Writing For The Web

Writing For The Web

TechTransform, June 19, 2001: Here is a 1997 report on one of Jakob Nielsen's studies. Jakob's site is vital for anyone writing for the web, or designing good web pages.

Internet Users Do Not Read Web Pages. They Scan Them

By: Bruce S. Keiffer

President, National Card Systems, Inc

...I came across a very interesting article and credible study done in the SunSoft Science Office during the summer of 1997 by John Morkes and Jakob Nielsen.

Study Purpose:

To determine how users read on the Web and how authors should write their Web pages to reflect the information learned from the study.

Study Process:

To determine this they used five examples using 5 different writing styles in the same website. The example used is a fictitious site called "Travel Nebraska". Their objective was to find out using a controlled study group which writing style was the most effective.

Here are the examples of the styles used. These can all be found by going to http://www.useit.com/papers/webwriting/studyfiles/ as well as at http://www.useit.com/.

Promotional writing style (the control condition in the study)

Concise writing style (50% word count of the control condition)

Scannable writing style

Objective writing style

Combined style (concise, objective, and objective in a single site)

The control group was asked to go to each site and answer questions regarding

Site quality

Ease of use

Site likeability

Summary Findings:

The Combined Style was the favored style. It will be easy to see why when you see the information below.

Measured usability was dramatically higher for the concise version (58% better) and for the scannable version (47% better). And when we combined three ideas for improved writing style into a single site, the result was truly stellar:

124% better usability.

The authors found People Do Not Read Web Pages: They Scan Them.

People rarely read Web pages word by word; instead, they scan the page, picking out individual words and sentences. In their study 79 percent of the test users always scanned any new page they came across; only 16 percent read word-by-word.

As a result, 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)

Here are some other things they learned from the study:

They found that credibility is important for Web users. Credibility can be increased by using:

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. Also, credibility suffers when users clearly see that the site exaggerates.

Why Web Users Scan Instead of Read: 4 Plausible Reasons.

Reading from computer screens is tiring for the eyes and about 25 percent slower than reading from paper.

The Web is a user-driven medium where users feel that they have to move on and click on things.

Each page has to compete with hundreds of millions of other pages for the user's attention.

Modern life is hectic and people simply don't have time to work too hard for their information. If it doesn't come right out at me, I'm going to give up on it."

Kudos to that!!

WRITING ELECTRONIC COPY THAT PULLS

Notes by Riggs Eckelberry

The Key Elements

These are the elements of a Great Newsletter.

1. High Information Value

2. A voice, personality

3. Inverse Pyramid:

intriguing headline,

create interest through controversy or early-adopter enthusiasm,

tease to a response page.

In Response to a Newsletter Draft

Please have the writer review a typical Jesse Berst posting to see how this needs to be completely reworked to be made grabby and teasing.

Right now the tease copy is mush, and so is the article preamble. The core info is good, but how do you get people to it?

You *must* use an approach that gives you a

HOT HEADLINE,

TEASER COPY THAT MAKES THEM FOLLOW UP,

AND CONTROVERSY-GENERATING ARTICLES THAT MAKE THEM REACH FOR A SOLUTION.

Finally, the AUTHORSHIP is personalized to a REAL PERSON with a CONSISTENT VOICE.

The first three items on the checklist are known as "inverse pyramid", and Jesse Berst is the most skilled user of this technique on the Internet today. You will also recognize this from news articles. Also, Drew Kaplan of the famed DAK catalog employed it to lure tech enthusiasts. It's how all good direct mail copy is written.

READ AND APPLY THE JESSE BERST METHOD. APPLY IT. Enough "comfy" writing!!!!

JESSE BERST SAMPLE POSTING

-----Original Message-----

From: owner-anchordesk@email.zdlists.com

[mailto:owner-anchordesk@email.zdlists.com] On Behalf Of Jesse Berst's AnchorDesk

Sent: Friday, April 17, 1998 3:16 AM

To: Team AnchorDesk

Subject: Obscure Proposal Puts You At Risk

__________Berst Alert____________________

HOW A LITTLE-KNOWN PROPOSAL ENDANGERS EVERY

SOFTWARE BUYER. (AND WHAT TO DO ABOUT IT.)

http://www.zdnet.com/chkpt/adt0417ba/www.anchordesk.com/story/story_1992.html

Article 2B, an obscure revision to the Uniform Commercial

Code, would make software companies immune from the

consumer protections that bind most companies. It's

shockingly one-sided. Come to the site and find out

why it puts you in danger and how to stop it before

it's too late.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

JAVA technology is revolutionizing enterprise computing! Get a jump & register now for a Java Business Forum, exclusive seminars for the IS/IT Executive:

http://www.javaexpo.zdcf.com/98show/java_forum/a_desk.html

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

__________Need to Know____________________

EXCITE EXCEEDS -- ORACLE RETHINKS JAVA --

NEW MICROSOFT WEB TOOL -- PC GROWTH SLOWS

http://www.zdnet.com/chkpt/adt0417nk/www.anchordesk.com/story/story_1997.html

EXCITE EXCEEDS analyst expectations with smaller than

expected loss, justifying recent stock price jump.

ORACLE REVAMPS JAVA STRATEGY. Failure of NCs on the

client leads to new focus on the server.

INVESTMENT SITES get new tool from Microsoft. Company

will sell the platform it uses for its own Microsoft

Investor site.

PC SALES GROWTH TEPID in first quarter. Hope is Dell-led

price war in servers may ignite sales in second half.

__________Twitch & Shout____________________

THINK YOU CAN HANDLE THE WORLD'S TOP RACE CAR? PROVE IT

http://www.zdnet.com/chkpt/adt0417ts/www.anchordesk.com/story/story_1996.html

GameSpot's Vince Broady reveals how you can slip behind

the wheel of three extreme PC auto-racing sims --

for free.

__________Pick of the Day____________________

BEST NEW ZIP UTILITY DOWNLOADS

http://www.zdnet.com/chkpt/adt0417pd/www.anchordesk.com/story/story_1998.html

Don't get zapped zipping your files. AnchorDesk Tech

Director Jon DeKeles helps you play it safe with

the six hottest zip downloads.

ZD NET ANCHORDESK with Jesse Berst for Friday, April 17, 1998

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~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

JAVA technology is revolutionizing enterprise computing! Get a jump & register now for a Java Business Forum, exclusive seminars for the IS/IT Executive:

http://www.javaexpo.zdcf.com/98show/java_forum/a_desk.html

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~