Document View

It is amazing how many Web sites score high with regard to appearance, but perform poorly when it comes to usability. The good news is that you don't have to be a usability expert or an information architect to successfully write for or organize Web site content. The key is to organize your information before even one line of code is ever written to develop the site. What used to be the writer's challenge - to keep readers engaged and guide them down the same well-worn linear path that was print media - on the Web is more like pulling users in a particular direction. Good content structure is achieved by how it is written, how it is organized into discrete components and concepts, how these components are associated to one another, and cues for orienting the user.

Thinking about Web site design usually is limited to the "look and feel" of the site-not necessarily how the words or the content is organized on the pages. It is amazing how many sites score high with regard to appearance, but perform poorly when it comes to usability. These sites look great, but people can't easily find and use the information being provided.

I've always wondered how this disconnect occurs, particularly with sites that designers have clearly spent an enormous amount of time and money planning. Why have they failed to apply even the most basic rules for organizing and presenting information? Perhaps it's because the developers of the site aren't the actual content providers or writers who will fill its pages; or maybe the information presented is based on traditional print media rules. Regardless, the end result is a site with poor usability that looks good but doesn't provide sufficient functionality.

WRITING FOR THE WEB

Good news: You don't have to be a usability expert or an information architect to successfully write for or organize Web site content. The key is to organize your information before even one line of code is ever written to develop the site.

Linear versus Nonlinear

Traditional print media generally conveys information in a linear format. Print presentation tends to be sequential and predictable. For instance, books have very tangible structures, with familiar boundaries to facilitate reading-front and back cover, table of contents, pages contained in chapters, and an index. At a glance, we can sense a book's length and its structure. On the Web, without well-organized content written and designed specifically for this medium, cues for structure, breadth, and depth are gone.

Because the Web supports nonlinear presentation of information, users can determine their own path based on hyperlinks embedded in the content. No longer are users confined to moving through the information from beginning to end: The path between beginning and end is in large part user-determined. Even the concept of beginning and end becomes questionable.

With information presentation between Web and print so radically different, this begs the question of whether writing for each medium is different. Usability expert Jakob Nielson has shown repeatedly in studies that Web users skim or scan Web page text rather than read it. If you consider your own browsing behavior, you'll likely agree that few of us spend any considerable amount of time plunked down in front of our PCs reading copy word for word. We scan, peck, and poke. Or when faced with a long document, we print. Reading on the Web can be painful, which is why Nielson and others advocate that the Web does indeed require a very different style of writing, a style that facilitates scanning.

What used to be the writer's challenge-to keep readers engaged and guide them down the same well-worn linear path that was print media-on the Web is more like pulling users in a particular direction. However, this isn't always easy since a user's path to some degree is self-determined. Providing users with a beacon of light to guide their way is done by structuring content to facilitate the journey regardless of path chosen. Good content structure is achieved by how it is written, how it is organized into discrete components and concepts, how these components are associated to one another, and cues for orienting the user. One of the more popular methods to structure content-the inverted pyramid-is based on keeping users "above the scroll," which is a spin on the newsletter saying "above the fold." This simply means providing the most important copy or links first so users don't have to scroll down to find it.

Inverted Pyramid Writing

The inverted pyramid writing method, a traditional approach to journalism and most often used in newspaper writing, can also be applied to writing for the Web. The Web is ideally suited for this top-down approach given the medium's support of content that can be hierarchically structured both in Web page placement and actual page content.

The inverted pyramid method structures content from general to specific, offering readers in the first one or two paragraphs the most important information of the article or story. The inverted pyramid allows readers to move through content at a desired level of granularity which works nicely on the Web given the Web's natural support of additional detail provided hierarchically.

ORGANIZING INFORMATION FOR THE WEB

Learning how to write for the Web is really only half the battle when it comes to organizing your information. Failing to purposefully organize your content in a meaningful way for site users is like leading users down a one-way street with no easy way to turn around or back out. Minimize dead ends and ensure that users have navigable and intuitive paths to follow.

Establishing a Hierarchy

The Web is well suited for creating a structured framework to organize information or information units-also referred to as "chunks." The idea of chunking information simply means that information is offered in digestible, discrete units that can stand alone or be linked together as part of a more comprehensive document. Since most users do not spend time reading long documents on the Web, dividing longer documents into logical units for onscreen reading makes sense. Once organized into these discrete components, the next step is to organize the chunks to facilitate audience use.

Many of us choose to organize our sites hierarchically with the home page as the top-most page of the hierarchy heap. Whether your hierarchy is flat, deep, or somewhere in between is largely determined by your users and their expectations for using the site. Flat hierarchies are analogous to flat organizations, in which communication between the different tiers is relatively direct. When it comes to Web sites, the flatter the structure or hierarchy, the more likely users can jump to content directly from the home or top-level pages. The deeper the hierarchy, the more pages users must browse to get to the needed content. While both structures have advantages and disadvantages, the choice between the two is largely determined by the number and variety of focused topics, the amount of content, and the content's intended application.

Think about and identify any expectations your users might have for utilizing the information found on your Web site. Doing so allows arrangement of the information into a sequence that makes the most sense for users. Predicting how users will interact with a site will ultimately determine how information should be presented, organized, and displayed. You may find that your users actually want to print the information in full and that dividing it into "chunks" is ineffective. Or, users could require a very rigid hierarchy of information units in order to use the information most effectively online and to understand the concepts expressed. Knowing up-front how users will access the site is the key to organizing its content.

