Do you have any other points you’d add to this chart? Let me know and I’ll credit your ideas on this blog if you want.

Download PDF (72 Kb): Usability Differences Between Web and Print Media

An ocean is never the same body of water because it’s always moving changing, evaporating and being replenished by new rainwater and runoff. Likewise, Internet content is an ocean of information that with content that is evaporating almost as quickly as new content flows into it.

We’ve heard of the deep Web and the invisible Web, private or subscriber-based databases that are not accessible to indexing by public search engines (intentionally or unintentionally), but what about millions of links that are broken when content types or entire Web sites are removed from production? Or domain names that expire?

While we might not miss “Kyle’s Frat Party” site, what about information of value to journalists, researchers and academics? For online journal publishers and academic researchers who cite Internet content in the form of URLs, this is an especially troublesome issue. In 2003, the San Francisco Chronicle reports:

…a growing number of scientists and scholars who are nervous about their increasing reliance on a medium that is proving far more ephemeral than archival. In one recent study, one-fifth of the Internet addresses used in a Web-based high school science curriculum disappeared over 12 months. Another study, published in January, found that 40 percent to 50 percent of the URLs referenced in articles in two computing journals were inaccessible within four years.

ArchiveIt 2.0

One solution offered recently in a July 26, 2006 news release from The Internet Archive, a non-profit organization dedicated to preserving the Web and other digital archives, is the Archive-It 2.0 service, which allows the permanent capture of Web-based information for reference and archival purposes. Existing partners in this effort include the featured collections of the University of Toronto, Indiana University and North Carolina State Archives.

Archive-It 2.0 enables digital archivists, library and museum professionals to create more tailored, relevant and search-friendly collections of up to 10 million URLs based on regular Web crawls across selected websites. Through test crawls, subscribers may see what kind of web material would populate a certain collection before actually archiving them permanently. An optional paid feature within Archive-It 2.0, Archive-It Pro, allows subscribers to not only set caps on how many web documents are collected from a website over time, but also block the collection of materials from specific websites altogether. The digital collections, as a result, are focused and more easily managed, because irrelevant materials do not find their way into an institution’s archives.

Another issue is Web 2.0 sites, Ajax, Flash, and the increasing number of sites publishing information dynamically. Unlike static pages that can be archived as a hard document, dynamic pages feature content on demand that changes based on what information is requested from a database. Most blog sites offer Permalinks so search engines can index a permanent (or semi-permanent) record of journal entries, but as the Goddard Library Web Project discovered in a D-Lib Magazine article published in Nov 2004, the Web is becoming increasingly inaccessible for archival purposes:

We encountered several problems when performing the crawl on the increasingly complex scientific web sites. The most common problem resulted from the increasingly dynamic nature of those web sites. This includes content that is controlled by Javascript and Flash technologies, and dynamic content driven from database queries or content management systems. The crawling tool is unable to crawl a web page containing a search form that queries a database.

ISO Standards for publications

While librarians and Internet archivists try to address the issue of vanishing or inaccessible Internet content, Web site owners and content developers can play a part in helping libraries and archives document and preserve the Web. On Canada’s national Library and Archives site, there’s an excellent paper on Electronic Publishing published in 2001. While this was intended for Canadian publishers, the principles can be broadly applied to any electronic publishers on the Web. This matrix explains the scope of what the document means by electronic publishers.

Serial publications

If you publish an online journal, ezine or other serial publication online, applying for an ISSN (International Standard Serial Number) is a way to assign “a unique code for identifying serial publications, such as periodicals, newspapers, annuals, journals and monographic series” (Canada’s ISSN) and “magazines, newspapers, annuals (such as reports, yearbooks, and directories), journals, memoirs, proceedings, transactions of societies, and monographic series” (the United States ISSN). For serials distributed on the Internet and World Wide Web, the ISSN should appear on the first screen of the item.

While publishers are not legally obliged to use an ISSN, the U.S. site lists the benefits of applying for an ISSN:

The ISSN should be as basic a part of a serial as the title. The advantages of using it are abundant and the more the number is used the more benefits will accrue.

• ISSN provides a useful and economical method of communication between publishers and suppliers, making trade distribution systems faster and more efficient.

• The ISSN results in accurate citing of serials by scholars, researchers, abstracters, and librarians.

