Tales of a Designer

Writing for our Web

Over the past two years, I have began to realize the importance for writing for a web based audience. More often than not, I’ve seen businesses, clients, etc. think that creating content for the web is just as simple as copying content from a report, or pamphlet and pasting it into a site. So that means that the end user gets the great opportunity of scrolling down a page forever, because the content manager thinks it’s no different than reading a book.

While in school and learning different aspects of the web outside of design, I have come to realize that the writing plays a very important roll. I mean it is the content, which is the most important part of a site, so why not mold it into something that would be easier for your users to sift through.

It’s amazing how some think that users of the web will want to sit down for hours and read sites like they read a book, newspaper, or magazine. Why is this important? Because on average, users of the web have quite the shorter attention span than any other medium, so why bore them with a bunch of information that isn’t that relevant? Get to the point, clear, and fast.

When I was in school, I was involved in a full year web redesign project for one of the departments in the school. As important as design was, we more focused on the repurposing of the current content that was on their current site. While going through the content, I couldn’t believe how much of a mess it was, and how non-web-ready it was. You thought you were reading some lengthy packet about the information regarding their department, and I don’t see how anyone could site down and read through it all, or even a chunk of it.

The one lesson that our team was taught for that project that was not to be forgotten, was that when writing for the web, be clear and concise. In other words, get to the point faster. Why bore your audience and risk the chance of them going elsewhere to get information faster. Save all the bland information for another medium where attention spans runs a little higher. Just like there are many different solutions for a design, the same can be said about content, and repurposing content for a web based audience should come standard with web projects that people want to get involved in.

Too often do people treat writing for the web like like other mediums, and I think it is important that this not happen. As much as you would think that the content is the most important part of a website, some people don’t seem to act like that because their content doesn’t read like it should on the web. Clear and concise people! It’s not for you, it’s for your users. Make it a little easier on them, or they might go elsewhere.