Writing for Usability and Findability
Posted on May 16, 2008
Filed Under Information Architecture, Web Design | Leave a Comment
It seems to me, these days, that real usable content is taking a back seat to whizbang-widget-this-AJAX-that graphic self-indulgence. I’ll be the first one to jump up and down when the subject of good design and solid user experience are on the table. We know, as professionals in the field, that a well-designed, aesthetically pleasing (not overly done) website creates user confidence and keeps them from hitting the BACK button immediately when they find your site. However, the key to keeping visitors on your site is to give them what they came for. Content.
As a somewhat jaded consumer of the web, I tend to have little patience for sites that have little substance beyond all that window dressing. There is a place for sites that entertain, but I’ve got stuff that needs to get done during the day and I want what I came to the site for. Fast, easy to find, easy to consume content. That’s it. No more and certainly by golly, no less.
So after reading an excellent article by Aaron Walter on A List Apart titled “Findability, Orphan of the Web Design Industry”. I decided to publish some tips on how to write for usability and findability on the web. The points I’ll make are pretty common sense, but can act as a checklist for your writing:
- Users instinctively scan the page for visual cues. No one reads every word on every page of a website, especially when they are looking for something specific. Instead, they look for things that will help them find what they are looking for. Headings, bold text, images, icons and navigation items. The search feature of a website is also important in the navigation of a website and shouldn’t be neglected. Organize your content into bite-sized pieces and add headings to them. Bold any key phrases in your content that enhances the meaning of your passage.
- Users will at most read the first paragraph of a section before deciding to move on. If a user thinks they are getting close to the information they want, they will decide whether to stay where they are by reading the first few sentences of that section of your web page. Many successful websites take the journalism approach to writing content. Take the bulk of your content (80%) and summarize it in the first paragraph or two of your copy. Following that, write the rest of your content in descending order of relevance.
- Users prefer Prose over Poetry. Many writers put on their writing hats when they get ready to draft web copy. Users are not reading a business website for entertainment. They are looking for information, quickly and simply. They want to be spoken to in their language and directly, not to have to digest the meaning of what the see on a web page. Write directly and succinctly. Users want you to get to the point, so do it. Steve Krug, an expert in the field of website usability, recommends everyone should “write your content, reduce it by 50% and then reduce it by 50% again.” The rule here is to get your meaning across in the shortest way possible. Use an active voice as much as possible and avoid unnecessary modifiers (“Starbucks serves an inspiring beverage which brings tears of joy streaming down my face.” vs. “Starbucks makes a great cup of coffee which makes me happy.”).
- Avoid unnecessary jargon. Peppering your content with overly complicated jargon presents another obstacle to understanding. That’s not to say that jargon should never be used, it is quite necessary. The idea here is to use it where necessary and maybe include a glossary somewhere on the site that helps explain the term to the layperson.
- Bullets are good. When being presented with a multi-faceted concept, a bulleted list (or any kind of list for that matter) will help the reader scan the information more quickly. Having to wade through lists of information in paragraph form creates an unnecessary obstacle to findability. Use lists when possible. Lists increase people’s ability to scan the content. Also, the act of making lists forces you to keep your thoughts organized and to the point.
- Exploration should be encouraged. Once a user has what they want, they have an important decision to make: what do I do next? A site that encourages exploration gives the visitor more of what they want, that valuable nugget of information. Additionally, the longer users visit a site, the more confidence they have in the site’s owner, the more likely they will come back (user confidence is directly proportional to profit). Encourage exploration. If you refer to a topic that is covered somewhere else on the website, be sure to provide a link to that page. You may want to add a list of related links at the bottom of your content page. Make it a point to help your visitors succeed.
Remember, the more you empower your visitors to succeed, the more confident they are in the fact that you can deliver the goods. Good content writing helps create that confidence.
Information Hierarchy in Design
Posted on April 27, 2008
Filed Under Information Architecture, Web Design | Leave a Comment
For the last couple of weeks I’ve been working on redesigning our company website and we went through the standard process of looking at visual comps, tweaking the design and iterating. One of my challenges was to produce an “academic” design, this was important because we plan on having a rather text heavy site.
Granted, typography is an important thing with our new site, absolutely, but good typography is not enough. You need a solid information hierarchy. Let’s take the following example:
This might be the kind of information you might have if you were going to review a book. If you look carefully, you can figure out the relevant information. You need to think about it a bit, but you can get it. From the type point of view, the font is large enough and there’s ample line spacing. Good? We can make it better.
The idea behind information hierarchy is to create contrast between the bits of information so that they are: A) differentiated and B) easy to pick out when you have repetition. Ask yourself the question: what bits of information are the most important? In the above example, definitely the title of the book and the written review. The author is next and the ISBN numbers are less important. So, to create the hierarchy, we change the type treatments for the different data elements. The title and review are most important and get the boldest treatment. The author is next and the ISBN numbers last (but not least).
So let’s look at the same information with a hierarchy:
Here we increased the understanding (and therefore the usability) by using design elements to create a hierarchy. More specifically, we used color and size to let the viewer know that the two most important parts of this bit of data are the title of the book and the review. The rest is still there, but not quite as important (the font is smaller and the color is light gray which makes it seem less important). When you use this scheme consistently throughout data, you’ll create a repetition in the presentation which increases usability in the long run.