Web Development Done Right
writing for the web
Studies have shown that web users prefer to receive information in small "chunks" of information, and that they scan the page for specific information instead of reading every word. The guidelines below were taken from the white paper E-writing: Communicate Clearly Through Email and the Web by Christopher E. Bush, the article Be Succinct! (Writing for the Web) by Jakob Nielson, and a 1997 Study on Writing for the Web performed by Jakob Nielson and Jon Morkes.
Consult these guidelines when writing for your web site to ensure that you are using the most of your web space.
Be Succinct
Write for Scannability
Write for Your Audience
Be Succinct
- Cut content ruthlessly. Write no more than 50% of the text you would have used in a hardcopy publication. If a word, sentence or even paragraph doesn't add anything to your basic message, it shouldn't be there.
- Don't overuse adjectives and adverbs. Those descriptive words you use to modify or spice up your sentences are often unnecessary. Eliminate them when possible.
- Keep content to 1 browser. Try to keep the content to no more than one browser screen (at 600 x 400 resolution). If more than one screen is necessary, 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. If supplementary information is required - link to it. This way you are presenting the general information for the general user. Long and detailed background information can be relegated to secondary pages; similarly, information of interest to a minority of readers can be made available through a link without penalizing those readers who don't want it.
- Keep your paragraphs short and limit them to one idea each. This makes your message more scannable and easy to read.
Write for Scannability
- "Chunk up" the content. Break content into easily digestible sections that don't require users to read long continuous blocks of text
- Use headings. Headings and subheadings that are emphasized in some way (large type, bold text, colored text, etc.) help to categorize and break up the text. Make sure the headings are meaningful to the text they introduce.
- Use bulleted or numbered lists. Listing helps further highlight and categorize text.
- Use graphics to break up text. Make sure the graphics you use are pertinent to the text they emphasize, and be sure they are not so large that they add significantly to the page download time. In addition to reading fast, users want to ACCESS the information fast as well.
- Use indexes. Where it makes sense, use an index or a table of content to provide some orientation for the user.
Write for Your Audience
- Organize the information according to how you think the user will be looking for it. When looking for a particular recipe in Restaurant & Institution magazine's website, some of the participants were frustrated that the recipes were categorized by the dates they appeared in the magazine. "This doesn't help me find it," one person said, adding that the categories would make sense to the user if they were types of food (desserts, for example) rather than months.
- Write conversationally. Many users prefer informal, or conversational, writing better than formal writing because web users read faster. Formal/technical writing requires that users read every word, and that slows down the reading.
- Write quality content. Be sure to use all the conventional guidelines for writing well, and use your spellchecker. Unpolished content has been shown to detract from a site's credibility.
- Write using the "inverted pyramid" style. Put all the most crucial information - the who, where, what, why and how of your message - in the first paragraph. Readers should be able to discern your conclusions simply by glancing at your first few sentences.
- Keep the same pattern from page-to-page. Users can find the specific information they are looking for and can navigate through a site more efficiently if they can identify the pattern in which the content is organized, and know that the pattern persists on every page.