Planning, Elaborating and Organizing online content (TreeWorks white paper)

8/15/2019 Planning, Elaborating and Organizing online content (TreeWorks white paper)

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TreeWorks

Blvd. Coposu nr. 4bl. 105 A sc. A ap. 1Bucureti, Romnia

Phone: +40.213.260.602Fax: +40.213.267.233

[email protected]

Planning, Elaborating andOrganizing Online Content

Online communication development in recent years makes thefield experts give a special attention to the web strategy,which is based on concept and content quality.


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Content Content Definition

Web Content

Developing a Content Requirements Plan

Developing Information Content for the Web

Text Content

How Users Read on the Web

The Effects of Line Length on Reading OnlineMeasuring the Effect of Improved Web Writing

Quality Content

Conclusion

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Content Definition

Web Content

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The online content is formed by any type of digital information included in a webpage or inother type of similar medium. The content can be text, image, graphics, video or audio.In other words, anything that can is likely to be published across the Internet, Intranet or / andExtranet.

Web content means much more than a simple text. It contains: navigation menus, forums,games, look overs, links, images, audio, video, downloadable files, search functionality, formsand many others.


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Developing A Content Requirements Plan (CRP)

The most effective way to start the researchand documenting for the web content isapplying the Content Requirements Plan. Thisallows you to develop a content designstrategy so that your web design implementwill be driven by content requirements. CRP isa management-style project foundationaldocument to guide every aspect of content,design, development and measurement forInternet projects.

Content Requirements Plan elements:

Pre-project planning

1. State content objectives in the order ofpriority (it can be as many as necessary).

Objectives should be obvious and stated asan action (for example: to provideservices for clients, to create a virtualshop where people can buy productsonline etc.).

2. State target audience, in order ofpriority and provide a brief profile of each.Who are you trying to reach? Who are yourpotential clients?

3. Describe the content as if it would be

shown on your website. Suggest a possiblenavigation or organizing structure. Websitestandards and usability issues should bementioned

4. List any important dates for thisproject, like latest tasks, approvals etc.

5. Virtual locations:Indicate the URL of the Web presence.

6. Principal requirementsIndicate the high-level requirements forthis content. This information should begeneral and should emphasize the finalusers and the results, rather than howthese will be implemented.

7. Content AssessmentInclude a Content Invetory, a spreadsheetwhich lists information such as:

What content objects will bedeveloped;

The type of each content object and itsdescription;

Which content objects are new andhave to be developed;

Who will develop each new contentobject;

Which content objects exists in someform already;

Who is responsible for each contentobject;

The level of importance for eachcontent object.

This information can be captured here orsubmitted as a separate document.

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Developing Information Content for the Web

Other factors / risks imacting the project

List other internal or environmental factorsnot included abose, including a riskassessment, if necessary.

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Post-Project Planning

This category includes information on contentmaintenance and resources. It contains dataregarding how the content will be maintained,what resources will be necessary, whatchanges will take place, how the physicalenvironment will be set up (how the files willbe named and organized in the server), howoften content will need to be refreshed. Also,you should indicate how its efficiency will bemeasured.

Developing Web content involves choosing themeaning, analyzing technical, aesthetic dataand usability concerns. Developing information

requires keen skills in planning, analysis anddesign in addition to Web-oriented skills inrepresenting information in a particularmedium.

This metodology involves six processes and sixelements. It is based on the characteristicsand qualities of the online medium and on theparticular experiences of the Web users.

Six elements of information

1. Audience information is a store of

knowledge about the target audience forthe web, as well as the actual audiencewho uses the web.

2. The purpose statement defines the reasonfor and purpose of Web's existence.

3. The objectives list defines specific goalsthe Web should accomplish.

4. Information about the domain is acollection of knowledge and informationabout the domain / subject the Webcovers.

5. The Web specification is a detailed

description of the content and elementsthat will go into the web.

6. The web presentation is the fulldescription about the complete technicalstructure (hypertext or other media) bywhich the web is delivered to the users.


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Six Processes:

1. Planning is the process of defining andgathering information about Web'saudience, purpose and objectives forinformation development and use.

2. Analysis means evaluating consistency andcorrectness of information as well aschecking technical make-up of the web.

3. Design is the process of creating a map ofthe relations among pages of the web andeach individual page.

4. Implementation is the process of creating

HTML files (and associated software suchas Java applets).5. Promotion involves providing publicity

releases for the existent and potentialtarget.

6. Innovation is the continuously creativeprocess for improvement in the webcontent, so that it meets the users' needs.

Choosing content

The main objective is making your website, byall the elements it contains, communicate wellwith the users.

Consequently you should only use content thatactually adds something to the user's generalexperience or to the user's understanding ofyour subject.

