Web Site Planning: Suggestions and Guidelines

Step 3 (Continued): Web Site Content Development

Web Site Content Formats

How will you present your web site content given your audience and preferred user experiences? The following is offered as a way to begin your discussion. Consider first, some format options:

• Content may be static, usually as a unique collection of HTML pages. This is the most common and the easiest way to produce Web content.
• Content may be dynamic, that is pages are generated from a database and displayed in templates as users click through the links on your site.
• Content may be interactive, that is users exchange information with the site, usually for a specific purpose such as a commercial transaction, subscribing to an e-newsletter, participating in an online forum, etc. The technical expertise and resources required to develop interactive and dynamic content may require further discussions.
  • List all functional requirements and technical components.

Group and Label Content

While the development of meaningful content is the most challenging aspect of long-term web site success, creating a good organization scheme for that content is also extremely important (and may be difficult). At the end of this exercise you should have a draft plan for organizing your Web content. To begin, consider the following suggestions:

• Write each content element on an index card.
• Sort into tentative groups.
  • Try organizing the content in different ways.
  • It is important to record how each stakeholder organizes and names each content group.
• Determine pros and cons of each organization scheme. Some will be better than others, but there are no "right" or "wrong" solutions.
• When you agree on the group elements, name each group as descriptively, yet briefly as possible. Two common labels include:
  • An 'About Your Organization' label. This section includes general information about the organization, its history, mission, news, contact information, street location, etc.
  • A 'Site Map/Index' label. This section is especially useful with ambiguous organizational schemes (see below) that are not supported by a site search function.

Writing for the Web: Some Suggestions

Web Designer Jeffrey Zeldman* identified three distinct classes of Web users:

1. Viewers would rather be watching TV. For this group the Web is about eye candy and other visual jolts. They use text only as directions to further visual stimulus.
2. Seekers want information they can apply to their own work. They move quickly through a site, rarely pausing to scroll down or across. If what they want is not immediately visible they move on.
3. Readers are rare birds of the Web. They will scroll through and read long documents, download and print PDFs, as they would any print document.

Viewers and Seekers prefer information chunks, scanning the screen for headlines, summaries, captions. They often engage in "interlaced browsing," clicking back and forth between sites comparing similar content.

Readers, because they are in less of a hurry, like archives of information and are quite content to scroll through long documents. That said, they also prefer text that has been adapted for screen display, such as lines of text that run only halfway across the screen, information formatted in lists, blank lines between paragraphs, etc.

So, unless your audience will be Readers only, adopt a Web-friendly writing style:

• Write for "scan-ability."
• Use headlines and summaries. Both should be simple and informative.
• Trim or distill long documents. Write "long", if you must, but be prepared to trim your copy to keep it tightly focused.
  • Present the most important material at the beginning and then add detail.
  • Write short paragraphs, ideally, with only one idea per paragraph.
  • Use sub-headings to separate blocks of paragraphs.
• Even Readers will appreciate a summary and/or Table of Contents at the beginning of long documents.
• Lists and other design elements help break the flow of uniform text blocks. Lists are especially good for presenting categorical information (see next item).
• Sort information into categories where applicable, e.g., "Events Calendar," "2005 News Releases," etc. When visitors can jump from chunk to chunk, they get to their information destinations quickly.
• If possible, work with a good editor!

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