Metadata is Essential Web Writing Skill: Part 1

Metadata is one of the most misunderstood aspects of content management and website design. Editors and writers tend to look at it as a technical issue. Technical people look for a software solution. Both are wrong. Metadata is a fundamental skill that web writers and editors must acquire.

McGovern, Gerry. New Thinking (2003). Articles>Web Design>Writing>Metadata

Metadata is Essential Web Writing Skill: Part 2

Creating great metadata for your content begins with understanding who your reader is. What is the metadata they look for when they read a page of your content? What are the type of words they use when they search for your content? When scanning your classification, what are the "trigger words" that will make them want to go deeper into your website?

McGovern, Gerry. New Thinking (2003). Articles>Web Design>Writing>Metadata

Writing for the Web: Part 2

Writing for the Web requires careful planning. Your content needs to fit well within the context of your website. When a reader finds your content, they need to be able to scan it quickly. That's what metadata is about. In order for your website to be found, you need to write for how people search.

McGovern, Gerry. New Thinking (2003). Articles>Web Design>Writing

Does Design Matter in Comparison to Content?

Few people have ever commented about my blog’s design at all. The same goes with the music intros for my podcasts. I can change the music each time, and no one ever responds. In contrast, if a post has good content, I see a steady stream of comments. My experience leads me to conclude that content is about 90% important, and design is 10% important.

Johnson, Tom H. I'd Rather Be Writing (2008). Articles>Document Design>Visual Rhetoric>Writing

Lessons in Introductions from O'Reilly

Book published by O'Reilly Media have a good flow to the information and they're well structured. One of the best features of many of those books is the introductory material. It can be a good guide, and help readers zero in on what they want to learn.

DMN Communications (2008). Articles>Writing>Information Design>Technical Writing

About Us Information on Websites

We found a 9% improvement in the usability of About Us information on websites over the past 5 years. But companies and organizations still can't explain what they do in one paragraph.

Nielsen, Jakob. Alertbox (2008). Articles>Web Design>Usability>Writing

Ten Recipes for Persuasive Content

In many of my columns, I have touted the importance of persuasive, or influential, content and shared relevant theories and arguments, sprinkling in some practical tips and examples along the way. This column brings together a collection of practical tips, or recipes, for persuasive content.

Jones, Colleen. UXmatters (2008). Articles>Writing>Rhetoric>Persuasive Design

Time To Change

The landscape of web writing has changed. The value of well-edited and reviewed content is giving way to faster, less-refined posts on blogs, comments and services like Twitter. It is clear from the dwindling number of article pitches that many prefer to draw traffic to their own sites.

Finck, Nick. Digital Web Magazine (2008). Articles>Web Design>Publishing>Writing

Structured Authoring for Everyone

Structured authoring isn't just for technical writers. Just about any department in an organization can benefit from it. This article looks at one way of bringing structured authoring to the masses: by adopting the authoring concepts used in an obscure word processor called Yeah Write.

DMN Communications (2009). Articles>Information Design>Technical Writing>XML

Why Text Remains King of the Web

I am starting to believe that despite all the hype around online video, text remains King of the Web. Why text? There are at least five reasons.

Micro Persuasion (2009). Articles>Web Design>Multimedia>Writing

Syntext Serna and New Trends in XML Content Authoring

Recent trends in XML content authoring demonstrate increasing shift towards advanced reuse patterns and multi-source compound document architectures. This imposes completely new requirements for the XML authoring tools, most of which were originally developed for narrative document authoring and architectures like Docbook or TEI. The key requirement is the ability to provide a single, transparent, directly editable view for such complex documents.

Antonov, Paul. IDEAlliance (2005). Articles>Information Design>Technical Writing>XML

Sub-Headers Are Navigation

Using good sub-headers will help your users find the information they are looking for. It’s like navigation but without the clicking and the cool roll-over effects.

Hamill, David. Good Usability (2009). Articles>Web Design>Information Design>Writing

Short and Simple Sentences

When you’re writing for the web, try to keep your sentences under 20 words in length. Your content will be easier to read this way. This is because it’s easier to read a few short sentences than it is to read one big one.

Hamill, David. Good Usability (2009). Articles>Web Design>Writing>Minimalism

How to Format Your Technical Documents Consistently With a Template

Consistency of a technical documentation is what creates that subliminal sense of trust and confidence in the end-users. Someone once quipped: “it ain’t technical documentation if it ain’t boring.” This of course is not true since I always found technical documents very interesting indeed. I’m the sort of geekish person who can marvel at a well-designed user’s manual for hours and appreciate its beauty and all the effort and thinking that went into its production. I imagine how happy people would be when they use that manual and solve their problems and that, believe it or not, makes me happy as well. That’s the main reason why I’m in this business.