• As a standard numeric identification code, the ISSN is eminently suitable for computer use in fulfilling the need for file update and linkage, retrieval, and transmittal of data.

• ISSN is used in libraries for identifying titles, ordering and checking in, and claiming serials.
  ISSN simplifies interlibrary loan systems and union catalog reporting and listing.

• The U.S. Postal Service uses the ISSN to regulate certain publications mailed at second-class and controlled circulation rates.

• The ISSN is an integral component of the journal article citation used to monitor payments to the Copyright Clearance Center Inc.

• All ISSN registrations are maintained in an international data base and are made available in the ISDS Register, a microfiche publication which is scheduled to cease in the near future, or in “ISSN Compact,” a CD-ROM. These products are described in a document maintained by the ISSN International Centre: ISSN products

Individual publications

For individual publications, publishers should apply for an ISBN number. International Standard Book Numbers (ISBN) are 10-digit standard numbers for the unique identification of each edition of a book or other monographic publication (e.g. pamphlets, educational kits, etc.), as per this information on the Canadian ISBN site:

The International Standard Book Number (ISBN) is a system of numerical identification for books, pamphlets, educational kits, microforms, CD-ROM and other digital and electronic publications. Assigning a unique number to each published title, provides that title with its own, unduplicated, internationally recognized identifier.

As content publishers, our sites become part of the ocean of content online. We have a moral obligation to our current and future users to ensure the content we create becomes part of the Internet’s official historical record, good and bad, of humankind.

Get archived! 7 Ways to Keep Your Content from Vanishing

Most Web publishers, including me, are guilty of breaking links or removing content and having readers email you to ask “What happened to that (article/news item/link/download) on your site?”, but here are some steps you can take to help keep your content online and accessible (assuming you want it to be so!)

1. Check your links! This is a no-brainer, but with all the content management, link verification software and other tools available to Web publishers, it’s still a stinky issue. You or your Web development staff should establish link-naming conventions (e.g. Wikipedia’s) to govern the rules of how links are named, which can be followed consistently whether they are being named manually or dynamically.

2. Archive your links. If you really need to remove a link that is still valid, but isn’t relevant/essential to your site anymore, consider creating a Link Archive page where you can move the links so they can still be indexed by search engines and found by your users. Otherwise, create a redirect for old links so they point to a message indicating they are no longer available, or to new pages/content.

3. Archive your old site(s). Redesigning your site? Replacing it with a new version that has new content. Consider leaving the old site on your server in a Historical Site Archive area. If you don’t want search engines to index it and return pages of outdated results to your users, try using a robots.txt file that will exclude the historical pages from spidering.

4. Let the Internet Archive do the work. Read How can I get my site included in the Archive on the Internet Archive’s site. It’s a blast from the past to see older versions of sites going back to the mid-90s on the Internet Archive, and users can link to these pages, too.

5. Let search engines archive your pages. Find out how to ensure that your site is search engine optimized and that pages are not being published in a way that will cause search engine spiders to exclude them from indexing. Search Engine Watch is an excellent resource for SEO, SearchTools.com has some useful information on indexing robots and spiders, and the all-important Google provides guidelines for Webmasters on how to make your site Google-friendly.

6. Open up your content. Mirroring your content on other sites is another strategy for keeping your content alive and accessible. By licencing your content through a Creative Commons licence and/or offering it for republication or repurposing on the Internet, you can help ensure that your content stays alive and accessible. For more information, visit the Open Content Alliance, Connexions, or the University of British Columbia’s innovative Public Knowledge Project.

7. Use Universal Design principles. Last but not least, using Universal Design principles to ensure accessibility to the broadest range of users. It’s not only good from a usability perspective, but also from an archiving perspective.

Garth A. Buchholz, BA, CUA, is a certified Internet business strategist, usability analyst, researcher and publisher at DigitalPractices.

1. The Web Strategy doesn’t follow the Business Strategy.

Whether you’re designing for a Fortune 1000 corporation, a SOHO business, a government agency or a non-profit, your organization has a direction and a purpose, and your Web strategy must reflect and support that purpose. Read The Chemistry of Web Strategy.

2. The Web Design doesn’t follow the Web Strategy.

Assuming your organization has taken the time and effort to develop a documented Web Strategy, your entire Web Design (or redesign) project must be aligned with the objectives of this strategy as it is aligned with your organization’s Business Strategy (see #1 above).