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Text Content

How Users Read On the Web

People don't usually read every word on a webpage. Instead they scan the page, choosing thewords and sentences that stand out. In arecent study, John Morkes found that 79

percents of users tend to scan web pages theycome across and only 16 percent read themword-by-word.

As a result, web pages have to contain easy toscan text, using:

Highlighted keywords (hypertext linksserve as a form of highlighting, typefacevariations and color being other examples);

Clear sub-headings;

Bulleted lists; One idea per paragraph (users will skip

other ideas if they are not caught by thefirst word in the paragraph);

The inverted pyramid style (the text isbeing built starting with the mostmeaningful information);

Concise content.

Credibility is an important element for

Internet users since it is unclear who is behindthe information on the web. Credibility can beincreased by using hypertext links to othersources.

Links to other sites show that authors are notafraid to let readers visit other websites.

Credibility can be achieved with the help ofthese steps:

Quality Design: professionalism is always

looked upon as being trustworthy. A simplenavigation menu imposes respect and offersthe promise of a satisfying service.

Total transparence in the customerrelationship. (For example, mentioningdelivery taxes before registering the order andnot after can help you.)

Correct, updated, easy to understandcontent. If a website offers photos ofproducts, these should be quality ones.

Connecting to the rest of the internet withthe help of the links. An isolated web site,that offers no link in or out looks suspicious.Do not be afraid to give other sources,because this is a sign your content is a credibleone.

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The Effects Of Line Length On Reading Online

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The study made in 2002 by the SoftwareUsability Research Laboratory from WichitaUniversity, U.S.A., evaluated the effects ofline length on reading speed, comprehensionand users' satisfaction regarding the onlinetext.

Twenty college-age students read articlesdisplayed in 35, 55, 75 or 95 characters perline (cpl). The results showed that thepassages diplayed in 95 characters per line canbe read faster. It has not been noticed anyeffect of line length on comprehension orsatisfaction, although the users indicated astrong prefference for both short and longlines.

The research used four questionnaires. One foreach article, including: title, main idea andstructure question. Another questionnaire wasused to collect the demographic data as wellas computer and Internet usage patterns.

A reading satisfaction evaluation consisting of11 questions collected users' reactions to theformat of the passages, and a post-experimentquestionnaire was used to determine layoutpreference.

Results

Reading Speed

Reading speed was measured in words perminute. Results showed that there is asignificand line lenght on reading spped.Articoles displayed in 95 characters per linewere read faster than others: 35 cpl, 55 cpl,75 cpl (Figure 3).

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Comparison Of Most Popular Online Fonts

A general study made by SURL showed that most websites use 12-point fonts for most or all oftheir content. This study analyzed most popular fonts at this size for differences in effectivereading speed and perception of font legibility.

Fonturi sans serif Fonturi serif Fonturi ornamentale

Agency FB (Agency)ArialComic Sans MS (Comic)TahomaVerdana

Courier New (Courier)GeorgiaGoudy Old Style (Goudy)Century Schoolbook (Schoolbook)Times New Roman (Times)

Bradley Hand ITC (Bradley)Monotype Corsiva (Corsiva)

The Serif and sans Serif used fonts representthe most popular fonts used today on theInternet. The two ornate fonts are only anexample of the numerous possible types thatdo not fit in any particular category. However,and examination of these fonts should helpdetermine ornate fonts' place in bothperformance and popularity in comparison tostandard font types.

Fonts were kept at a 12-point size, exceptionmaking Agency, which was increased from 12to 14 to have a similar height (approx. 3 mm)with the others.

Participants were asked to read as quickly andas accurately as possible passages thatcontained 15 randomly placed subtitutionwords (they were not told the number ofsubstitution words). The words have beenwritten so as, read attentively, the contextinappropriation to be noticed. The wordsvaried from the original form; for example,cake was replaced byfake.

Results

Fonts Legibility

No significant differences resulted from theanalysis of type fonts.

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Measuring the Effect of Improved Web Writing

Quality Content

To measure the effect of different contentstyles, 5 different versions of the samewebsite have been identified and developed(same main information, different wording,same site navigation menu).

The research showed that measured usabilitywas higher for the concise version (58% better)and for the scannable version (47% better).And when the three improved writing styleswere combined into a single site, the resultswere amazing: 124% more efficient.

If you want to win online users you must offer

quality content.

Quality content is the reason a user chooses aspecific site and explains why he has chosenthat one and not another.

It can be many things: content that is uniqueto your website, content which you are bestat, content that is easier to use on your sitethan on others' websites, content that is easierto find on your website, content that ischeaper than those of your competitors.

In this context, content can be information,but it can also be a potential transaction or afunctionality (search, download, order form,online reservation etc.).

