In usability it’s tempting to focus on navigation, look&feel, search, and other elements of the interface and ignore the content. But in the end, the content is really what matters. We have been conducting a quarterly website satisfaction survey for years now, and “content” is always one of the top three dissatisfiers for our customers. Missing content, confusing content, poorly-written content, mis-categorized content, marketing fluff disguised as real content…the list is very long.
That’s why I was excited to see this great article about improving content on the web by Shay Howe: Writing for the Web: The Right Strategy. It’s worth taking a quick peek at. Nothing earthshattering, just some good solid principles to follow when writing for the web. I particularly like his bullets about “writing user-friendly content”:
- Give users a summary
- Get to the point quickly
- Use small sentences
- Limit one thought per paragraph
- Use bullet points
- Use sub headings
- Do not over use exclamations!!!
- Drive emphasis with repetition
- Drop unnecessary adjectives
- Use details, be specific
- Use hyperlinks
- Use a personal tone
- Be unique
- Escape content overload
He also advocates judicious use of fonts, colors, and sizes – things we’ve definitely seen in our research that help focus the customer on what you want him to focus on.
All in all a good reminder that even the best IA and UI’s will fail if not supported by appropriate, good content.
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