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These stories are about our society and ideas for improving it.
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Page updated:
Wednesday, 12 September 2007
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SPECIAL REPORT...
Getting your message across
HOW PEOPLE use online media
MORE THAN 10 YEARS after it went into mass use, researchers are staring to understand how people use the Worldwide Web.
Jacob Nielsen (http://www.useit.com/) and others have published their research findings about what is known as 'website useability'. They provide clues about how producers of website and email content can structure their writing and the design of their websites so that they are easy to use and encourage repeat visits.
Research by online useability experts has disclosed...
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Finding
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Implication
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The Worldewide Web has become the first place that people search for specific information
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Design a website and structure content that:
- provides the information people want
- is easy to use
- is simple to navigate.
Know the preferred audience for your website.
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Online media such as website pages are used differently to printed media.
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Gain a working knowledge of website useability principles and writing for the Web before setting up your website.
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Website visitors will not hesitate to click off websites that:
- are difficult to use
- do not provide information clearly and concisely
- have poor navigation.
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Format all text as online content - this is structured differently to the printed word.
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Website visitors prefer factual information presented in plain language.
Text that contains fluffery and motherhood statements (those nobody would want to be seen disagreeing with) encourages visitors to click off.
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Write online content that is:
- concise
- brief
- factual
- written in plain language
- free of jargon and technical terms (except where the websites are aimed at a technical audience).
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Reading text on-screen is more difficult than reading the printed word.
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Information on a website page should be approximately 25 per cent shorter that the same information in print.
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| Visitors scan the web page for information rather than read from the top. |
Use plenty of subheadings to assist scanning and to help visitors find information. Make headings and subheadings descriptive of content.
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| The serif fonts commonly used for printed text (Times, Garamond etc) are less readable on-screen. |
Use san serif fonts (Ariel, Avant Guard, Verdana etc) or serif fonts designed for screen reading (Georgia).
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Copy must be adapted for placing online; turning printed brochures into website content - 'brochureware' - is discouraged.
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All information sourced from printed documents is rewritten for online presentation.
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The printed page remains more appropriate:
- for the delivery of information that is lengthy
- for information that people may refer to frequently
- for use when they are away from a computer or other online content delivery device.
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Paper copy can be provided online by saving it as a PDF (Portable Document Format) file; PDF files:
- retain layout and fonts
- are designed to be printed for reading
- are difficult to read on-screen and are not designed for this purpose.
Some website designers provide the same document in PDF and HTML to give the reader the choice of reading off the screen or printing and reading later.
A separate copy for printing can be formatted in HTML without web page graphics and navigation buttons. It makes better use of the space available on the printed page. Photographs and illustrations that are part of the document are included. This saves paper at print out.
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Writing for the web, in summary:
- use the inverted pyramid newswriting style that presents the most pertinent information in the leading paragraphs; this provides fast access to important information; the only exception is where a website has been set up as a venue for feature writing, fiction or literary non-fiction
- reduce text length by approximately 25 per cent that of equivalent text in printed form
- keep paragraphs short
- avoid large blocks of text; they discourage readers by appearing too difficult to work through
- introduce no more than two ideas in a paragraph; any more makes information harder to comprehend; place additional ideas in their own paragraphs
- break up longer runs of text into bulleted or numbered (where the points are sequential or have to be done in order, one after the other) lists; this increases readability and hastens access to information
- use plenty of subheadings to break up the text, to make information easy to find and assist readers scan the page for content; have at least a main heading, a subheading and a sub-sub heading that breaks up the subheading into discrete but linked sections
- make heads and subheads descriptive; they should describe the content of what follows
- use clear, easy-to-understand terms appropriate to your audience's understanding; do not use jargon
- when mentioning reports, websites or other external information, where possible hyperlink your text to them by making the relevant words on your web page an active link that, when clicked, takes the reader to the associated infornation; hyperlinking (the convention is to make it appear as blue-coloured font, underlined) is an advantage the Worldwide Web has over print; considered hyperlinking makes available a wealth of associated or supporting material, but remember to ask the owner of another website for permission to link to it
- avoid Australianisms or Americanisms - colloquial terms that have currency in a particular country or culture but that may be unknown outside it; the Worldwide Web is a global media also used by people for whom English is not their first language - the use of Australianisms or Americanisms may be confusing to them and reduce the useability of your text.
Where images - photographs or illustrations - are important to information delivey, ensure that the graphic is placed 'above the fold' (a newspaper term describing the content visible towards the top of the page when the paper is folded); that is, towards the top of the website page and visible without the viewer moving down the page; use brief, descriptive captions.
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