Writing Matters

Web Content Competence: How Can There Be So Many Have-Nots?

I recently presented two half-day web writing workshops for Missouri Southern State University (go Lions!). To prepare, I studied lots of university web sites. I was stunned at the range of content quality. Some university sites are well written, well edited, smooth, and focused. But others show such a lack web writing competence that I was simply perplexed.

Content competence is a new concept I've been using in my web writing courses. It means having the set of writing skills that make you suitable to the task of writing content. I'm still working on a comprehensive list of the skills that comprise content competence, but I know this set of skills is essential in today's workplace. Almost everyone contributes to the tasks of writing, editing, or reviewing the web content that represents the work they do.

Whether we can easily define content competence, we know it when we see it (and when we don't). To illustrate the range of content competence, here's an apples-to-apples comparison of how three institutions of higher learning handle their "University Honors Program" content. (Click the links, not the images, if you want to go to the live web pages.)

Competent: Florida State University's Honors Program page

This FSU page is logically grouped and task oriented:

• The Welcome message is brief and friendly (though it would be better if the second paragraph came first, as most undergraduates don't care too much about faculty directives from 1932).
• The links are well named and easy to find. They make it easy for users to get answers to their questions such as "Does FSU offer special study abroad programs or scholarships for honors students?"
• The links enable users to get things done online. Users can download forms or complete a tutorial.

Semi-competent: University of New Mexico's Honors Program page

This UNM page is at war with itself:

• The green tree behind the black text makes the words nearly impossible to read.
• The content chunk "News, Events, Announcements" does not have a good name. Is there enough of a difference news, events, and announcements that all three need to be listed?
• The image-to-text ratio is off on this page. The photos are trumping the content but not in a good way. On the right, photos dissolve and reappear too quickly for the user to read the superimposed text. At the bottom, the photo of honors students frolicking in the ruins is partially obscuring the Submit Here link.

Incompetent: University of Nebraska at Omaha's Honors Program page

 This UNO page has some of the worst web writing I've ever seen:

• The text is in four different colors.
• The chunks are separated by canyons of white space.
• The content dead-ends because there aren't any links.
• On this page, the writer explains what to do on another page ... without supplying a single hypertext link that would enable the user to follow the instructions:
  • "There is a blue button on the Mavlink home page as well as the Current Students page that says "Search for Classes." Click the button, enter Spring 2011 for the class term, click Go. The next page has 5 selection buttons. Click the Special Programs button only, find Honors Program, and click Go."

I'm interested in your thoughts on the concept of content competence or any apples-to-apples comparisons you'd like to share. Post a comment here or e-mail me. 

 -- Leslie O'Flahavan

Your Web Content Is Hurting My Eyes and My Brain

Dear U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission,

Usually I comment on the quality of the writing at a web site, but I've got to talk to you frankly today. The text on your home page is hurting my eyes:

• Your masthead is right-aligned
• Your left column is centered
• The labels for the main sections of your site are left-aligned (white text on a blue band) but each item listed below is right-aligned, which leaves a ragged blank mess on the left

SEC, I don't know where to look. My eyes are hopping around everywhere; I am conducting a very unproductive experiment in scanning. Maybe you could make your page look more like the Food and Drug Administration's home page. The FDA's isn't perfect, but the text is left-aligned.

SEC, please bone up on the usability research on text alignment. For homework, you must read:

• Right-Justified Navigation Menus Impede Scannability by Jakob Nielsen
• Eye Gaze Patterns while Searching vs. Browsing a Website from Usability News

And, SEC, whatever you do, please do not use the HR Management home page as your model. The only thing worse than text with hard-to-scan alignment is text that moves.

-- Leslie O'Flahavan

FAQs Upgrade: How the Library of Congress Regrouped to Improve Self-Service Content

Many congratulations to Paul Weiss, Senior Cataloging Policy Specialist, in the Library of Congress's Policy and Standards Division. After participating in an Advanced Writing for the Web course I recently taught, Paul rolled up his sleeves for a re-do of his FAQs page on cataloging.

