Subject Index
A
,Accessibility
allowing adjustmentsto design, 48–49
Click here, More, (don’t use), 263
color-blind people, 50–51
JAWS, picture of links list, 263
links to laws and guidelines, 8
on-page layering, 146
personas, 32
PDFs, 122
sans serif type, 62
Search box, 85
tables, 249
text size, 63
usability testing, 311
videos, 272
Action verbs, 221–222
Action phrases (calls to action, verb phrases) in
headings, 177
headlines, 161
links, 262
Active space, 56
Active voice, 208–210
Ads, not make content look like, 284
Alignment
in overall design, 55
in tables, 250
All capitals, not writing in, 64–65
Allen, Sarah, 30
Alt text, See Accessibility
Anchor links, See Same-page links
Animation, when to use, 286–288
Audiences, See Site visitors
B
Back button, keeping people from needing, 99
Black hat techniques, 74
Blinking text or pictures, why to avoid, 284–285
Bloomstein, Margot, 77
Bold type in headings, 65
Breaking up content, guidelines for, 101
Bullets
bulleted lists, when to use, 227–230
matching to site’s personality, 229–230
using with links, 267
C
Calls to action, See Action phrases
Centering text, why not to, 59–60
Chadwick-Dias, Ann, 262
Charts, graphs, maps, 277–279
Checklists
for choosing web content, 127–128
for cutting to essential messages, 132
Cherian, Sharath, 32
Ciconte, Robert, 33
Click here, why not to use, 262–265
Color-blind site visitors, 50–51
Color
in design, 51–53
guidelines for, 52
in headings, 182
unvisited and visited links, 268–269
Content
active space in, 56–57
integrating with design, 46–48
illustrating, 277–279
organizing, 104–112
outlining, 168–170
process for writing, 128–130
reviewing and revising, 294
using illustrations to support, 277–279
using real content in design, 47
testing, 315
Context first in sentences, 219–221
Contextual interviewing, 22
Copy editing, 297
Copy writing, See Content, Writing, Marketing
Creative brief, 17
Critical incident interviewing, 22
CSS, See Cascading style sheet
D
Design, 45–70
Design process, user-centered, xxvi
Developmental editing, 297–298
Diagnostic usability testing, 307
Dictionaries, 293
Diversity in illustrations, 280–282
Dividing content by
information type, 106–108
life event, 112
people, 109–111
product type, 106
questions people ask, 104–105
time or sequence, 112–113
topic or task, 105
Doctrine of no surprise, 299
Download time, 116
Draft to final web pages, getting from, 289–302
Dumbing down, writing informally is not, 197
E
Editing your own work, 289–294
Editors, working with, 297–298
Editorial calendars, 108
Embedded links, 266
Essential messages, See Key messages
F
Facts, checking, 291–292
False bottoms, avoiding, 57–58
File cabinet as poor metaphor, 3
Final (getting to from drafts), 291–292
First-level heading (headlines), 157
Floating heading, avoiding, 58
Focus groups
compared to usability testing, 313
with usability testing, 313
Fonts, See Typography
Formal test report, may not need, 310
Formatting
lists, 238
tables, 248–249
text, 53
Formative usability testing, See Diagnostic usability testing
Forms
on home pages, 82–84
G
Gallery pages, See Pathway pages
Gender-neutral writing, 202–203
Given-new, 221
Global audiences
designing for, 51
headlines for, 159
writing for, 225
Grab and go writing, 6
Greeking (lorum ipsum), don’t do, 47
Graphs, See Charts
Grid, 55
Grouping of content, See Dividing content by
Groups, See Site visitors
H
H1 (headline), 157
Handbooks, 293–294
He, using you rather than, See Gender-neutral writing
Headings, 170
action phrases as (calls to action, verb phrases), 178
distinguishing from text, 182–183
evaluating, 186
floating, problems with, 58
guidelines for, 167–168
helping authors, 166
nouns and noun phrases as, 178–180
outlining content with, 168–170
parallelism in, 181
questions as, 170–176
statements as, 176
spacing around, 58
using site visitors words in, 181
Headlines
action phrases as (calls to action, verb phrases), 161–162
combining labels with more information, 162
for global audiences, 159
