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The Web Content Style Guide:
Excerpt
Designing for the Web: Part 3
Structure is
boring, but it works
Website design can be boring, tedious, and monotonous, because for all its
revolutionary potential, the Web is a very functional place.
Classification (directory) design is the science of organizing large quantities of
content in an efficient and intuitive manner so that people can find what they’re
looking for quickly.
Directories will always have some sort of an A to Z classification structure. There’s
nothing wrong with that. People don’t say: “I wish they’d do something other than an A
to Z for a change. Maybe Z to A, or A to L followed by Z to M.”
The reason that people will never get bored with an A to Z directory design is the
same reason they never get bored with street sign design. You don’t hear tourists
complaining that the street signs in such-and-such a country are all the same design.
That’s because the tourist is not there to visit the signs; they’re there to visit the
places on the signs. It’s the same with classification. The classification system is
not what interests the reader; it’s the content that the classification holds that’s
of interest.
People see the Web as one single huge place. What they learn through navigating around
one website, they like to bring with them to another website.
Take hypertext, for example. The original design for hypertext was blue for unclicked
and purple for clicked. People like it because they’re used to it. So when they see a
blue link, they know that’s a part of the website they haven’t been too. When they see
a purple link, they know that’s a part of the website they have visited. Changing the
color of the hyperlinks just confuses people. It’s like having red and green traffic
signals in one part of town, and orange and yellow in another.
The Web is also like a
newspaper
It’s not enough to have a great directory of content for your website. There’s another
key publishing skill that you require. It recognizes the fact that most of the time we
don’t know exactly what content we want when we come to a website.
A study by Xerox Park found that 75 percent of web readers are in ‘content-gathering’
mode, with only 25 percent having a specific document or file that they want to find.
When people come to your website, almost 8 out of 10 of them are saying: “Okay, you’ve
got my attention. Now, tell me something interesting. Any special offers? Any new
products? New features? Inform me. Educate me. Give me guidance.”
This is what newspapers do well. They organize the best and most important content at
any particular point in time, and present it to people in a highly readable format.
The best way to explain this newspaper or editorial-based approach is through an
example. Say you have a problem with the software for your Iomega zip drive. You go to
their website and search for replacement software under the model name “zip 250.”
You will quickly find the page with the appropriate software, which is free. But
beside it is a description of another piece of software that does something special.
One reason you have a zip drive may be because you need to back up your files
regularly in case your computer goes awry or gets damaged. This special software
allows you to point a folder on your computer’s hard drive to the backup disk on your
zip drive.
Having done that, every time you change a file within that folder on your hard drive,
it will be immediately backed up. (How do you find that out? You read it.)
The software you came looking for was free. This special software costs $40. But you
may well pay the $40 willingly. You didn’t even know that this special software
existed before you came to the website. But now that you’ve read about what extra
benefits it can deliver to you, you’ll seriously consider purchasing it.
Iomega recommends IomegaWare software for its Zip 250 product. However,
it also recommends QuikSync 3, which has additional features. This is what ecommerce
is: selling with content.
This is newspaper-thinking design. It’s about laying out content in the right place to
catch the reader’s attention just at the right time. It’s about headings and
summaries—short, snappy pieces of content placed in the right context.
This is what web selling and marketing is about. On the Web you are selling your
organization and products with your content. A newspaper will use a big picture of a
plane crash and a screaming headline to grab attention.
The Microsoft or Oracle website will lead with breezy content on new product releases,
customer case studies, special offers. Their websites are designed in such a way that
they can constantly update content that is fresh, engaging, and calls to the reader to
click for more. It’s like Microsoft Daily or The Oracle Times.
Next: Part 4:
Web layout is simple layout
Previous:
Part 2: Every website is a directory
Part 1 - Part 2 - Part 3 -
Part 4 - Part 5 -
Part 6
The Web Content Style Guide
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Download a free copy of Chapter One: Writing
for the Web, from The Web Content Style Guide
Writing for the Web (PDF 219 KB)
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Reviews for
The Web Content Style Guide
I
will certainly be recommending this book to others
By Malcolm Davison, CEO, Writing For The Web
"This comprehensive and authoritative overview of content management starts with
useful guidelines to writing and designing web material. If only most webmasters would heed the sound advice given here, then web surfing would be a much happier experience
for us all!
Web-Publishing With Ease
By Colin Ong, CEO, MR=MC Consulting, Singapore
"This book is an essential guide in helping people plan an
effective web-publishing presence through a simple A-Z format. The reader can use this
book as a good source of reference. On a personal note, the book has encouraged me to
rethink my portals' attractiveness to my target audience.
It's worth your time and money
By Phil Matous, CEO, Taylor Community Credit Union, Michigan, USA
"The first chapter alone is worth the price of the book. Great ideas on writing
for either traditional or web viewers. Easy to read and insightful."
Book reviews homepage
Buy The Web Content Style Guide
When people come to your
website, almost 8 out of 10 of them are saying: “Okay, you’ve got my attention. Now, tell
me something interesting.
On the Web
you are selling your organization and products with your content.
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