Week 5i: Scannable writing for the Web

In our previous lesson, we looked at two of the key principles of effective writing for the Web. We have looked at the importance of being concise and objective and learnt how we can do that online.



We will next look at another key principle of writing for the Web, and that is writing that is scannable.



Writing for the Web: Be Scannable

It has already been established that people do not like to read much on the screen. They prefer to skim and scan to get a feel of the webpage and to decide if they wish to read on. Hence, it’s important to write text that is easily scannable.

Activity:

Discuss the following:

What is scannable text?
What is un-scannable text?

Try and explain with examples.

How can text be made scannable?


Writing scannable text involves thinking about using:

Microcontent:

Titles & Taglines
Headings and sub-headings
Links



Structure

lists
chunking
inverted pyramid, etc



What is microcontent?

Microcontent is the language of navigation. It refers to short pieces of text that acts as signposts and help online users navigate, ie, it tells you where you are, where you can go to, and how to get there. It includes the following:
Page titles & Taglines
Navigation bars, buttons, links
Headlines
Subheadings
(list adapted from: http://www.aboutpublicrelations.net/ucwylie2.htm)


Microcontent is an important part of web pages. Microcontent needs to be clear to readers. At one glance, readers should be made clear as to what your information (macrocontent) would be, or they will be reluctant to click on your link.

Webpages without microcontent are difficult to navigate especially when the user enters into the middle of the site.


Writing headlines for online sites and for print publications is very different as they are used differently.



(Jakob Nielsen's Alertbox for September 6, 1998)

Looking at:
1. Titles
A clear title is important as the page title is often the first thing users will see. The title is also the text for bookmarks made. Thus, having a unique and informative title will help readers to orientate themselves to your site, as well as make it stand out during searches.


Start your title with your key idea
If you start with your corporate name, keep it short eg CNN: World News



Make each title distinct and short



Make the title reflect the content of the page accurately, as it signals to the reader the topic of the page



If the page is part of a series of pages, use the same term in each title to show the relationship between the pages and use parallelism to make the set of titles consistent eg
Reading guidelines for Students
Reading guidelines for Educators
Reading guidelines for Institutions



The title should be less than 64 characters in length as there is often limited space to display titles in menus, search lists, etc.



Write in plain language: no puns, no "cute" or "clever" headlines. Don’t use teasers that try to entice people to click to find out what the story is about. In print, curiosity can get people to turn the page or start reading an article, but online, uses often don’t have the time to wait for a page to download unless they have clear expectations for what they will get. The point here is to communicate, not to intrigue. So strive for clarity instead of creativity.



Example, “TP News” is better than “What’s up?”


Example,
Page title: Reading your PC
What can this possibly be about? This example from a US paper probably worked fine in print, but not in a listing of headlines on a third-party website.

Example, page title: Sound Card Competition Heats Up
When shown on a computer-related site, this is a great headline. When placed out of context, it would be better to say: Sound Card Competition Increases in PC Market. Note that the page title will still work if the last part is cut off in some listings.

Example, “A sign of attitude" (about cool phones) would have been great in print accompanied by great pics, but would be vague to an online reader. Better to have “Cool phone designs from Nokia”.


Activity: What’s wrong with the following title texts?

The important information on lowering blood pressure.
Why you need to increase your daily fibre intake.
Writing without words.
Introduction
Tired of being tired? Bored of being bored?
How to improve your chances of getting a job.
Page 1
A detailed study of the use of the comma in the English language
Summary
10.Section 6.1

Activity: Provide better titles for the following:


(a) From the menu of a Web store, offering a FAQ using the site:
ScenicSite General User Information
->
FAQ


(b) A 100-page web site with the opening section’s title:
An Integrated Planning Process to Support DOE Missions by Anticipating Customer Needs and New Opportunities in a Competitive Economy”


->
Anticipating Customer Needs in a Competitive Economy

(c) An inspirational message to sales people for the chain of spas called Fit for a New Future, based on the life of Arnold Schwarzenegger, focusing on his individualism, visualization techniques, hard work, and willingness to take risks. Current title:
Poster Publishing Company: Business and Management Books: New Challenges
->
Arnold Schwarzenegger Inspires Fit for a New Future


2. Taglines
A tagline is a phrase that accompanies the Web Site ID. It should describe what you do, what you offer or what you sell. It should be clear and informative, not too long (about 6-8 words), convey a clear benefit and is personable and lively.



