Usability – designing for people

Writing for the Web presents a unique set of challenges compared to writing for print. This has lead to the emergence of Web copywriting specialists who know how to communicate with impatient surfers as well as structure and format copy for on-screen reading and search engine optimisation.

Copywriters need to be Web savvy; studies have shown that users read Web pages in a particular way: they scan text for highlighted keywords, paragraphs are skipped over, attention spans are notoriously short and they won’t hesitate to click and leave if they get bogged down be text or can’t find the information they are looking for.

Here are some basic tips for Web writing:

• Consider SEO requirements when composing copy
• Use the journalistic style inverted pyramid; open with a conclusion, then drill down to more detail
• Be super concise and keep the word count down
• Highlight key words and phrases
• Use one subject or discussion point per paragraph
• Include meaningful sub-headings to break up the text
• Make good use of bullet-point lists to distill information out of verbose paragraphs, into summary lists
• Write meaningful link text that makes sense when user scan the page
• Use hyperlinks to cross-reference pages of related information on the same or other sites
• Tone down the marketing hype; people are particularly suspicious of this on Web sites

Writing for the Web now has to include important interactive and search marketing influenced details such as: link text, page titles, META tags and pay per click ad copy. Some specialised Web writing skills have therefore emerged:

SEO copywriting involves tuning content, page titles and META tags to match, while achieving optimum keyword densities and making sure everything – particularly page titles – are human readable as well as SEO friendly. Page titles (the HTML <title> tag) are particularly important due to the weight they carry in search rankings and the influence they have on user click-through rates.

Pay per Click ad copy writing is even more of a challenge – both keyword tuning and human reading factors need to be absolutely right. You also have to plan copy variations for split testing and ensure keyword relevance so ad copy and landing page match user expectations.

Good copywriters are worth their weight in gold and appropriate Web copywriting skills are no less important.

It is also interesting to note that – for better or worse – the reading habits of emerging generations of Web users may be affected to the point that print-based writing will start to adopt the characteristics of Web writing and this could, in time, affect how print copy needs to be written.

This might not be a good thing. If it does happen, blame the Web.

Good web site accessibility should be a no-brainer for designers and coders. There are many people who struggle to use web sites for a variety of reasons – vision impairment, colour perception problems, hand/eye co-ordination difficulties, motor nerve problems, the need to use alternative input devices, and so on.

Even if the affected people are deemed to be a small minority – not as small as you might suspect – effectively turning away even a small percentage of users is bad business.

Nobody should be excluded due to poor web site design and every effort should be made to make web sites as accessible as possible.

This is not just a moral responsibility, it’s good business to welcome everyone regardless of ability. The bonus payoff is that people lucky enough not to have a disability are likely to find accessible sites much easier to use as a result.

Can you get great design and good accessibility? It might prove more of a challenge, but it should be well within the capabilities of any good designer. The coding element of making web sites accessible is probably even easier, provided time and budget will accommodate the extra work.