1	How we ‘Read’ on the Web 79% of users scan; only 16% read word-by-word
2	8/10 don’t ‘read’ web pages Users comment on the content first
3	Why people don’t read web pages? Reading from computer screens is tiring for the eyes and 25% slower than paper
4	How do people read web pages? Users rarely looked directly at the scrollbar
5	Writing for the new media Be succinct: Write no more than 50% of the text you for hardcopy -Shorten that Text! Cut Any Paper-Based Text by 50% Rewrite to shrink by 50%. Delete Fluff Write tighter than you would for print. Organise your text in more open, loose format, with paragraph breaks and headings Split writing into smaller, coherent pieces Use several smaller pages rather than one very long page. Visitors don't want to scroll.
6	Ease of reading Black text on a white background is the easiest text to read. Text must have good contrast in order to be easily read. Hence, text should be displayed in a dark color on a light background or the reverse. The smaller the copy the more critical contrast becomes. The larger the copy the less critical contrast becomes. A SANS-SERIF typestyle such as Helvetica & Arial, Verdana is best. Be consistent in how you design headings
7	How we look at a page?
8	How we look at a page?
9	How we look at a page?
10	Writing for the new media Levels of Interest Visitors level of interest in every web page. none - some - strong interest – write for all ie. no interest - title only ….1 sentence or 1 paragraph summary ….major points - minor points A web page which caters to each level of reader interest will result in more satisfied visitors. A user is happy when they get the information they want quickly and easily.
11	Writing for the new media Scannability Write 50% less text. As users don't like to scroll. don't have long continuous blocks of text Try to keep it all on one screen Use highlighting and emphasis to make important words catch the user's eye. Blocks of text.
12	Writing for the new media Hypertext Make text short by splitting the information up connected by hypertext links Writing for interlinked information spaces is different than writing linear text. rhetoric of departure and rhetoric of arrival When users link to a page from a search engine, they should know immediately how the page relates to their query Intro page with links to content pages Each page focuses on one topic/theme All pages should have unique titles
13	Images for the new media Faces in images attract more eye fixations on homepages and multiple faces in photos attract more viewers Smaller photos just don't attract viewers -- they are often ignored entirely People routinely click on photos. Should complement/relate to content
14	Writing for the new media The Text Titles that can survive out of context Improve scanning simple structures Insert meaningful headlines and sub-headings Turn any series into a bulleted or numbered List Highlighted keywords One idea per paragraph Opening sentence in a paragraph should be the topic sentence - Newspaper style writing - conclusion first – Summary most important -Then get to the details
15	Writing for the new media The Headlines a headline has less than a second of a site visitor's attention. the first couple of words need to be real attention-grabbers
16	Some Interesting Reads Designing Web Usability Jakob Nielson Interface Culture Steven Johnson Information Anxiety Richard Saul Wurman Dust or Magic Bob Hughes Understanding Hypermedia 2000 Bob Cotton Richard Oliver