We do ask our clients approving the websites to participate in the web development process.
Help Users Make Decisions and Act on Them
So far, the Web appears to be less about entertainment than about decision support for daily living. Useful sites make it faster or easier for users to make decisions -- what to buy, what to do, where to go -- and act on them.
Think of your site as a funnel. Users enter with a fuzzy notion in their heads ("It's time to do something about the kitchen") and exit having made a useful decision ("Let's install new counters"), or, better yet, acted on it ("Let's find a kitchen contractor in town"). Text plays two key roles in this process: It guides users through it, step by step, and provides them with the data and advice they need to make decisions en route.
Tone is important. Use active voice. Speak informally. Be candid and tell it straight: Web users are wary of ulterior motives and prose that's too promotional.
Design for Scanners, Not Readers
People encounter a lot of text in their lives and read very little of it beginning to end. Instead, they scan quickly, looking for visual clues to whether a page is useful or interesting enough to be worth reading. If they don't find what they want quickly, they bail out.
Design accordingly: Assume users will skip 99 percent of your content, and make it easier for them to find the 1 percent they really want. To do this, give your text structure, and make the structure visible.
Give Your Text Structure ...
Take a modular approach: Organize content in short chunks, typically a paragraph or so, with each chunk aimed at helping a user take one step toward a decision. Arrange the chunks in logical order: for example, a sequence in time, or the steps in making a decision. (Before you write, try organizing a page as an outline -- I, A, 1, a, and so forth.) Assume users won't read all the chunks -- if information presented elsewhere is crucial to understanding a particular chunk, repeat it.
Employ parallel construction to make prose easier to scan and understand. When you cover a series of similar ideas or facts, present each in a consistent way, with the same components presented in the same way in the same order. Users appreciate familiarity, predictability, and consistency.
