Concise, SCANNABLE, and Objective: How to Write when it comes to Web

Summary: Studies of how users read on the internet found that they don't actually read: instead, they scan the text. A research of five writing that is different discovered that a sample internet site scored 58% higher in measured usability when it was written concisely, 47% higher when the text was scannable, and 27% higher with regards to was printed in a target style rather than the promotional style found in the control condition and many current Web pages. Combining these three changes into a site that is single was concise, scannable, and objective at exactly the same time resulted in 124% higher measured usability.

Unfortunately, this paper is written in a print writing style and is somewhat too academic in style. We know that is bad, nevertheless the paper was written given that way that is traditional of on a research study. We have a short summary that is more designed for online reading.

Introduction

" Really good writing - you don't see much of that on the Web, " said one of our test participants. And our general impression is the fact that most internet users would agree. Our studies declare that current Web writing often does not support users in achieving their absolute goal: to get useful information as quickly as you can.

We have been running Web usability studies since 1994 Nielsen 1994b, Nielsen and Sano 1994, Nielsen 1995. Our research reports have been much like almost every other Web usability work (e.g., Shum 1996, Spool et al. 1997) and now have mainly looked at site architecture, navigation, search, page design, layout, graphic elements and style, and icons. Even so, we now have collected user that is many about the content during this long series of studies. Indeed, we now have started to realize that content is king in the user's mind: When asked for feedback on a Web page, users will touch upon the product quality and relevance for the content to a much greater extent that we consider to be " user interface " (as opposed to simple information) than they will comment on navigational issues or the page elements. Similarly, when a web page comes up, users focus their attention regarding the center associated with the window where they see the body text before they bother looking over headerbars or any other elements that are navigational.

We have derived three main content-oriented conclusions from our four years' of Web usability studies Nielsen 1997a:

• users do not read on the internet; instead they scan the pages, trying to pick out a sentences that are few even parts of sentences to get the information they desire
• users do not like long, scrolling pages: they choose the text to be short and to the purpose
• users detest something that seems like marketing fluff or overly hyped language ( "marketese ") and prefer factual information.

This latter point is well illustrated by the following quote from an individual survey we ran regarding the Sun website:

" One piece of advice, folks: Why don't we do not be so gratuitous and self-inflating. Beginning answers to good judgment questions such as " Will Sun support my older Solaris platform? " with answers such as " Sun is exceptionally committed to. " and " Solaris is a operating that is leading in today's world of business. " does not give me, as an engineer, plenty of confidence in your ability. I want to hear fact, not platitudes and self-serving ideology. Hell, why not just paint your house page red under the moving banner of, " Computers around the globe, Unite beneath the Sun motherland that is glorious! "

Even though we now have gained some knowledge of site content from studies that mainly concerned higher-level Web design issues, we felt that individuals had a need to know more about Web writing to be able to advise our content creators. We therefore designed a number of studies that specifically looked over how users read Web pages.

Overview of Studies

We conducted three studies by which a total of 81 users read website pages. The first two studies were exploratory and qualitative and were directed at generating insight into how users read and what they like and dislike. The study that is third a measurement study geared towards quantifying the potential https://essay-writing.org advantages of probably the most promising writing styles identified in the first two studies. All three studies were conducted throughout the summer of 1997 in the SunSoft usability laboratories in Menlo Park, CA.

A goal that is major the first study was to compare the reading behavior of technical and non-technical users. Despite the fact that we had conducted some earlier studies with non-technical participants, nearly all of our studies had used users that are highly technical. Also, because of the nature of our site, the vast majority of the data collected from site surveys was supplied by technical users.

In Study 1, we tested a total of 11 users: 6 end-users and 5 users that are technical. The difference that is main technical and non-technical users seemed to play call at participants' familiarity and expertise with search tools and hypertext. The users that are technical better informed about how precisely to perform searches than the end-users were. Technical users also seemed more aware of and much more interested in following hypertext links. At least one end-user said he could be sometimes hesitant to use hypertext for anxiety about getting lost.

Aside from those differences, there appeared as if no differences that are major how technical and non-technical users approached reading on the Web. Both groups desired scannable text, short text, summaries, etc.

The tasks were classic directed tasks comparable to those used in nearly all of our previous Web usability studies. Users were typically taken up to the house page of a website that is specific then asked to locate specific info on your website. This process was taken fully to prevent the well-known problems when users need to find things by searching the entire Web Web that is entire and Hockley 1997Pollock. The following is an example task:

you plan a visit to Las Vegas and want to learn about a restaurant that is local by chef Charlie Trotter. You heard it was located in the MGM Grand casino and hotel, however you want more information in regards to the restaurant. You begin by studying the website for Restaurants & Institutions magazine at: http://www.rimag.com

Hint: seek out stories on casino foodservice

Make an effort to find out:
-what the article said in regards to the restaurant
-where food that is most is served in the riverboat casino

Unfortunately, the internet happens to be so very hard to use that users wasted enormous levels of time searching for the specific page that contained the response to the question. Even if on the intended page, users often could not find the answer simply because they did not look at relevant line. As a result, much of Study 1 ended up repeating navigation issues that we knew from previous studies therefore we got fewer results than desired associated with actual reading of content.

Users Would You Like To Search

Upon visiting each site, nearly all regarding the participants wanted to start with a keyword search. " a great internet search engine is key for an excellent website, " one participant said. If the search engines was not available, a few of the participants said, they would try utilizing the browser's " Find " command.

Sometimes participants needed to be asked to try and discover the information without using a search tool, because searching was not a focus that is main of study.

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