guidelines for, 158
medium length best, 160
nouns as, 162
questions as, 161–162
site visitors’ words in, 158
short description with, 163
statements as, 161–162
Heat map (eye-tracking), 138–139
Home pages, 83–84
content of, 74
guidelines for, 76
tag lines for, 75
forms on, 82–84
getting people to key tasks, 79–81
identifying site, 75
matching visitors’ conversation, 79
on mobile devices, 86–87
setting tone and personality of site, 76–78
Horton, Sarah, 263
I
I (personal pronoun), using, 204–207
Illustrations, 283
accessibility, 286–287
animation, 286
blinking, rolling, waving, wandering (don’t do), 284–285
charts, graphs, maps, 277–279
diversity in, 286
exact item, 273–274
guidelines for, 280–287
help people self-serve, 274–276
mood setting (for emotional response), 279–280
messages in, 279
not look like ads, 284
purposes of, 272–280
showing processes, 276–277
size of, 281–282
testing, 283–284
Imperatives, use in instructions, 199
Inbound marketing, 75
Index card model, 102–104
Informal usability testing, 309
Information, See also Content
clear writing in legal information, 253
not documents, 102–104
Information design, 58
Information type, dividing content by, 106–108
Instructions
action phrase headings for, 177
complex, 231–237
imperative in, 199
numbered lists, 231–237
Interviewing techniques, 22
Inverted pyramid style, 136–137
Italics (use sparingly), 65
J
K
Key messages, 136–137
Asking people what are, 148
Guidelines for, 126
Starting with, 136–138
Statement headings to convey, 176
Statement headlines to convey, 161
Key visitors, key tasks, focusing on, 79–81
Keywords
for search engines, See Search Engine Optimization
start headings with, 176
L
Labels, 162
Landing pages, See Pathway pages
Lawhon, Dian, 80
Layering information, 140–146
Layout, See Design
Legal information, writing clearly, 255
avoiding archaic legal language, 254–255
avoiding technical language, 255
resources for clear, 256
Leibtag, Ahava, 32
Length
line, 63–64
page, 116
paragraph, 218
sentence, 212–217
Less is more, 126
Levels of headings, using no more than two, 181–182
Life event, dividing content by, 112
bullets with, 267–268
checking, 291
Click here (don’t use), 262–265
colors for, 268
document titles as, 157
embedded, 265–266
guidelines for, 260
headlines as, 157
making meaningful, 262–265
matching page headline, 261
medium-length, 160
new program and product names, 260–261
same-page, 184–185
short descriptions with, 163
underlining, 65
visited and unvisited, 268–269
bulleted, 227–228
compared to tables, 242
formatting, 240–241
guidelines for, 227
instructions as, 232
long and short, 238
numbered, 231–237
non-instructions, numbered, 236–237
parallelism in, 240
spacing around, 240
tables within, 233
turning paragraphs into steps, 232
Logo, for web sites, 75
M
Major audiences, listing, 23
Marketing calendars (meshing with editorial), 108
joining the conversation, 152–153
finding, 153–154
not missing, 154–155
taking advantage of, 155–156
not on pathway pages, 90
push versus pull, 151–152
Mood pictures, 279–280
Mukherjee, Suranjan, 279
N
Narrative style (compared to inverted pyramid), 136–137
Navigation column and same-page links, 185
Nouns, as
headings, 178–180
headlines, 162
New program and product names as links, 260–261
News, new life of, 194See also Press Releases
Numbered lists
for instructions, 231–237
for non-instructions, 236–237
Numbers, using tables to compare, 243
O
O’Flahavan, Leslie, 134
One-sentence paragraphs (good), 218
Organic style guides, 303–306
Organizing content, guidelines for, 101See also Dividing content by
Outlining, 168–170
P
Paragraphs
keep short, 218
one sentence (good), 218
convoluted (revising), 215–217
turning into steps, 232
Partial drafts, sharing, 295
Passive space, 56
Passive voice, 208–210
Pathway pages, 90
like a table of contents, 94–96
good scent, 90
not marketing on, 90
order of links on, 99–100
pictures in, 97–98
short descriptions in, 96–98
smoothness of path versus number of clicks, 98–99
