#14438
When giving overview information, be concise. Save the details and flowing language for those that want them or have the time, but don't slow down the skimmer. This doesn't mean skip the details, just keep them from people who don't need them.
Bricklin, Dan. Good Documents (1998). Articles>Writing>Workplace>Technical Writing
#14429
Every new medium brings with it the need to develop an appropriate way of writing. Writing a speech involves different words and organization from writing a report. A television show does not use the same script, word for word, as a radio broadcast. A documentary is not word for word the same as the history book on which it is based. A brochure, white paper, and advertisement may share some words, but the organization, headings, and many of the words will be different. Writing everyday documents that are destined to be read on-screen and not printed out means different words and organization than the same ideas written to be printed out on paper. You can't take what you wrote for paper, paste it into an HTML editor, mark it up with a few tags and call it an on-screen document. You need to write specifically for the screen if you want to take best advantage of the medium. Early television was a camera pointed at a radio announcer reading the same news as on radio. We don't do that anymore. Early web was taking word processing and putting it up as a long scrolling page. We won't be doing that in the future, either.
#14451
Know Your Audience and Their Needs
When putting together a web document, understand who your audience will be and what their needs and motivations are. Use this information to decide how to organize and present the information. You need to answer questions such as: How much time will they spend with this document? Will they read all of it? Do they want to be amused? What questions will they be asking of the document? Will they read different parts at different times? Will they use the document as reference material?
Bricklin, Dan. Good Documents (1998). Articles>Writing>Usability
#14444
Pay Attention To What Is "Above the Scroll"
Make sure that the information and links that all readers of a page need are visible without scrolling when a page is first viewed.
Bricklin, Dan. Good Documents (1998). Design>Web Design
#14443
The layout of a page can help or hinder reading and navigation. Use of scrolling and non-scrolling areas can keep important information and links in view at all times.
Bricklin, Dan. Good Documents (1998). Design>Web Design
#14439
While parts of a document should be concise, provide detail whenever it may help the reader. Computer documents often have less total space constraints than paper documents, so the cost of providing extra details may be small. In fact, sometimes providing details can cut the cost of writing the document by saving time from writing summaries.
Bricklin, Dan. Good Documents (1998). Articles>Writing>Workplace
#14430
Business documents are read in an irregular manner. Techniques have been developed to aid the reader of paper documents in navigating through those documents.
Bricklin, Dan. Good Documents (1998). Articles>Writing>Business Communication
#14446
If the material you are writing will be read by many people in an organization, and you want to minimize the amount of time they spend to find the information they are seeking, you should make sure you use a design that works. The only way to know for sure that a design works is to test it. For example, if you know most people in an organization check a particular set of 10 status reports once a week, and there are 1000 such people, each costing the company (burdened) $40 an hour, saving one minute of reading time on each report can save over $300,000 a year. In another example, saving just 10 seconds on each 5 minute customer service or sales phone call saves 3% of the labor costs. If the material you put on your Intranet helps even 10% more people avoid a call to the Help Desk, that can be a very large savings, too.
Bricklin, Dan. Good Documents (1998). Articles>Usability
#14433
The Trellix 1.0 Development Project
An overview of the history of the project that helped us come up with the ideas presented in Good Documents.
Bricklin, Dan. Good Documents (1998). Articles>Web Design>Software
#14435
Use Heads, Subheads, and Summaries
Use standard typographic techniques and writing features that help the reader find their way through each page of your document. Titles, subtitles, bold subheads between paragraphs, and summaries help the reader find out what they would learn if they read a page or section in greater detail. Let the reader know the bottom line up front. Offer a brief introduction that lets the reader know what information is being presented.
Bricklin, Dan. Good Documents (1998). Articles>Writing>Workplace
#14437
Lists are short lines, and easy to skim. Since they break up nicely into chunks (one chunk per list item) they work well for organizing a related group of links. For many situations, they will work better than links scattered in a paragraph that must be read in context.
Bricklin, Dan. Good Documents (1998). Articles>Writing>Workplace
#14442
Two-dimensional images that represent the organization of the pages in a document can help the reader understand that organization. They can use that understanding when trying to navigate to parts of the document that interest them. By using clickable image maps, such that when readers click on the representation of a particular page in the document they are immediately taken there, allow them to navigate directly. This gives them a better feeling for the document, more like a physical item like a book with pages than an endless scroll of paper.
Bricklin, Dan. Good Documents (1998). Design>Web Design
#14441
Use Screen Designs, Not Paper Designs
Design your page layouts for viewing on a computer screen, not for printout on paper. The screen has special characteristics, weaknesses and abilities, and you should take them into account.
Bricklin, Dan. Good Documents (1998). Design>Web Design>Usability
#14440
Use Typography and Layout For Skimming
People know to look in border areas for navigation. They know that short, bold paragraphs on the side may be of interest, perhaps as summaries. Their eyes stop on bold words intermixed with normal. Decide which things the reader must find, and use these techniques to help them find those things.
Bricklin, Dan. Good Documents (1998). Design>Typography
#14432
Newspapers are a good model from which to learn techniques for creating skimmable documents. A newspaper provides an immense amount of information that is highly skimmable. You can pick up almost any daily newspaper and in just a few minutes find the information you want: What's new? How did your home sports team do (no matter where you are in the country)? What are this paper's biases?
Bricklin, Dan. Good Documents (1998). Articles>Writing>Workplace
#14445
Frames have been controversial since they were introduced. To decide when and how to use frames, you must understand the technical details of how they work, and the arguments that have been made against their use. From a design viewpoint, there are at least two valid uses of frames: integrated into the page design of a single page, to provide separate areas for material such as navigation; as the mechanism for associating material from a specific author (such as comments) with other pages that normally stand on their own.
Bricklin, Dan. Good Documents (1998). Design>Web Design>Usability
#14431
Word Processing vs. "Web" Documents
Reading on screen is different than reading on paper. The metaphors used for writing word processed documents do not make for easy to read screen documents. Techniques from CD-ROM's, the Web, and on-line documentation can help make web documents that are compelling to read on-screen.
Bricklin, Dan. Good Documents (1998). Articles>Writing>Workplace>Word Processing
#14434
Write Links That Don't Have To Be Followed
Providing summary information at the link site can convey enough information to save the reader from following links they would otherwise have to follow just to find out a small amount of information.
Bricklin, Dan. Good Documents (1998). Design>Web Design>Usability
#14436
Write in an inverted-pyramid style, with the conclusion first, details later. Writing with the 'punch line' first, starting with the conclusion, rather than building up to it with careful reasoning may be hard for some writers used to presenting detailed arguments orally. If you think like you are writing a newspaper or newscast, instead of telling a joke, you may find it easier.
Bricklin, Dan. Good Documents (1998). Articles>Writing>Workplace
