CS73N Meeting 12 Notes

Page created by Avron, based on class of 18 May 2006.

Guest Presentation: Writing for the Web

A guest lecture by Chris Madison and Mike Hopkins of Wired Moon. This team has created new websites for several Stanford administrative and academic departments. Their lecture addressed several important considerations in writing for the web, including several examples of good and bad websites to illustrate their points. The slides from their lecture are attached.

Here are a few of the ideas that I got out of the talk. Feel free to add to this list if you remember something I missed.

•  Personas. In your thinking about the users of a website, it is useful to create, for each class of user, a persona or archetype. (This idea comes from Alan Cooper , a famous User Interface wizard.) The persona is someone, real or made up, who brings to mind the characteristics of that group of users. Using the persona in discussing the website helps keep the different users' distinct needs in mind and avoids the common problem of assuming the user is "just like us".
• First impressions. According to an article in Nature , web users judge the value of a site in the blink of an eye.
• State conclusions first. For web readers, the traditional flow of logic in an expository piece, from evidence to conclusion, will not work. Start with the conclusions and the big ideas, and then present the argument, background, and data.
• Islands of content. Since you can't tell how the reader arrives at your site, or where she has been just prior, the web writer has to make sure that each page is put in context. Prerequisite or background information on other pages should be mentioned.
• Information "chunks."  The web reader scans for useful information. A chunk of text (less than 100 words) with a header is a good size element from which to build up your website.
• "Scannable text." Visual elements on the page can help the reader find what he wants easily. Examples of these visual elements include headings, highlighted words or phrase, and bulleted lists.
  
• Think before you link. Don't add an embedded link just because you can. It is not necessary to link to Stanford University every time you mention it, for example. And linking to another site may cause the reader to leave yours, never to return.

Here are some of the on-line resources that Chris and Mike mentioned:

• On Writing Hypertext, kbs.cs.tv-berline.de/~jutta/ht/writing/text.html
• Mark Bernstein's, Ten Tips for Writing for the Living Web
• Jacob Nielsen's website, www.useit.com
•  Rachel McAlpine, Web Word Wizardry, www.webpagecontent.com
• Catherine Titta, Writing Web for the Web; Quick and Easy Tips for Non-Writers