PDF, See Portable document format
People, dividing content by, 109–111
Pernice, Kara, 139
gathering data for, 21–23
creating, 29
how many?, 32
using, 32–33
walking through conversations, 296–297
Phone, as good metaphor, 3–4
Pictures, See Illustrations
Plain language, See Writing
Pogo-sticking, 99
Portable document format (PDF), 119–123
Press Releases, 189–194
visuals in, 193
social media, 194
Printing, 116–118
Privacy policy (sample), 257
Processes (showing visually), 198
Product type, dividing content by, 106
Progressive disclosure (technique for layering), 141–146
Proofreading, 294
Pull versus push, 151–152
Purposes, 17–19
Q
Questions
dividing content by, 104
headings as, 170–176
headlines as, 161–162
keywords in, 176
site visitors’ point of view, 172–174
site visitors’ words in, 158
R
Reading
interpreting while, 20
when web users do and don’t, 4–5
own work, 290
Remarkable content, 75
Reviewing, 290
own work, 289–294
with colleagues, 294–296
with editors, 297–298
with technical and legal reviewers, 298–301
Revising drafts, 290
Roddis, Ian, 30
S
Same-page links, 184–185
Sans serif and serif type, 61–63
Scanlon, Chip, 137
Scenarios, 33–35
Screen-reading software, See Accessibility
Search engine optimization (SEO)
importance of in
content strategy, 41
general, 7
key elements of, 74
Search box, placement of, 84
Sentences
action verbs in, 221–222
active voice in, 208–210
cutting unnecessary words, 214–215
length of, 212
lists instead of, 229–230
short, simple, straightforward, 212–214
subject and verb placement in, 215
untangling convoluted, 215
Sequence, dividing content by, 112
Sharing drafts, 294–296
She, using you rather than, See Gender-neutral writing
Short
lists, 238
paragraphs, 218
sentences, 212–214
Site personality
deciding on, 213
matching bullets to, 229–230
Site visitors
characteristics of, 23–29
colors for color-blind, 50–51
creating personas for, 29–33
dividing content for, 104–112
gathering information about, 21–23
goals of, 18
listing groups of, 23
writing to, 198–204
Space as a design element, 53–54
Spell checker, 294
Statements
bite, 163
headlines, 161–162
Steps, See Instructions
Stirling, Viki, 30
Summers, Kathryn, 224
T
aligning text in, 250
as answers to questions, 244–245
first column, 245–247
for comparing numbers, 243
for “if, then” sentences, 243
formatting, 249–250
guidelines for, 242–243
rows for, 249
within numbered lists, 233
Tag lines, for home pages, 75
Tasks
dividing content by, 105
focusing on top tasks, 79–81
Testing, 309
A/B, 313
compared to focus groups, 313–315
content, 315
group, 312–313
with focused groups, 314–315
remote, 312
Three clicks is a myth, 98–99
Time, dividing content by, 112
Topics, dividing content by, 105
Typography, 60–65
U
Underlining, 65
a morning a month, 311
compared to focus groups, 313–315
content, 315
group, 312–313
how to do, 310–311
remote, 312
what is needed for, 308–309
what is not needed for, 309–310
with focused groups, 314–315
User-centered design process, xxvi
Users, See Site visitors
V
Verb phrases, See Action phrases
Video, 271
Visual style, 76
Visuals, See Illustrations
Voice
active and passive, 208–210
choosing for the site, 76
W
Walls of words, 146–148
“W” for writing about organizations, 207
Web analysis, 22
Web content, See Content
Web forms, See Forms
White hat techniques, 75
Wrap lines, 240–241
active voice, 208–210
action verbs, 221–222
as revising drafts, 290
context first, 219–221
cutting words, 214–215
following the scenario, 215–216
gender-neutral, 202–203
given-new, 221
guidelines for, 198
hearing the conversation, 216
in social media, 212
lists, See Lists
not “dumbing down”, 197
on mobiles, See Mobiles
one-sentence paragraphs, 218
short paragraphs, 218
short sentences, 212–214
tables, See Tables
Words
avoiding legalese, 254–255
avoiding technical jargon, 255
in headings, 256
using site visitors’ words, See Site visitors
Y
You, using, 198–204
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