Letting Go of the Words

Praise for Letting Go of the Words

Letting Go of the Words

Copyright

Dedication

Contents

Foreword

Acknowledgments

Introducing Letting Go of the Words

What’s new?

What’s the book like?

Letting Go is about writing and design, not technology

Letting Go includes many examples

Letting Go reflects user-experience design

You can jump around in the book

Let’s continue to converse

1 Content! Content! Content!

People come for the content

Content = conversation

Web = phone, not file cabinet

Online, people skim and scan

People do read online – sometimes

People don’t read more because …

Writing well = having successful conversations

Answer your site visitors’ questions

Let your site visitors “grab and go”

Encourage further use

Market successfully to your site visitors

Improve search engine optimization (SEO)

Improve internal search

Be accessible to all

Three case studies

Case Study 1-1: Conversing well with words

Case Study 1-2: Conversing well with few words

Case Study 1-3: Revising web words

Summarizing Chapter 1

2 Planning: Purposes, Personas, Conversations

Why? Know what you want to achieve

Focus on what you want your site visitors to do

Be specific

Think of SEO

Think of universal usability

Know your purposes for everything you write

Who? What’s the conversation?

We all interpret as we read

You can find out lots about your site visitors

1. Gather information about your site visitors

2. List groups of site visitors

3. List major characteristics for each group

Key phrases or quotes

Experience, expertise

Emotions

Values

Technology

Social and cultural environments and language (“context of use”)

Demographics

4. Understand the conversations they want to start

Don’t translate

Analyze site searches

Breathing life into your data with personas

What is a persona?

What makes up a persona?

Picture and name

Demographics

Quotes, values, stories, tasks, and more

How many personas?

How do personas work with a web team?

Breathing life into your data with scenarios

How long? How many?

Scenarios for whom?

How do scenarios relate to content?

Summarizing Chapter 2

Interlude 1 Content Strategy

Why is content strategy so important?

What is content strategy?

Content strategy is about governance

Content strategy is about messages, media, style, and tone

Content strategy is about people, processes, and technology

Content strategy is about purposes, personas, and scenarios

Content strategy supports and carries out business strategy

What does content strategy cover?

Content strategy includes all communication channels

Social media strategy is part of content strategy

Who does content strategy?

Seven steps to carry out a content strategy

1. Inventory the current content

2. Decide on messages, media, style, and tone

3. Start an organic style guide – anduse it

4. Create workable designs that focus on content

5. Audit the current content – and act on the audit

6. Test the strategy

7. Plan for the future

3 Designing for Easy Use

Who should read this chapter – and why?

Integrate content and design from the beginning

Answer content and design questions together

Use real content throughout the process

Build in flexibility for universal usability

Make adjusting text size obvious

Make all the text adjust

Allow other changes – contrast, keyboard, voice, and more

Check the colors for color-blind site visitors

Think about the cultural meaning of colors

Color

1. Work with your brand colors

2. Use light on dark sparingly

3. Keep the background clear

4. Keep the contrast high

Space

1. Create consistent patterns

2. Align elements on a grid

3. Keep active space in your content

4. Beware of false bottoms

5. Don’t let headings float

6. Don’t center text

Typography

1. Set a legible sans serif font as the default

2. Make the default text size legible for your visitors

3. Set a medium line length as the default

4. Don’t write in all capitals

5. Underline only links

6. Use italics sparingly

Putting it all together: A case study

Case Study 3-1: Revising a poorly designed web page

Summarizing Chapter 3

4 Starting Well: Home Pages

Home pages – content-rich with few words

1. Be findable through search engines

Your keywords must match searchers’ keywords

Gaming the system doesn’t work

Remarkable content matters

2. Identify the site

3. Set the site’s tone and personality

4. Help people get a sense of what the site is all about

5. Continue the conversation quickly

Focus on your key visitors and their key tasks

Case Study 4-1: Focusing on personas and tasks

Let people start major tasks on the home page

Make sure the forms are high on the page

Don’t put unnecessary forms up front

6. Send each person on the right way

Put Search near the top

Use your site visitors’ words in your links

In mobile versions, strip down to the essentials

Summarizing Chapter 4

5 Getting There: Pathway Pages

1. Site visitors hunt first

2. People don’t want to read while hunting

Case Study 5-1: Making links clear on a pathway page

3. A pathway page is like a table of contents

Watch the jargon

Don’t assume a picture is enough

Write in fragments

Case Study 5-2: Getting people to the links quickly

5. Three clicks is a myth

Don’t make people think

Keep people from needing to go back

6. Many people choose the first option

Summarizing Chapter 5

6 Breaking up and Organizing Content

1. Think “information,” not “document”

Need: Right information in the right amount

Problem: Little pieces of paper get lost too easily

Solution: Online, “index cards” work well

2. Divide your content thoughtfully

Divide web content by questions people ask

Divide web content by topic or task

Divide web content by product type

Divide web content by information type

Separating and linking related information

Moving the conversation ahead through related links

Meshing marketing calendars and editorial calendars

Divide web content by people

Dividing by people on the home page

Dividing by people below the home page

Divide web content by life event

Divide web content by time or sequence

3. Consider how much to put on one web page

What does the site visitor want?