Quality Content Examples:

Information regarding the company / firm(it is supposed to be the only officialsource);

Rapidly updated news; Inside information; Interesting experiences in a specific field; Large section of products Superior quality products at cheap prices.

Text Structure

Although there is no complex research aboutwriting for web, experts notices that webcontent requires a different writing style thanfor print documents and publications.In conclusion, writing effective web copy thatgrabs attention and gets the desired resultstakes special skills and attention whether youare trying to sell products or services on abusiness or commercial site or if you just wantto let people now the latest on your website.

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1. Put yourself in the user's positionWhat on your website is most important forusers? Focus on this. To work up an opinion onthis use statistics provided by most systems,because they can establish which elements aremost important for your users. Further on, thedecisions regarding content of the websitemust coincide with the results of the statistics.

2. Use key wordsWhen the user accesses a website, he alreadyhas the mental picture of what he is searchingfor, often a so-called key-word.

If the key-word was accessed on a searchengine, it is the word that he used in itssearch query. If the user does not find thiskey-word on your website, he may quicklyconclude that this content is not there(although he maybe exists there, but on otherform).For instance, a user who is searching glasseswill not automatically click on the wordvisual aids. The use of jargon in articles ornavigation bars is not to be used. It isinefficient because the user has searched for

his own key-word and he will not find it.Therefore: find out what are the words yourusers prefer to search for. Use these wordsinstead of your specialized jargon.

3. Write clear headlinesFor a reader to become interested in an articleor a website, he must know about what it is.After that, the reader will decide whether thearticle is relevant and interesting for him andif it answers his current needs.In other words, a meaningful headline containsrelevant keywords and is descriptive presentsthe content of the article.

4. Write the article as a teaserA teaser is composed by headline, ingress andpicture and it should be able to inform thereaders to such a degree so that readers whoare in a hurry or read superficially do not haveto read the entire article.Those who are interested in reading moreabout that subject they can access the entirearticle, while the others, less interested, willstill get the basic information.

5. Say it as simple as possibleThere is never any point in writing difficulttexts. Write simply and directly. To achieve

this, think: How would I explain this to achild?.

6. Help your readers scan the pageLet the reader get a simple opinion about thearticle just by taking a glance at the page. Thetechniques to do this are: sub-heads, links,bullet points, bold face words.Remember that these elements have to give acomplete description of the article when thereader simply looks down the page. Payattention to the fact that you can spin or twist

a whole article just by choosing to make boldone word.

7. Create space on the pageRarely a reader will read a massive block oftext. Only the most dedicated readers willdare to begin upon such an article (basically,less than 5 percent). So, create space! Breaktext up into paragraphs, images, lists or boldface words, so that the page has an airy aspectand is resting for the eye.

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Conclusion

8. A picture speaks more than a thousandswordsText is not the best medium to conveyinformation. For example, when you look at aweather map you get just about everything ata glance. If you tried to convey the sameinformation in text, the page will become farmore cumbersome and confusing. So,information can be conveyed better viaimages, numbers, models, statistic diagramsetc.

9. Use a two- or many-layered strategyIf you must right a difficult text, make this by

using two different pages. Write a simplearticle, which presents the main ideas and setup a link to the entire report / text for thosewho are particularly interested in it. This fullsized version can be as well be a web-page ora downloadable material, which makes itsearchable in the search engines and simple touse for those who may want to print it.

10. Watch out for typos!It is hard to catch your own mistakes so ask acolleague to double -check your work.Remember that a misspelled word not onlylooks stupid, but can also confuse a searchengine. A user looking for clients on yourwebsite will not get a hint for an article thatmentions clinets.

Successful web sites must be as completiveand as informative as possible. On the otherhand, the Internet requires certain layouts.Statistics show that the speed of reading textfrom a computer is much slower than thespeed of reading printed documents.

When filling up your web pages with content,make sure to use texts written by your editors.

Another tip for an effective complex web siteis the ongoing web content renewal. Only adynamic, updated content makes the websiteinteresting for your visitors. That is why youshould complete your web projects with amodern website content management system(CMS).

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TreeWorks

Blvd. Coposu nr. 4bl. 105 A sc. A ap. 1Bucureti, Romnia

Phone: +40.213.260.602Fax: +40.213.267.233

[email protected]

Resources:

Software Usability Research Laboratory - http://www.usabilitynews.org

Content-strategy - http://www.content-strategy.com/

Digital web magazine -http://www.digital-web.com/

Jakob Nielsen - http://www.useit.com/
http://www.usabilitynews.org/http://www.content-strategy.com/http://www.digital-web.com/http://www.useit.com/http://www.usabilitynews.org/http://www.content-strategy.com/http://www.digital-web.com/http://www.useit.com/

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Planning, Elaborating and Organizing online content (TreeWorks white paper)