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

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

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

If professional communicators want I.T. professionals to give them a little more respect, and quit calling their work “fluff”, they need to start adhering to some clear standards and technical rigor. Yes, communications is also a “technical” craft, even though it’s more often included under the heading of “arts” rather than “science”, and as someone who has been a communications professional, I know what kind of discipline, experience and skills it requires.

When I put on my “Web” hat, though, I have to say that I am disappointed at how many communications professionals are making excuses about why they don’t understand the Web, or how they don’t have the skills to develop content for the Web. Maybe some of our older colleagues (50+ years old) who worked in communications before the Internet era can say they haven’t developed the skill set to do Web communications, but it seems that many of our younger communicators (even those in their 30s) should be highly skilled in Web communications by now…yet they are not.

At the risk of offending many of my colleagues in the Communications field, here is an urgent call for the reform of our practices:

• Don’t be intimidated by those in information technology roles who hold highly specialized technical skills - the principles for developing good Web content are the same no matter what technology is used. Learn about what IT people do. Learn the jargon. Keep up on new developments in technology, even if it’s only at a superficial level. 
• Don’t relinquish control of communications work to people who are not communications professionals – whether you know it or not, there are standards and techniques for what you do, and if your colleagues or clients aren’t aware of them, document them and then follow them faithfully. If your communications practice doesn’t demonstrate rigor and discipline, you will never gain the respect of I.T. professionals or senior managers.
• Learn information design. Learn information design.  Communications has become more than just writing, speaking and presenting – it’s also about business, design and technology, all channels for communications. Learn about information design for the Web so that you have a more holistic understanding of everything that impacts Web communications.
• Don’t write for Web the way you write for print. Above all, learn the differences between print and electronic communications, and demonstrate superior skills in creating communications for both media. There is simply no excuse – no excuse – for not having the skills to write for online media. The Web is not a recent phenomenon anymore, it’s a cultural pillar, a leading arrow for change in the way we live our lives and communicate with each other. When it comes to the Web, don’t be a broken link. 

You take your car into the shop every couple of years to get its front end aligned every couple of years, so why not do the same for your Web? In large organizations where departments and divisions develop and manage Web content on their own subsites, some of the greatest challenges are:

1. How to maintain compliance with a consistent look-and-feel across the entire corporate Internet presence

2. How to ensure that users coming into the front end of the site (the homepage or topsite) can find a consistent navigation model, even though each subsite may have very different content and navigation models, and

3. How to periodically undertake design and navigational changes/improvements without having to force the entire organization into a costly and resource-intensive redesign cycle.

As a corporate Web presence grows, all the content management technology in the world isn’t going to save you from content growth issues (“content cramming”) if you don’t have a sound content strategy to govern standards and development of the site.

What do users care that you have new bells and whistles to streamlined content management and document management? Without a content strategy developed by a team consisting of business leaders, communications managers, Web managers and IT managers, your Internet presence can sometimes become a large, confusing cluster of content.

It happens innocently enough. Each subsite continues to develop new content and publish it to their own homepage with little or no governance from a content strategy to tell them how to align with the front end of their site. Pretty soon the entire corporate site starts to look like a home renovation disaster — you know, where someone keeps adding new rooms and wings and features to their home haphazardly until it becomes a monstrosity. You can improve the whole by looking only at one part of the whole.

On the other hand, each subsite within an organization’s Internet presence has to have autonomy to develop and publish content based on its own business drivers and its own content objects. Your shipping division might not be able to use the same kind of navigational cues for its subsite that, say, the accounting department would want to use. Even some aspects of the look and feel need to be different for each to reflect their different functions and makeup within the organization. If you try to universalize everything within the corporate Web site, you’ll have to bring everything down to the lowest, blandest common denominator, and that won’t help your end users. At all.

As many organizations and usability experts are learning, the key is a corporate content strategy with strong executive support, “front end alignment” to make your homepage and other topsite pages consistent for the end user, and a centralized/decentralized content management model that allows content control and scalability, both corporately and departmentally.

If the homepage and other topsite pages are managed centrally by a corporate Web team, these pages can provide a kind of sitemap or guide or index of content to the end users (who usually start with the homepage anyway), while allowing the departmental and divisional subsites to manage their own content in their own way based on their own business drivers. That way, if users can do their wayfinding at the front end or topsite level, they don’t have to worry about knowing how to navigate the many different subsites to find what they want. This also allows you to create a user navigation model that takes a more “outside-in” rather than “inside-out” view.

As well, maintaining key global navigational panels that are applied globally through server-side includes, for example, can help ensure that all pages throughout the site show consistent navigational labeling. This also helps with partial redesigns or refreshes to the site — you can change these panels (such as a header row) centrally and apply them globally without having to require any effort from the departmental subsites.

The front end or homepage is the most important page in terms of its function as a gateway and a guide to all content within the site. It also serves as our visual paradigm for everything else we expect to see beyond that point. While periodic redesigns and revised content strategies are essential as our business evolves, our technology changes and our content expands, sometimes all you need to do is re-align the front end to make sure your corporate Web vehicle is sailing down the highway and not pulling you off the road.