Create usable writing
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People rarely read sites word by word. Instead, they scan pages quickly because they have a specific task or need in mind.
Create usable writing
- 1. Create usable writing Mindy Messenger @messemi
- 2. Content strategy plans for the creation, publication, and governance of useful, usable content. Kristina Halvorson
- 3. What is usable content?
- 4. Good web writing Is like a conversation Answers peoples questions Lets people grab and go Ginny Redish Letting Go of the Words
- 5. Omit needless words Strunk & White The Elements of Style Tip 1:
- 6. A sentence should contain no unnecessary words, a paragraph no unnecessary sentences, for the same reason that a drawing should have no unnecessary lines and a machine no unnecessary parts. Strunk & White The Elements of Style
- 7. I find I have no trouble getting rid of half the words on most Web pages without losing anything of value. Steve Krug Don't Make Me Think: A Common Sense Approach to Web Usability
- 8. Clarity, brevity, and structure apply to all good writing.
- 9. Watch for qualifiers very really just quite maybe slightly a bit somewhat perhaps
- 10. Watch for prepositions of in to for with on at from by about
- 11. Watch for adverbs boldly cheerfully dramatically happily inquisitively politely quickly rarely silently warmly
- 12. Watch for passive voice Passive At dinner, six fish were eaten by the turtle. The bike was repaired by Sarah. Active The turtle ate six fish. Sarah repaired the bike.
- 13. Make your copy scannable Tip 2: Steve Krug Don't Make Me Think: A Common Sense Approach to Web Usability
- 14. Steve Krug Don't Make Me Think: A Common Sense Approach to Web Usability
- 15. Eyetracking visualizations show that users often read Web pages in an F-shaped pattern. Jakob Nielsen http://www.nngroup.com/articles/f-shaped-pattern-reading-web-content/
- 16. This implies Visitors dont often read word by word Important info should be first Headings, paragraphs, and bullet points should start with key words
- 17. We live in a world where good Web content is chunky content.
- 18. Chunky checklist Use headings and subheadings Put important info first Shorten sentences and paragraphs Use bulleted or numbered lists
- 19. Isla McKetta, Moz http://moz.com/blog/evaluate-content-quality-the-easy-way
- 20. Test readability Tip 3: Steve Krug Don't Make Me Think: A Common Sense Approach to Web Usability
- 21. Reading ease tests readability-score.com Thanks for the text, Hipster Ipsum! http://hipsum.co/
- 22. Formulas all the way down Flesch-Kincaid grade level Gunning fog index Automated Readability Index
- 23. Cloze test Cloze test generator: http://l.georges.online.fr/tools/cloze.html
- 24. Cloze test Stephen Hawking A Brief History of Time
- 25. Bonus tip: Write for your responsive theme
- 26. In a responsive theme, it becomes more important to chunk your content into shorter paragraphs with headings.
- 27. Responsive checklist Preview in phone and tablet sizes Use compressed images Avoid tables Make your content chunky
- 28. Tip 4: Measure & assess Steve Krug Don't Make Me Think: A Common Sense Approach to Web Usability
- 30. And your social metrics Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint_Dashboard
- 31. Measure your content based on metrics you deem important. Then try something new and measure again.
- 32. Understand the rules, then break them Tip 5:
- 33. Thank you! Follow up questions welcome: @messemi mlm3@uw.edu
Editor's Notes
- #5: Its a conversation, not rambling but focused conversation started by a busy person People come to your site because they are looking for information that helps them make a decision or complete a task easy to find and easy to understand accurate, up to date and credible Grab & go means they can read pieces and get what they need without needing to read an entire manual
- #8: Krug recommends removing half the words, though he admits that saying half is just his way of being ruthless about editing.
- #9: I think web writing principles (clarity, brevity, structure) apply to all writing. But that brevity should never come at the expense of user experience. You havent written good content, no matter how short, if your user later ends up lost, surprised, or on the phone for missing info.
- #10: Often we use qualifiers that really arent necessary to express our meaning (such as really in this sentence).
- #11: Though prepositions are helpful, they make sentences longer because they cannot stand alone. By cutting the preposition and the words that follow, you often cut three to five supporting words.
- #12: Adverbs weaken your copy because they are usually not as descriptive and powerful as active verbs.
- #13: Passive is more verbose, plus its often harder for non-native English speakers to understand.
- #22: One caveat is that these are formulas based on words per sentence and syllables per words - meaning gibberish can still be a decent reading level.
- #32: Story about headlines and trying new words and patterns. Longform vs shortform