How long is the page?

What’s the download time?

How much do people want to print?

What will I do for small screens – and for social media?

4. Use PDFs sparingly and only for good reasons

Never say “never”

When might a PDF file be appropriate?

Sometimes, having both PDF and HTML is best

When is a PDF file not appropriate?

When people don’t want the whole document

When people are mostly on mobile devices

When people don’t want to print

When people are not comfortable with PDF files

When people need accessible information

Why else is a PDF not appropriate?

PDF files are optimized for the printed page

PDF files usually come from paper documents

Summarizing Chapter 6

7 Focusing on Conversations and Key Messages

Seven guidelines for focusing on conversations and key messages

1. Give people only what they need

Revising content you already have

Writing new content

Case Study 7-1: Using personas and their conversations to plan your content

2. Cut! Cut! Cut! And cut again!

3. Think “bite, snack, meal”

4. Start with your key message

Key message first = inverted pyramid style

Eye-tracking shows the need for key message first

5. Layer information

Layering with an overlay

Layering with progressive disclosure

Case Study 7-2: Opening layers on the same web page

6. Break down walls of words

Case Study 7-3: Breaking down walls of words made the difference!

7. Plan to share and engage through social media

Summarizing Chapter 7

Interlude 2 Finding Marketing Moments

Marketing on the web is different: Pull not push

Join the site visitor’s conversation

Find the right marketing moments

Don’t miss good marketing moments

Never stop the conversation

8 Announcing Your Topic with a Clear Headline

Seven guidelines for headlines that work well

1. Use your site visitors’ words

2. Be clear instead of cute

3. Think about your global audience

4. Try for a medium length (about eight words)

5. Use a statement, question, or call to action

6. Combine labels (nouns) with more information

7. Add a short description if people need it

Summarizing Chapter 8

9 Including Useful Headings

Good headings help readers in many ways

Thinking about headings also helps authors

Eleven guidelines for writing useful headings

1. Don’t slap headings into old content

2. Start by outlining

3. Choose a good heading style: Questions, statements, verb phrases

Questions as headings

Answer your site visitors’ questions

Case Study 9-1: Answering your site visitors’ questions

Statements as headings

Verb phrases as headings

4. Use nouns and noun phrases sparingly

Sometimes a label (a noun) is enough

But nouns often don’t explain enough

Case Study 9-2: Turning nouns into better headings

5. Put your site visitors’ wordsin the headings

6. Exploit the power of parallelism

7. Use only a few levels of headings

8. Distinguish headings from text

9. Make each level of heading clear

10. Help people jump to content within a web page

Put same-page links first under the headline

Don’t put off-page links at the top of the content area

Don’t put same-page links in the left navigation column

11. Evaluate! Read the headings

Summarizing Chapter 9

Interlude 3 The New Life of Press Releases

The old life of press releases

The new life of press releases

How do people use press releases on the web?

Story 1: Press release as summary

Story 2: Press release as fact sheet

Story 3: Press release as basic information

Story 4: The press call up

What should we do?

Write for the web

Think about visuals as well as words

Plan for mobile and social media

Does it make a difference?

10 Tuning up Your Sentences

Ten guidelines for tuning up your sentences

1. Talk to your site visitors – Use “you”

Use the imperative in instructions

Use “you” throughout

Case Study 10-1: Addressing the reader directly

Use “you” to be gender-neutral

Use appropriate gender for specific people

Converse directly even for serious messages

2. Use “I” and “we”

Be consistent in how you use “I,” “you,” and “we”

When the site visitor asks the question

When the site asks the question

In blogs and social media, “I” is fine

For your own work, “I” is fine

For an organization, use “we”

3. Write in the active voice (most of the time)

Case Study 10-2: Writing in the active voice

4. Write short, simple sentences

Very short sentences are okay, too

Fragments may also work

Busy site visitors always need clear writing

5. Cut unnecessary words

6. Give extra information its own place

Case Study 10-3: Untangling a convoluted sentence

7. Keep paragraphs short

A one-sentence paragraph is fine

Lists or tables may be even better

8. Start with the context

Case Study 10-4: Starting with the context – the topic

9. Put the action in the verb

10. Use your site visitors’ words

Write for your site visitors

Know your site visitors

And always use plain language

Summarizing Chapter 10

11 Using Lists and Tables

Six guidelines for useful lists

1. Use bulleted lists for items or options

2. Match bullets to your site’s personality

3. Use numbered lists for instructions

Turn paragraphs into steps

For branching, consider a table under the step

Show as well as tell

Use numbered lists for noninstructions thoughtfully

Case Study 11-1: Using both bulleted and numbered lists

4. Keep most lists short

Short (5–10 items) is best for unfamiliar items

Long may be okay for very familiar lists

5. Try to start list items the same way

6. Format lists well

Reduce space between the introduction and the list

Put space between long list items

Wrap lines under each other

Put what happens on a line by itself

Lists and tables: What’s the difference?

