The Web Design Process: Writing for the Web
"Like the clothes a person wears or the atmosphere of an office, we can read a World Wide Web page to reveal the personality of a person or institution... Aside from personality, we can read the Web-ness of a page to see how well the designer understands this new medium. Good, bad, or indifferent, we can read in nearly every page a revelation about the Web."
by Karl Signell, Reading a Web Page
You have two seconds to grab your user's attention.
Composer: You Too Can be a Web Publisher
Writing Example #1 ~ Example #2 ~ Example #3
Your Writing Should Be:
- use consistent font face and sizes throughout the site
- use lots of white space to make it easier to scan the text
- use 40% of the text from the print world version
- short, catchy, descriptive, accurate titles or headings
- simple, direct, active voice, conversational writing - avoid flowery, "marketese"
- use lists, fragments, "chunks of information", and phrases - brief and to the point!
- one point per paragraph - one sentence paragraphs are ok!
- inverted newspaper style - basic facts & conclusion come first
- readable, short words (fewer syllables)
- parallelisms: yes & no examples
- use bold and italics to highlight or emphasize
- use bulleted or numbered lists
- use horizontal rules to set off sections
- use colored text to illustrate
- be true to your reader's needs and expectations
Additional Information:
- How We Really Use the Web (Don't Make Me Think - excerpt)*
- Blurbs: Writing Previews of Web Pages
- Plain English Example
- Guidelines for Writing (with examples)
- Writing Techniques Checklist
- Be Succinct! Writing for the Web
- How Users Read on the Web
- Writing for Hypertext
- Good Documents: Writing for the Web
- Writing for the Web
- Effective Web Writing