Examples:
Vague tagline for IT solutions company: Work wisely (sounds witty on TV but is vague online)
Better tagline: Providing solutions for your small businesses

Activity:
Look at one or two websites and see if the taglines used clearly relate to the company and what it does. How would you improve the tagline, if needed?
Look at some common advertising taglines in the market today. Would they work well on the Web?


3. headings/sub-headings



Activity:
Discuss how headlines for websites and for print publications are different.


Main differences in headlines for online and print texts:


Headlines in web pages are often displayed out of their contexts, ie as part of a search engine hit list, or as part of a list of articles in an email. What this means is that the user often does not have any clear background understanding to help interpret the headline.

At times, the online headline is accompanied by some related content, but the difficulty of reading online and the reduced amount of information available at a glance make it harder for users to interpret the headline fully.



While scanning the list of stories on a news site for instance, users often only look at the highlighted headlines and skip most of the summaries.

In print, a headline is closely linked to the photos, subheadings and full body of the article, which allows the reader to interpret it in a single glance.

For example, the headings below would not work well in online sites, but make sense in the print articles.

Thus, the online headline text has to stand on its own and make sense when the rest of the content is not available. Also, readers can access your material at any point. Good microcontent is easy to understand no matter where it shows up, in or out of context.



The same goes for blogs. Potential readers can access blogs via blog search engines like Technorati. For eg, if you title your blog entry Coming out day to announce your blog to the world, you may attract very different readers! While such witty, snappy titles may work in print texts, they can be misleading in online ones.



Use headings/sub-headings that will make key information obvious. A reader may only spend a few seconds at your site, so make sure that the crucial information is easy to find.




The name needs to be prominent. Use a combination of position, colour, size and typeface to announce that this is the heading of the page.



When readers skim and scan, they pick out keywords, sentences, and paragraphs. Having relevant and meaningful headings and sub-headings help readers to predict and understand the text as they act as signposts along the way. As readers scroll, they often become lost, and headings help to mark the way.

Start a new topic with a heading.

Use two or three levels of headings/sub-headings to help readers build up the structure of content in their heads.

Make headings meaningful, not cute, or clever or metaphorical. Make sure it is relevant to the content.

Make the first word or phrase in the heading reflect the unique content of the section. It should provide a gist of that section.


Activity:
Look at the following passages and see what headings/sub-headings are needed to make the text clearer.


Passage 1
You should invest in bonds. Bonds give your portfolio stability and predictability. The way you earn money from bonds means they will be a good investment for bad times, retirement, or years when you are facing a big tax bill.
When you buy a bond, you are loaning money to a corporation, government, or agency. You get a fixed amount of interest on a regular basis, and eventually, when the bond "matures," you get your principal back. If the organization goes bust, you have first claim on the assets, way ahead of ordinary stock holders. Also: Bond prices tend to go up when the economy heads downhill, because bonds promise steady income.
Bonds are also a good idea if you need regular income. If you’re about to retire, or you need a regular stream of income for other investments, bonds let you predict exactly what you will receive, and when.
And if you want to avoid heavy tax burdens, try bonds, because if you hold bonds for more than a year, you are taxed at a lower rate on any profit you make when you sell them. That rate is known as the capital gains tax, which is usually 20%. Your regular income tax rate is probably 27.5% or 33.5%.


Revised Passage 1
You Should Invest in Bonds
Bonds give your portfolio stability and predictability.
The way you earn money from bonds means they will be a good investment for bad times, retirement, or years when you are facing a big tax bill.


How Bonds Work
When you buy a bond, you are loaning money to a corporation, government, or agency.
You get a fixed amount of interest on a regular basis, and eventually, when the bond "matures," you get your principal back. If the organization goes bust, you have first claim on the assets, way ahead of ordinary stock holders.

If Stocks are Going Down
Bond prices tend to go up when the economy heads downhill, because bonds promise steady income.

If You Need Regular Income
If you’re about to retire, or you need a regular stream of income for other investments, bonds let you predict exactly what you will receive, and when.

If You Want to Avoid Heavy Taxes
If you hold bonds for more than a year, you are taxed at a lower rate on any profit you make when you sell them. That rate is known as the capital gains tax, which is usually 20%. Your regular income tax rate is probably 27.5% or 33.5%.