3. No one has developed a content strategy.

Among all the discussions about the site’s presentation design (graphic design), its tools and applications, and its navigational structure, has your Web Design team given any thought to developing a Content Strategy? If your team cannot clearly answers questions such as “How is all the site content being prioritized?” or “What is this content supposed to achieve for us? ” or “Who are the 2-3 target audiences for this content?” then you need to write a Content Strategy or a Content Requirements Plan.

4. Users are not consulted in advance about the Web Design.

Web analytics, surveys, focus groups, use cases, heuristic reviews — these are some of the tools of usability analysis. Often organizations will undertake a major Web Design or redesign project, then afterwards consult their users to try to confirm whether they did a good job designing the site. You can’t please everyone, but once you know how people want to use your site (task flow) and what content and applications are important to them, then you MUST consider these when developing your prototype Web Design.

5. Users are consulted too much about the Web Design.

Don’t be held hostage by user feedback or usability studies, either. When you continue to over-research what people want on your site, you can set up expectations on the part of your users that cannot be reasonably met. As well, you cannot possibly offer everything on your site that users want because the site has to align with your Web Strategy, which has to align with your Business Strategy. (See #1 again)

6. The Web Design is confused with “look and feel”, “colors” and “branding”.

Too often, early discussions about Web Design and redesign centre around “look and feel”. “How will our content fit the new design?” asks the marketing and communications staff. “Let’s not talk about Web Design yet,” say the developers. “Give us a few possible designs,” say the senior executives. If you are leading a Web Design project, one of your first tasks should be making the entire organization know that Web Design is not just about what the site will look like, but also how it will be constructed, how it will be used, and how it will be managed. Yes, branding is a part of Web Design, but it’s not all about branding, either.

7. The Web Design has no muscle.

Web sites that perform tasks for their users must have muscle to do it. That means not just search engines, payment processing, and other applications and databases that make the site work, but also the static content and how its information design helps users with the task of scanning, reading and interacting with content. Sites should be designed based on task analysis and task flow rather than by gathering heaps of content (focus on how it will be used to tell you what will be used).

8. The Web Design has no brain.

Web sites with muscle also have to have a brain that controls the muscle. The brain is the documented site architecture and interaction design — making the site logical and intuitive to most people through the application of best Web practices as well as a by thoroughly following how people want to use the site. The site’s critical navigation design has to be based on task flow so it will make sense to users.

9. The Web Design has no soul.

The soul of Web Design is the collective mass of human beings behind it that may hide behind the “Browser wall”, but nevertheless must imbue the site with humanity and human qualities. A Web Design has no soul if it doesn’t use the language of the marketplace. It will also have no soul if it does not provide ample means for users to contact the Web site’s owners and administrators. And a good Web Design also should have some images of the people who are behind that browser wall.

10. The Web Design is not scalable.

If a single generation of a Web Design cannot be sustained because it cannot accommodate new content and applications without distorting or mangling the original design, then it’s not scalable enough. A Web Design should allow for continuous improvement of the site, a kind of progressive evolution that allows for change as the rule, not the exception. While it’s common to implement minor site design changes through small variations, and to conduct major site redesign every couple of years or so, Web Designers should always be designing for the unforeseeable, the Black Swans, and should always design two years into the future. Not “what we are now,” but “what we will become.”

For more information on Web Design Strategy, contact Garth@DigitalPractices.com.

   What does “Contentology” mean?

In this Manifesto, Contentology is a coined word that, in its strictest etymology, could mean “the science of content” or “the study of content”. The word “Contentology” is supposed to make people stop and think for a moment, and if it sounds absurd, then we have to ask ourselves why it sounds absurd.

Most people presume that the word content means ‘something that is within something else.’ Yet this popular definition creates a tautology: “Content is content that’s inside something that seems to be content.”

Before the Internet became a tool for the masses, “content” or “contents” were simply vague terms for printed copy in a book or a magazine, or the food products inside a can of soup. The popular meaning usually referred to something that was being packaged for consumers, or something that was simply being stored or moved within containers.

