Petersen:
Once the audience has been decided and information gathered, writing for them can be easier. As most college students, 80% of readers look at only the summary instead of the entire article. By remembering that readers scan websites for information instead of reading long paragraphs of content, it would seem that a presentation style of listing information in bullets and short sentences would better convey the information. In the same vein, all graphics will need captions with the same concise language.
The inverted pyramid design is definitely something to take away from this reading. Start with the conclusion, then the more important content.
Nielsen:
This article brings up several very good points about writing for the web that I had not thought of. First of all, not using words that are specific to web use came as a surprise to me. It does make sense, however, because not using these words adds a sense of professionalism to the website. Also, at least half of all users of a site will come from a search engine. This means they will already have some knowledge of the site's purpose and content.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Now you, as the designer, get to think of ways to keep your audience and user base knowing they are quick to distract and move away. How will you entice them to return? How will you get them to give more than half a minute of their time?
ReplyDelete