Place and Space

Given the nonlinear presentation of information on the Web, it's easy to lose your way as you browse across Web pages and sites. Without some type of structure, users, particularly of very complex sites, become disoriented and frustrated. Often when we think of structure, we think of the actual design of the site and its core navigation if it exists (by core, I mean providing a consistent menu of options as a part of the design that allows the user to move between main areas of the site).

The site's aesthetic design structure should spatially orient your user to the site. However, structure can and should be provided to give the user a sense of "place" regardless of what page they happen to be browsing or what information "chunk" or document they are reading. Spatial awareness orients your users so that they have a better understanding of the Web site as an entire body of information. Awareness of place is more localized-the user is oriented based on how the content of your site is structured-the words, the paragraphs, etc.

Orienting users to where they are within the site-on a specific page of the site, or within a document-requires effective content structure and presentation. While structure provides the framework for organizing the information, presentation is focused on the actual look of the information and the associated cues facilitating reading and browsing of the page. These are the tangible elements that users can readily see to facilitate navigation through the site, such as headers, font faces, etc. Although use of Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) can offer a technical approach to help make some of these style attributes more readily adopted by internal developers and writers, a low-tech way to apply some of these standards is to develop a corporate style guide.

CREATING A STYLE GUIDE TO ORGANIZE YOUR PROSE

Large corporate Web sites are usually the result of many writers and content contributors. In some instances, with a Web Content Management System (CMS) implemented, these contributors are actually publishing pages directly to the corporate site. While a CMS certainly facilitates the use of design standards and workflows among contributors, it does very little to facilitate the actual organization of a Web site's content at the page level. This level of organization really requires human intervention, generally by the contributor, who unfortunately may know very little about writing and organizing content for a Web site.

The development of a corporate style guide can serve as a useful resource for internal contributors. Much as a Web Publishing Guide (see "Creating a Web Publishing Guide," ONLINE July/August 2003) provides guidelines for publishing Web pages as a part of larger corporate Web site, a style guide serves as a resource specific to the writing and presentation of the site's content. Sometimes a style guide already developed and in use by the organization's media or marketing department can be redeveloped to include style guidelines that are specific to Web writing and content presentation.

A style guide cannot make better writers; it can ensure that the written presentation of content is consistent, well organized, and facilitates use by the audience across the entire Web site. After reviewing many different types of style guides and observing some of the issues within my own organization, I have created a few tips for developing your own style guide.

Writing and Organizing Information for the Web: The biggest challenge in working with writers or content providers, especially those who come from a print background, is to teach them to be concise and segment their prose into digestible, bite-sized nuggets that can easily be read and understood on the screen. Obviously the "chunking" method doesn't apply to all types of content, especially articles that are meant to stay intact and read or printed in their entirety. However, learning to logically structure a document for Web reading along with its associated hyperlink references is vital. Major concepts to impart in this section include writing styles, presentation differences between the Web and print, and strategies for delivering content that closely matches user expectations.

Providing Attributes to Segment Areas and Ideas: These are the tangible elements that help users navigate within a page or its content. Elements include use of descriptive titles to facilitate browsing within a list or to provide context for information that may be read apart from its larger body of work; headers to distinguish content sections; typographical cues/elements such as borders and font faces to direct reader attention; and, development oforganized lists to facilitate skimming and navigation (when lists are anchored). All of these elements support the ability for readers to find and scan Web page content.

Navigation Within Web Page Content: Although closely related to the first item, this particular area addresses methods and strategies for user navigation within a focused topic area. Think of an article segmented into discrete elements or of guiding users through information that is segmented, but optimally viewed by sequential browsing. Navigational cues (breadcrumbs) should allow users to move in the desired logical order through a presentation, while appropriate hyperlinks should jump only to pertinent and valuable data. Place less-relevant data at the document's end as "see also" or "further information" references.

Using Corporate Brands and Service Statements: One of the most difficult challenges of managing a large corporate Web site with multiple contributors is minimizing incorrect use of the corporate brand, including product and service names. Another challenge occurs when contributors attempt to write their own narrative to describe the organization, such as its mission and goal, along with some of the more mundane copy, such as directions to the organization's front door. Certainly, it can be valuable to personalize the content; however, a balance is needed between personalizing copy existing on a corporate subsite that ensures the accuracy of the copy as well as its alignment with the larger corporate site. A significant portion of this type of information can be prepared into an internal online media kit and serve as reference for use on the smaller subsite.

Optimizing Metadata for Search Engine Indexing: While much of this column has been about the outward presentation of content, often overlooked are the words we write to describe our pages-the metadata. Important concepts to impart include why metadata is important and what it ultimately means for the indexing of a Web page by both the internal search engine and general search engines such as Google. It's important to stress to site contributors that the inverted pyramid method, while helpful for content readers, is also useful for indexing purposes. Many general search engines use the opening paragraph of a page to cull keywords, to determine relevancy, and as the abstract or summary provided in the search results page following a user query.

Web sites fall short when the emphasis is on aesthetic design rather than the development and organization of the content. What used to be true several years ago on the Web is still true today, "Content is king." Few of us browse the Web looking for pretty Web sites. We browse the Web to find information, make a purchase, or use a service. The aesthetic design of the sites we browse is really just the container holding the purpose for our visit. Appearance is important, but it generally takes a back seat to the reason we are there. As Web site developers, how we organize the content is key for our users; otherwise, we are offering little more than pretty pictures.

Enlarge 200% Enlarge 400%