Visit the Contentology site

Dlownload Contentology Manifesto

(click on thumbnail image above to view full size diagram)

View full-size diagram 

1. The content strategy determines the function of the etext (how it will be used, read, etc).

2. The function of the text determines how the etext should be designed.

3. The eText design impacts the how the etext can be experienced. (along with other factors such as physical environment, type of screen, etc)

4. The user experience impacts the publisher/user loop and helps determine how content is developed and maintained.

Copyright 2007-2009 Garth A. Buchholz | DigitalPractices All Rights Reserved

For free reprint permission, contact Garth@DigitalPractices.com

However, most people use more than one navigation choice during a single session search for content, and each choice during that session is determined, more often than not, by a specific task flow. For example, if you know what you’re looking for on a retail site, you’ll want to navigate by the product or service categories, but if you encounter problems, you’ll want to navigate by organizational structure (e.g. finding which part of the organization is responsible for a product or service) to seek help.

So in the first case, your navigation is driven by a scenario where you are purchasing something, and in the second case it is driven by a scenario where you are wanting to contact someone or some area of responsibility.  

The chart below outlines some general reasons users make navigation choices, although a more refined analysis can be done when one is looking at specific case studies or organizations. Keep in mind that at any stage of the search, depending on the user’ previous experiences, they may give up and abandon their navigation efforts altogether.

Rather than feeling that their own search/navigation methods failed, or are lacking the necessary skills, most people will instead feel frustration, resentment and even anger, and blame the site design or site administrators for their lack of success.

2. Don’t just “repurpose” documents; write “Webitorial” content. One of the worst things you can do is to simply “PDF” everything. “Repurposing” or means when you repackage a document created for print and simply attach it to a Web site in Word, Acrobat, Excel or other such popular formats. While sometimes this is necessary, it’s the laziest, most ineffective way to put content on the Internet. Instead of editorial writing, write “Webitorial” by re-thinking how the content can be rewritten, laid out and designed in context with its specific online environment.  Read The Challenges of Repurposing and point #6 in this Jakob Nielsen article.    

3. Online content is not just about words. In Latin, content basically means a wrapper that contains something else. It’s images, hyperlinks, applications, streaming media, etc. When you write for the Internet, think “presentation” and “interaction.” Factor in the other content objects that may be part of it. Analyze the environment where the content will be found. If you were writing for a television ad, for example, you wouldn’t simply write text without knowing what audio and visuals will be part of it.   

4. Words are graphical images, too.  The layout of a Web page impacts its readability. People often notice the font style, the color of the text, the size of the text and how the text appears as a visual block or grouping before they actually extract its meaning. Layout and design are critical in a visual medium like the Web, so learn about typography, too.

5. Chunk it out, chunk it down. Even if you’re writing an actual content object such as a Word document or a PDF, content on the Internet has to be easily scannable. Partly because of the Internet and broadcast media, people have far less patience and tolerance for large blocks of narrative text. When you create new Webitorial copy, make sure it’s “chunked out” (broken into smaller blocks of text separated by a break) or, if you’re editing something for the Internet, chunk it down. Another technique is to use bulleted or numbered lists wherever possible rather than embedding this information within a block of text. Remember – if no one reads it, what value will it have? 

6. Write strong meta-text (navigation titles, headlines, subheads, cutlines, labels, etc).  Writing headlines, subheads, cutlines (captions), labels and other “meta-text” (also called metacontent or microcontent) is often the most effective way to make your textual content readable on the Internet. Internet readers have a “search-and-retrieve” mentality – they prefer to scan for the information or keywords or links they need, while bypassing the rest.  Good headlines and content labels also help the reader to cognitively understand the organization and navigation of the content. 

7. Don’t reinvent the wheel – just link to it. How much of your copy could be trimmed down if you simply linked to other Web pages that offered the same information? Here’s my 100/25 rule of content originality on the Web: If the Web were like 12 people having a meeting in a boardroom:  One person would be saying something original; two people would be commenting on it; and nine people would simply be referencing what the first three had been saying. 100% of the content is created by 25% of the people. Readers like to interact on the Web, so give them links as non-linear “rabbit trails” they can follow. 

8. Use the traditional newspaper structure for “inverted pyramid” writing.  In most cases, good Internet writing is like newspaper-style writing because, like newspapers, it’s a fast read, involves a lot of content and has to catch the reader’s attention. Make sure your five W’s (who, what, when, where, why, and also how) are close to the top of the text. Details of lesser importance should follow, from general to specific – that’s why the pyramid is wide at the top and narrow at the bottom.  The idea is this: If the reader only reads the headline, they should have a good idea of what the article is about. If they read only the first few lines, they should have a very good idea of the main points in the article.