Six guidelines for useful tables

1. Use tables for a set of “if, then” sentences

2. Use tables to compare numbers

3. Think tables = answers to questions

4. Think carefully about the first column

Case Study 11-2: Knowing when to use a table

5. Keep tables simple

How many columns?

Consider web constraints

Consider site visitors’ conversations

How many rows?

6. Format tables well

Reduce lines: Help people focus on information

Line up columns: Don’t center text in a table

Summarizing Chapter 11

Interlude 4 Legal Information Can Be Clear

Accurate, sufficient, clear – You can have all three

Avoid archaic legal language

Avoid technical jargon

Use site visitors’ words in headings

Follow the rest of this book, too

Case Study 4-1: Putting it all together

12 Writing Meaningful Links

Seven guidelines for writing meaningful links

1. Don’t make new program or product names links by themselves

2. Think ahead: Launch and land on the same name

3. For actions, start with a verb

4. Make the link meaningful – Not Click here or just More

Click here is not necessary

More or Learn More by itself isn’t enough

Say what it’s “more” about

5. Don’t embed links (for most content)

If people are browsing, embedding may be okay

Put links at the end, below, or next to your text

6. Make bullets with links active, too

7. Make unvisited and visited links obvious

Use your link colors only for links

Show visited links by changing the color

Summarizing Chapter 12

13 Using Illustrations Effectively

Five purposes that illustrations can serve

Exact item: What do customers want to see?

Self-service: What helps people help themselves?

Showing options visually

Connecting paper documents to online forms

Process: Will pictures make words memorable?

Charts, graphs, maps: Do they help site visitors get my message?

Let people decide how much to see

Show numbers in charts – with a key message title

Follow principles of good data reporting

Mood: Which pictures support the conversation?

Match photos to your messages

Think about what the photo is saying

Seven guidelines for using illustrations effectively

1. Don’t make people wonder what or why

2. Choose an appropriate size

Don’t let large pictures push content down too far

Make sure small pictures are clear

3. Show diversity

To represent your site visitors, think broadly

Show your internal diversity, but be truthful

Test! Test! Test!

4. Don’t make content look like ads

5. Don’t annoy people with blinking, rolling, waving, or wandering text or pictures

6. Use animation only where it helps

7. Make illustrations accessible

Make ALT-text meaningful

Summarizing Chapter 13

14 Getting from Draft to Final

Read, edit, revise, proofread your own work

Think of writing as revising drafts

Read what you wrote

Check your links

Check your facts

Let it rest

Why let it rest?

What should you do after your draft has rested?

Read it out loud

Use dictionaries, handbooks, style guides

Run the spell checker but don’t rely on it

Proofread

Share drafts with colleagues

Accept and learn from the process

Work with colleagues to fit the content strategy

Share partial drafts

Have someone read it out loud

Ask what your key message is

Pay attention to comments

Put your ego in the drawer, cheerfully ?

Walk your personas through their conversations

Let editors help you

Get help with the details

Get help with the big picture

Negotiate successful reviews (and edits)

Setting up good reviews

Meet with reviewers at the beginning

Practice the doctrine of no surprise

Help your reviewers understand good web writing

Getting useful information from reviewers

Tell reviewers when the schedule changes

Give reviewers a “heads up” a few days in advance

Make your expectations clear

If you have specific needs, let reviewers know

Using reviews well

Don’t get defensive

Don’t automatically accept changes

Rewrite to avoid misunderstandings

Persuade

Negotiate

Communicate

Summarizing Chapter 14

Interlude 5 Creating an Organic Style Guide

Use a style guide for consistency

Use a style guide to remind people

Don’t reinvent

Appoint an owner

Get management support

Make it easy to create, to find, and to use

15 Test! Test! Test!

Why do usability testing?

What’s needed for usability testing

What’s not needed for usability testing

How do we do a usability test?

What most people do

Even quicker: “A morning a month”

What variations might we consider?

Remotely, with a facilitator

Remotely, without a facilitator

Testing around the globe

Testing in a group setting

Fielding alternatives (A/B testing)

Why not just do focus groups?

What does a focus group need?

Why isn’t a focus group the best technique?

Can we combine usability testing and focus groups?

A final point: Test the content!!

For More Information – A Bibliography

Some useful articles,blog posts, and books

A few of many useful web sites

Some older research that’s still valuable

Subject Index

A

B

C

D

E

F

G

H

I

J

K

L

M

N

O

P

Q

R

S

T

U

V

W

Y

Index of Web Sites Shown as Examples

A

B

C

D

E

F

H

I

K

L

M

N

O

P

R

S

T

U

V

W

Y

Z

About Ginny Redish