Akinci, Ugur. Technical Communication Center (2009). Articles>Document Design>Style Sheets>Technical Writing

Wurman’s LATCH Model of Information Organization For Technical Documentation

Technical writing has its mechanical aspects that need to be mastered. A good technical writer must know how to use English effectively as well as various software products to produce acceptable technical documents. But I wish technical writing were all about that. The hardest part comes before one even sits down in front of a computer to type the first word. The hardest part in documenting anything is organizing the information in a way that makes sense from the user’s point of view. Otherwise a technical document suddenly looks irrelevant.

Akinci, Ugur. Technical Communication Center (2009). Articles>Information Design>Documentation>Technical Writing

How to Structure FrameMaker Paragraphs While Using the Unstructured Interface

Using the structured features requires advanced training and you probably won’t need them anyways unless you’re doing any “single sourcing” (which is the topic of yet another article). For example if you were doing any XML-based authoring or “database publishing” then you would definitely need to learn how to use the FrameMaker’s structured interface. However, there is an easy way to imitate structured documentation while you are still in the unstructured mode. This is one case in which you can have your cake (unstructured FM) and take a bite out of it too (by enjoying one selected feature of structured documentation).

Akinci, Ugur. Technical Communication Center (2009). Articles>Document Design>Technical Writing>Adobe FrameMaker

Seven Time-Tested Principles to Design a Cover For a Technical Document

Here are seven time-tested design recommendations culled from my 20 years of experience as a professional writer, page layout and information designer.

Akinci, Ugur. Technical Communication Center (2008). Articles>Document Design>Technical Writing

Seven Top Web Writing Principles For Technical Writers

Web writing is one of those assignments that technical writers do well due to their organized approach to technical information. But web writing differs from regular user guide and procedural writing in some important respects. The Web is a fast place. People usually don’t have the time to go through long essays.

Technical Communication Center (2009). Articles>Web Design>Writing>Technical Writing

Designing Websites

The parallels between the theories of technical communications and those of web design are very similar, the key aim is to keep the audience in mind at all times. The way you structure and present the information is also important, as is a sense of usability of the content itself.

McLean, Gordon. One Man Writes (2009). Articles>Web Design>Technical Writing>User Centered Design

Editing and Publishing

Once the main text has been written, you edit it. Editing means breaking text into sub-documents; pointing out connections to other texts; making sure the document as a whole is in good shape; adding indices and outlines. Editing doesn't necessarily happen after the first text has been written - I mix those stages all the time - but it deserves to be thought of as an independent discipline, because the problems it deals with are different. Most of what people do on the World Wide Web is really editing, not writing.

Technische Universität Berlin. Articles>Web Design>Editing>Writing

The Case for Simple Numbering

Rather than spend hours coming up with a complex numbering scheme, this might be an excuse to implement something far more straightforward discovered by an extensive readability study at IBM, of which I was a part. My work involved sitting behind a one-way mirror with a stopwatch, watching people take tests that involved, among other things, "how fast can you find Figure 3-4?" We had cameras mounted over the participant's shoulders and could watch them thumb through the documents, and we also monitored eye movements. Then we followed up with a short interview where we got feedback.

Techknowledgecorp (2007). Articles>Document Design>Information Design>Technical Writing

World's Best Headlines: BBC News

Precise communication in a handful of words? The editors at BBC News achieve it every day, offering remarkable headline usability.

Nielsen, Jakob. Alertbox (2009). Articles>Web Design>Writing>Case Studies

First Two Words: A Signal for the Scanning Eye

Testing how well people understand a link's first 11 characters shows whether sites write for users, who typically scan rather than read lists of items.

Nielsen, Jakob. Alertbox (2009). Articles>Web Design>Writing>Usability

Write for Reuse

Users often see online content out of context and read it with different goals than you envisioned. While you can't predict all such goals, you can plan for multiple uses of your text.

Nielsen, Jakob. Alertbox (2009). Articles>Content Management>Writing>Information Design

Is Self-Centered Web Copy Hurting Your Websites?

Web developers frequently launch websites with self-absorbed web copy, which turns off visitors and kills conversions. Who’s to blame? Self-absorbed copywriters and business owners. To engage prospects and turn them into customers, web copy needs to appeal to the visitor’s self-interest.

Webdesigner Depot (2009). Articles>Web Design>Writing>User Centered Design