9. Make the writing compelling, personal and energetic. Active voice writing is always the best. Use consistent style and conventions. Use “you” when appropriate to personalize the text. Take a stand. Give your writing attitude. People like to read writing that feels truthful, creative, positive and individual. Avoid “marketese” or corporate jargon, but do write promotionally, as long as it’s truthful (if you sound bored about what you’re writing about, the reader will be bored, too.)  You can use “plain writing” style without sounding plain. And most importantly, keep it tight, unpretentious and free of unnecessary verbiage.

10. Know your Internet community. In print, you have to know your readers, and in broadcast, you have to know your audience. On the Internet, it’s also crucial to know your “community” of readers. Are you creating content for a portal? An Intranet site? An opt-in email newsletter? A Web log (blog)? What are their interests? Education? Age range? Biases? And what is their user experience on the Internet site you are writing for? How will they use the information, and how will the other information in that environment be used? When you write for the Internet, you write for a community…one reader at a time.   

Copyright 2006-2009 Garth A. Buchholz | DigitalPractices All Rights Reserved

For free reprint permission, contact Garth@DigitalPractices.com

When Web customers click on a link, that’s an interaction, but when they submit a contact request, that’s a transaction of information – they’re send you their personal “content” and expecting the site to respond accordingly. They’re sharing their personal information and inquiries, and the Web site administrator is providing customer service in return.

Back in the day when the Web was young, most commercial Web sites had very little content, yet never failed to include someone’s name and email address on the homepage. Google forward 10 years later and the “Contact” or “Contact Us” content is most often tucked into the header nav or footer nav. Click on it and you might get a mailform, a simple “Contact our Webmaster” link or, with some serendipity, you may find an actual phone number and mailing address.

A December 2005 Jupiter Research report found that since 2000, the number of sites that responded to email inquiries within 24 hours continued to decrease. Only 45% of sites surveyed responded to email inquiries within 24 hours, and 39% of sites took three days or longer to reply, or did not respond at all.

Last year when I was on the judging panel for the WebAward it struck me that of all the dozens of Web sites I was reviewing – and many of which were award winners in one category or another – it was rare to find a site that had extensive contact and customer service information. Most commercial Web sites, including public sector and NGOs, simply do not provide excellence in “customer service experience” when it comes to their customer contact transactions:

1. CONTACT INFORMATION IS HARD TO FIND.

Contact info is hidden, obscured or limited to a simple “Contact the Webmaster” email link. To improve your site’s usability, make sure visitors can easily find contact information by displaying prominently on the homepage and in all headers/footers. Contact-related content should be transparent, comprehensive and responsive.

2. NOT ENOUGH CONTACT INFORMATION.

If an organization wants to hide, why is it on the Internet? All Web sites should provide at least the names of the key people responsible for the organization and the site, as well as their contact phone numbers and email links. For larger organizations with publicly accessible offices, mailing addresses and street addresses should be provided as well.

3. WEB SITES DON’T RESPOND OR TAKE TOO LONG TO RESPOND.

When a visitor contacts a Web site, the assumption is that a person responsible for the site within the organization will respond to their email at least by the next business day. Getting swamped with emails through your Web site? That’s your problem, not the customer’s. Don’t make your Web customers stand in a virtual lineup all the time just to get a simple email response.

4. WEB CONTACT IS TOO IMPERSONAL AND INTANGIBLE.

After a customer clicks to submit their email, what evidence do they have of their transaction? The Jupiter Research report found that, of 92% of Web sites offering email as a customer support option, only 41% acknowledged receipt of customers’ messages with automated email responses. Also, in autoresponse emails and tracking emails, more sites should include a unique customer service number for tracking as well as an email address and/or telephone number as well as a customer service manager’s name that they can contact if they are not satisfied with the service they are receiving.

5. CUSTOMER SERVICE EXPERIENCE IS POOR WHEN SITES RESPOND TO WEB CONTACT TRANSACTIONS.

Make sure the follow-up to Web site contact transactions is friendly, personal (include a service agent’s first name and contact information) and effective. If it seems a request cannot be resolved by email, provide the customer with a way to elevate the request so that the issue/request can be resolved.

Garth A. Buchholz, BA, CUA, is an author, educator and Web strategist at DigitalPractices. Contact Garth at [250] 589.5898 or email Garth@DigitalPractices.com.