Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Class Notes
-Planning Multimedia Stories
- Writing for the Web
February 5, 2009
For Tuesday, Feb. 10
Go to http://newsvoyager.com and
http://newsdirectorycom
Find two newspaper websites and two TV websites
Write 300-400 post for your blog analyzing the website
using the following criteria:
Content: Does the website follow any of the rules on
writing for the web?
Functionality: Is the website easy to use?
Navigation: How easy can you find content on the
site?
Audio/Video Quality: Is there any? Is it useful?
Interactivity: How does it engage readers?
Style Tips
Here’s some advise from Jakob Nielsen, the
guru of web design and usability:
Users do not read on the Web; instead they scan
the pages, trying to pick out a few sentences or
even parts of sentences to get the information
they want
Users do not like long, scrolling pages: they
prefer the text to be short and to the point
Users detest anything that seems like marketing
fluff or overly hyped language ("marketese")
and prefer factual information.
Remember this
Know your audience
Is the content relevant to your readers?
Do readers really want this information?
Define the ‘form(s)’
Interactive: graphics and other elements
Slideshows: with or without audio
Polls/Surveys
Write Visually
Use bulleted lists
Use numbered lists
Use Tables
Include pictures and other graphics
Source: http://www.usability.gov/design/writing4web.html
Remember this
Make it ‘tight and bright’
Use the 5 Ws, but really remember to the ‘So
what?’
Explain why I should care
Poynter says: “Banish gray”
‘Scannability’
‘Splitability’
Linking is OK
Writing Style – ‘Chunking’
Information broken into ‘chunks’ of information.
Web users prefer to print out long documents or save
them on their hard drives.
Long stories on the web are hard to read. The more a
reader needs to scroll, the less likely they are to read
the story.
Organizing information into relevant ‘chunks’ helps
keep the reader interested. Facilitates adding links to
enhance interactivity. Be careful: Don’t divide content
into too many parts or readers will lose interest.
Chunking is a method to create consistency of web
style, and helps readers understand the content flow
on your site.