1. Visually structured interactive content
When you write for the web you must adhere to all the usual hallmarks of good writing: clarity, conciseness and order. But you must display this clarity through visual choices that arrange words on the page not just through considered word choice and sentence structure.
2. Get out of prose mode
Web consultant Ginny Redish says that one of the main problems with web usability is that web writers are stuck in prose mode - long sequential paragraphs. Redish says that all web writing should be visual writing.
3. Get into visual writing
Use visual devices that communicate quickly through the way they order information. Use:
- sidebars
- navigation bars
- headings
- hyperlinks
- lists
- short one topic paragraphs
- small appropriate images
- captions
- text buttons
- Q&As
- comparison charts
3. Web content is relational and interactive.
Unlike other writing which is sequential web content connects discrete bits of text through hyperlinks which allow the user to jump from one piece of information to another. It is an ordered but non-linear style of communication which requires that:
- each piece of content can stand alone but also
- connect to multiple other pieces of information.
Writing web content is like designing and solving a jigsaw puzzle.
4. Everything on a web page is about navigation
Good web navigation is not just about buidling an effective menu or navigation bar.
Every paragraph, every heading, every caption should be a navigational aid that assists the reader to effectively get from one point on the page to another and then from one page of the site to another.
