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.
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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 people¡¯s 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: ¨CSteve 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 don¡¯t 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: ¨CSteve 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 ¨CSteve 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: It¡¯s 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 haven¡¯t 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 aren¡¯t 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 it¡¯s 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