Writing for the Web


How is writing for the web different than writing for print?

Design

Readers cannot leaf through a website in the same way they fold out a brochure or turn pages in a catalogue. Online, information is presented, one screen at a time. There are constraints to formatting for the web, but there are also opportunities to do things that are impossible in the print medium.

Content

Knowing that web readers have a tendency to scan, rather than read, text is formatted using techniques that work with that. Information is structured in a hierarchy of nested pages, the navigation of which makes intuitive sense to the reader.

Reader Impatience

Ergonomics
The effort required to sit upright in a chair reading off a monitor means that online reading is less comfortable.

Text clarity
     • print text (600 to 6,000 dpi) is a smooth read
     • web text is viewed onscreen at only 72 dpi.
You might not be consciously aware of it, but this means the letters have jagged, pixelated edges ...you have to work harder.

One Click Exit
Bored, frustrated, impatient? We don't even have to get out of our chair ....a million other websites are just one click away.


Web Writing Tips

Structure

Organize your content by:

  • consulting potential viewers re their intuitive logic for content
  • presenting the big picture first
  • nesting content in a hierarchy of sub-pages that incorporates intuitive logic
  • thinking in terms of headlines with short descriptive paragraphs or bulleted lists of points linking to more in-depth material and further details.

Navigation

Ensure your readers stay in control of the experience by creating clear navigational links that let them decide where they are going next, including backing up and retracing their steps.

Simplicity
  • keep in mind that web surfing is an international activity – half of all surfers have English as a second language
  • use the simplest and most obvious language
  • avoid regional idioms, slang, and bureaucratic language
  • use a conversational tone
  • keep sentences and paragraphs short
  • chunk content
  • cut excess verbiage
  • use meaningful, not clever, heads and sub-heads
  • keep the width of the text line shorter than the screen width – never make your reader scroll horizontally
  • use bullets and lists

Graphics

  • most of the world continues to access the web through dial up accounts so keep an eye on the download time when designing
  • optimize graphics/images for the web to create the fastest possible download
  • use drawings, graphs, charts, and photos that illustrate your content

Opportunities

Interactivity

  • easy access to interact via email links
  • fill in forms for surveys, quizzes, questionnaires
  • triaging styles of customizing content

    Unlimited Real Estate

    While we know that web readers are impatient, we also know they have high expectations. The want access to everything ...

Example:
Jo’s original purpose in clicking onto the cross-country bus schedule might have been to find out when it leaves on Thursday. But once there she also wants to know:

  • how much it costs
  • if there are special price offers if she travels at off-times
  • how many stops the bus will make
  • what movies are being shown
  • where the bus depot in Thunder Bay is located.

The answer to respecting readers impatience at the same time you offer them everything they want to know is a nested hierarchy of pages with clear and intuitive navigational links.

Moving Pictures

If you know that your targeted audience has high-bandwidth access, animations, audio and video clips offer an unprecedented opportunity to inform and/or entertain through sound and moving images.

First we had photographs, then we had video. First we put words on paper, now we post to the web. While each medium has its place, the opportunities offered by web-based communications and video technology take human interaction and communication to a whole new level.

Crackling Communications understands the complex factors that feed into effective web-based communication and is ready to take your website into a new dimension.

Carolyn Usher

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Viewers are welcome to reprint and use articles for educational purposes, with the proviso that authorship, copyright, and source website, www.cracklecom.com, are clearly attributed in print.