site visitors’ time.
Write so that busy people understand what you are saying the first time they read it.

• Picture the people you are talking with. Which persona(s) are you conversing with?
• Get into a conversation with those personas. If you were on the phone (speaking or texting), what would they ask you about this topic?
• Reply to them as if you were speaking or texting with them.

10 Guidelines for tuning up Your sentences:

1. Talk to your site visitors – use “you.”
2. Use “I” and “we.”
3. Write in the active voice (most of the time).
4. Write short, simple sentences.
5. Cut unnecessary words.
6. Give extra information its own place.
7. Keep paragraphs short.
8. Start with the context.
9. Put the action in the verb.
10. Use your site visitors’ words.

Converse. Make the information inviting and personal by addressing your site visitors directly.

Gender-neutral writing for pronouns:

• Use “you”.
• Use the plural.
• Turn a noun phrase into a verb phrase.
• Use a, an, or the, instead of a pronoun.

When the site visitor asks the question it’s suggested to use:

• “I” and “my” in the question(the voice of the site visitor)
• “You” and “your” in the answer(the site is talking to the site visitor)
• “We” and “our” for the organization that is answering the question

When referring to yourself:

• “you” and “your” in the question (the site asking the site visitor)
• “I” and “my” in the answer (the voice of the site visitor)
• “we” and “our” for the organization that is asking the question”

Try to keep your sentences about 10~20 words.

Don't let your first draft be your final draft.

Start each paragraph with a topic sentence.

Even within a sentence, set the context first.

Turning up your Sentences

Plan language helps both low-literacy and high-literacy site visitors.

High-literacy readers are likely to be the busiest and least patient of your site visitors. Respect their time by using plain language.

Summary

• Writing informally is not “dumbing down”!
• Talk to your site visitors – use “you.”
• Use the imperative in instructions.
• Use “you” throughout.
• Use “you” to be gender-neutral.
• Use appropriate gender for specific people.
• Converse directly even for serious messages.
• Use “I” and “we.”
• In blogs and social media, “I” is fine.
• For your own articles, “I” is fine.
• When you write for an organization, use “we.”
• Be consistent in how you use “I,” “you,” and “we.”
• Write in the active voice (most of the time).
• Write simple, short, straightforward sentences.
• Very short sentences are okay, too.
• Fragments may also work.
• Busy site visitors always need clear writing.
• Cut unnecessary words.
• Give extra information its own place.
• Keep paragraphs short.
• A one-sentence paragraph is fine.
• Lists or tables may be even better.
• Start with the context.
• Put the action in the verbs.
• Use your site visitors’ words.
• Write for your site visitors.
• Know your site visitors.
• And always use plain language.
• Research shows that using these guidelines for clear writing for the web helps both low-literacy and high-literacy site visitors.

Using Lists and Tables

6 guidelines for useful lists:

1. Use bulleted lists for items or options.
2. Match bullets to your site’s personality.
3. Use numbered lists for instructions.
4. Keep most lists short.
5. Try to start list items the same way.
6. Format lists well.

Think “list” whenever you have several options or items.

4 keys to formatting lists well:

1. Reduce space between the introduction and the list.
2. Put a space between long list items.
3. Wrap lines under each other, not under the bullet.
4. Put what happens on a line by itself.

6 guidelines for useful tables:

1. Use tables for a set of “if, then” sentences.
2. Use tables to compare numbers.
3. Think tables = answers to questions.
4. Think carefully about the first column.
5. Keep tables simple.
6. Format tables well.

A few ways to format better tables:

• Eliminate outside lines around the whole table.
• Lighten the lines between columns.
• Use shading for alternate rows instead of lines.

In tables, set all column headings and columns with words flush left, ragged right. When you give numbers, line them up on a decimal tab.

Summary

Lists:

• Use bulleted lists for items or options.
• Match bullets to your site’s personality.
• Use numbered lists for instructions.
• Turn paragraphs into steps.
• For branching, consider a table under the step.
• Show as well as tell.
• Use numbered lists for noninstructions thoughtfully.
• Keep most lists short.
• Short (5–10 items) is best for unfamiliar items.
• Long may be okay for very familiar lists.
• Try to start list items the same way.
• Format lists well.
• Reduce space between the introduction and the list.
• Put space between long list items.
• Wrap lines under each other.
• Put what happens on a line by itself.
  Tables:
• Understand the difference between lists and tables.
• Use tables for a set of “if, then” sentences.
• Use tables to compare numbers.
• Think tables = answers to questions.
• Think carefully about the first column.
• Keep tables simple.
• Format tables well.
• Reduce lines: Help people focus on information.
• Line up columns: Don’t center text in a table.

Writing Meaningful Links

7 guidelines for writing meaningful links:

1. Don’t make new program or product names links by themselves.
2. Think ahead: Launch and land on the same name.
3. For actions, start with a verb.
4. Make the link meaningful – not Click here or just More.
5. Don’t embed links (for most content).
6. Make bullets with links active, too.
7. Make unvisited and visited links obvious.

Launching and landing on the same name helps your SEO. Some algorithms may lower your SEO score if the headline as a link and the headline on the page don’t match.

Most site visitors today assume that something that looks like a link is a link. You don’t need to announce links with click here. Just put what people will get by “clicking here” into your link format.

more or learn more by itself isn’t helpful even to sighted visitors who are quickly scanning the page. You don’t need learn more in any of these options.

Be explicit and include the topic.

