• Home
• About

Writing for Usability and Findability

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.