Creating scannable text
Web pages have to employ scannable text, using:
- highlighted keywords (hypertext links serve as one form of highlighting; typeface variations and color are others)
- meaningful sub-headings (not
clever
ones) - bulleted lists
- one idea per paragraph (users will skip over any additional ideas if they are not caught by the first few words in the paragraph)
- the inverted pyramid style, starting with the conclusion
- half the word count (or less) than conventional writing
Credibility is important
Credibility can be increased by high-quality graphics, good writing, and use of outbound hypertext links. Links to other sites show that the authors have done their homework and are not afraid to let readers visit other sites.
Users detested marketese
; the promotional writing style with boastful subjective claims (hottest ever
) that currently is prevalent on the Web. Web users are busy: they want to get the straight facts.
Measuring the Effect of Improved Web Writing
The effect of some of the content guidelines is significant:
- Promotional writing (control condition) - Usability Improvement 0 %
- Concise text - Usability Improvement 58 %
- Scannable layout - Usability Improvement 47 %
- Objective language - Usability Improvement 27 %
- ombined version - Usability Improvement 124 %