Meaningless links don’t help your SEO.

Help your site visitors by making links obvious and by indicating which links they’ve already been to.

Show visited links by changing the color.

Summary

• Don’t make program or product names links by themselves.
• Think ahead: Launch and land on the same name.
• For actions, start with a verb.
• Make the link meaningful – not Click here or just More.
• Click here is not necessary.
• More or Learn More isn’t enough.
• Say what it’s “more” about.
• Don’t embed links (for most content).
• If people are browsing, embedding may be okay.
• Put links at the end, below, or next to your text.
• Make bullets with links active, too.
• Make unvisited and visited links obvious.
• Use your link colors only for links.
• Show visited links by changing the color.

Using Illustrations Effectively

Remember SEO for video, too. Search engines can’t yet actually search the images, so you need to get keywords into places like the video’s file name and description. Also if you put the video on a video-sharing site like YouTube and then embed it in your site, you’ll get not only a wider distribution but also the SEO benefit of the times people view it on the video-sharing site.

5 purposes that illustrations can serve:

1. Exact item: What do customers want to see?
2. Self-service: What helps people help themselves?
3. Process: Will pictures make words memorable?
4. Charts, graphs, maps: Do they help site visitors get my message?
5. Mood: Which pictures support the conversations?

7 guidelines for using illustrations effectively:

1. Don’t make people wonder what or why.
2. Choose an appropriate size.
3. Show diversity.
4. Don’t make content look like ads.
5. Don’t annoy your site visitors with blinking, rolling, waving, or wandering text or pictures.
6. Use animation only where it helps.
7. Make illustrations accessible.

Don’t let large pictures push content down too far.

Many people expect colorful small boxes to be ads-especially on the right side of a web page.

Summary

• Illustrations can serve many purposes.
• Exact item: What do customers want to see?
• Self-service: What helps people help themselves?
• Process: Will pictures make words memorable?
• Charts, graphs, maps: Do they help site visitors get my message?
• Mood: Which pictures support the conversation?
• Don’t make people wonder what or why.
• Choose an appropriate size.
• Don’t let large pictures push content down too far.
• Make sure small pictures are clear.
• Show diversity.
• To represent your site visitors, think broadly.
• Show your internal diversity, but be truthful.
• Test, test, test.
• Don’t make content look like ads.
• Don’t annoy people with blinking, rolling, waving, or wandering text or pictures.
• Use animation only where it helps.
• Make illustrations accessible.

Getting from Draft to Final

Writing is a process that goes beyond a first draft. You may do it all yourself, but it’s better if you include other people.

First draft =/ final draft

The best writing comes from revising.

Read, edit, revise, proofread your own work:
• Think of writing as revising.
• Read what you wrote.
• Check your links.
• Check your facts.
• Let it rest.
• Read it out loud.
• Use dictionaries, handbooks, and your style guide.
• Run the spell checker, but don’t rely on it.
• Proofread.

Writing is easier if you think conversation. Have a persona. Imagine the persona's conversation. Write a clear headline. Outline with good headings. Write the conversation that goes with each heading.

Successful writers read their own work. They read it and revise it many times. Even with social media(and email), you can and should read what you wrote before you send or post it.

If at all possible, always have someone else copy edit your content.

Make sure your reviewers agree from the beginning on:

• Purposes: what you want to achieve through this web content.
• Personas: who the content is for.
• Scenarios, Conversations: what will bring people to your content.
• Content: what you plan to cover (if you have an outline, share it with them).

Summary

• Read, edit, revise, proofread your own work.
• Think of writing as revising drafts.
• Read what you wrote.
• Check your links.
• Check your facts.
• Let it rest.
• Read it out loud.
• Use dictionaries, handbooks, style guides.
• Run the spell checker but don’t rely on it.
• Proofread.
• Share drafts with colleagues.
• Accept and learn from the process.
• Work with colleagues to fit the content strategy.
• Share partial drafts.
• Have someone read it out loud.
• Ask what your key message is.
• Pay attention to comments.
• Put your ego in the drawer, cheerfully.
• Let editors help you.
• Get help with the details.
• Get help with the big picture.
• Negotiate successful reviews (and edits).
• Meet with reviewers at the beginning.
• Practice the doctrine of no surprise.
• Help your reviewers understand good web writing.
• Tell reviewers when the schedule changes.
• Give reviewers a “heads up” a few days in advance.
• Make your expectations clear.
• If you have specific needs, let reviewers know.
• Don’t get defensive.
• Don’t automatically accept changes.
• Rewrite to avoid misunderstandings.
• Persuade.
• Negotiate.
• Communicate.

Creating an Organic Style Guide

Tips for creating a usable and useful style guide:

• Put it online where people can find it easily.
• Start small. Don’t try to write it all before you get it out there.
• Make it organic. Let it grow from authors’ and editors’ needs.
• Keep it small. Include only what people need.
• Allow different styles for different media and situations if that makes sense in your organization’s culture. (For example, the style guide might allow “Thx” in a tweet or a Facebook post, but require “Thank you” in an email.)
• Use the database model that we discussed in Chapter 6. Make each topic its own small index card. Don’t write a book!
• Make it easy to find topics – both by searching and through links.
• Write it clearly, using all the guidelines for clear web writing.
• Show as well as tell. Give examples.
• Do usability testing to make sure that authors and editors can find and use it.
• Have an easy-to-use feedback mechanism that allows and encourages people to ask questions and suggest new topics.