4. Links and Navigation

You need to think about your audience and the way the Web works when writing your link texts.

Make your links obvious and easy to follow.



Don’t highlight whole sentences but highlight the most appropriate word or group of words that best lets the user know where he or she is heading next.

Also note, it is better to move links to the front or end of the sentence or paragraph.
Example,
There are many soccer sites that cover the background of the Singapore League.
is better than
There are many soccer sites that cover the background of the Singapore League.




Some Web designers feel you should never make a conscious reference to your links, such as:
Click here to learn more about the Singapore League.

Make text link titles clear and informative.
For example, if you wish visitors to learn more about your company, instead of “Overview”, using “Who We Are” is more precise. Use more specific terms like "Company Profile," rather than "More information”.

Repeat the same terms as repetition is important for the language of the Web. Don’t use jobs in one line and positions in another.



Repeat the same words that you use in your link text in the title and body texts of the target page. Repetition also helps users to navigate around your Webpages.


In the following example, note how the same keywords are repeated not only in the microcontent, but also in the text in the target page:

Link text: For our latest noodles, see this month’s noodles list

Title text: This month’s noodles list – Oct 2007

Lead: We now have a new range of reasonably priced Chinese noodles. We have expanded our Chinese egg-noodle section to surpass all our competitors.

Heading text: Chinese noodles


Para topic sentence: Our award-winning Chinese noodles collection has grown again! We now have …

HTML tags (invisible): Noodles, noodle, Chinese noodle, Chinese noodles, egg-noodle, …




Use highlighting and emphasis (bold text) to make important words catch the reader’s eye. You can also use coloured text for emphasis. Note that hypertext stand outs as it is blue and underlined.

To wrap up, here are some useful tips for writing effective microcontent:

-Write short microcontent, which is more scannable. Clearly explain what the article is about in terms that relate to the user. Microcontent should be a very short abstract of its associated macrocontent.


-Make the first word an important, information-carrying one. Make the first word a potential search word to help readers scan for what they seek.



This will result in a better position in alphabetized lists and facilitates scanning. For example, start with the name of the company, person, or concept discussed in an article.



Indexes and other lists are often alphabetical, so skip articles such as “a”, "an" and "the" unless you want your piece to be listed under "A" or "T."
Example, instead of "How to manage the approval process," try "Approval process: How to manage the review system."
Example, instead of “A telecom giant launches new phone designs”, use “Cool phone designs from Nokia”.
Move company and publication names toward the end of the headline or page title. So, instead of "J&B Inc Online Investing", use “Invest Online at J&B Inc”.


-In emails sent from your website, reduce the appearance of spam.
Example, “Check this out!” looks like spam and will likely be deleted unread.

Example,
Email from line: musicblvd@musicblvd.com (this should have included a human-readable name like Music Boulevard Customer Service)Email subject: Your Music Boulevard Order

It would be better to say Music Boulevard Order Shipped to You Today (starting with an information-carrying word and being more precise than the original).
Example,
Email subject: Opportunity (This makes the message seem like spam, and would be deleted unread)
Email subject: Web Design Conference in Norway (This sounds like a conference announcement, and would be deleted unread by somebody who doesn't plan to travel to Norway any time soon.)

Better subject line: Invitation: Keynote speaker at Norwegian Web Design Conference.



-Highlight keywords, not whole sentences (hypertext links serve as one form of highlighting; typeface variations and colour are others)


-Avoid too much microcontent as excessive use of it can overwhelm the reader. Try to limit the number of links, subheads, etc. per page. If you need to create a long list of links or text chunks separate them it into sections with brief subheads.


-Use active words than passive as the Web is a dynamic medium.

One good test to see if you have effective microcontent is to ask yourself:
If the microcontent were the only visible text on a page, would my readers understand what the rest of the page contained?



Note: Writing for Findability
When writing for the Web, another key consideration is to write so that your text can be found.


Unlike print texts such as books and journals that have content pages to help readers retrieve a particular text, new media texts are often ‘found’ via search engines.
Thus, in order to be found amidst the millions of pages in cyberspace, it is important to write for findability (the ability to be found). This is also known as writing for search engine optimization (SEO). You need to write in a way that users will find your text, and following the guidelines above will help.