Paul's FAQs, intended for archivists and librarians, had become an apples-and-oranges list of 23 questions. Some of the FAQs were clearly written for librarians--What office is responsible for cataloging policy at the Library of Congress?--and others were for publishers--How can I get my publication cataloged? And, as we all know, a list of 23 FAQs is too long for users. Instead of using the 23 FAQs to answer their questions themselves, most users will just give up and send an e-mail or give you a call.

The old version of the Library of Congress's FAQs about Cataloging

The new-and-improved version of the Library of Congress's FAQs about Cataloging

The new FAQs are truly improved:

• They have been sorted into three main categories--for the General Public, for Publishers, and for Librarians--and several subcategories.
• They are written in first person. Now the FAQ reads How can I obtain information about cataloging when the old version read How can publishers obtain ...
• Some FAQs were eliminated, which means the old list of 23 was given a thorough content review.

Have a great before-and-after example you'd like to share? Let me know and I will feature your rewrite here.

-- Leslie O'Flahavan

8 Ways to Get Your Manager to Focus on the Content at Your Company's Website

If you are a web writer, web editor, or content manager, you often find yourself trapped. You have loads of responsibility for publishing user-focused content, but too little authority (or none at all) over the people who contribute that content. You can't "make" your colleagues update their pages, follow the style guide, or meet content deadlines.

Your manager or boss is the one with all the authority. So, how do you get your manager's attention and support for your web writing projects when he's focusing on a thousand other topics and really doesn't understand the challenges of publishing good content?

I opened this topic up for discussion during an Advanced Writing for the Web course I taught last week, and as a class we came up with some great ideas I thought I'd share. Here are eight strategies for getting your manager to focus on the content at your website:

1. Work on one small part of the site and document how much time you spent. Then you'll be able to give your manager a concrete idea of how much time you need for web projects. Say: "It took me 4.5 hours to update our Outreach pages. It'll take at least that much time to work on our Products and Services pages." 
2. Show your manager your web writing work in hard copy. Hard copy often helps people focus on the site's content and message rather than the design, technology, or the latest widget.
3. Show your manager the source code. It may help him understand that you can't merely "webify" documents and put them up on the web.
4. Draft a policy, purpose, or scope statement for the website. Get your manager’s approval on your draft statement rather than waiting for your manager to draft the statement himself.
5. Gather the telephone or e-mail questions that front-line staff receive from the public, customers, and site visitors. Show your manager how the existing site does not answer these questions clearly or efficiently.
6. Document how many days, weeks, or months (?!) draft web content sits in the pipeline before it gets published. Show your manager the consequences of the delay.
7. Present your manager with a content calendar that shows deadlines for publishing new content and retiring old content. Identify the owners of content that needs to be written or deleted. Ask for your manager's support in getting people to comply with deadlines.
8. Ask your manager to identify priorities for the site. Say: “I need a clear statement of what’s the most important thing here. What should we do first and when do you want it completed? Who should do each task and how much of their time should they spend?”

Do you have any strategies for getting your manager's support for your web publishing efforts? If so, post them as a comment here or e-mail me.

-- Leslie O'Flahavan

 

Six Non-Negotiable Standards for High-Quality Information Online

I was just introduced to a wonderful white paper that details six meaningful and crisply stated customer service standards for government information online. (OK, the white paper was published in 2008, so why am I only discovering it now?!)

This brief, clear document with the visionary title "Putting Citizens First: Transforming Online Government" was prepared for the 2008 – 2009 Presidential Transition Team by the Federal Web Managers Council.

Here are the six customer service standards. I think they're relevant for all types of online communication. Substitute customers for American people and company for government, and these standards should work for whatever type of content you publish online.

"When the American people need government information and services online, they should be able to:

• Easily find relevant, accurate, and up-to-date information;
• Understand information the first time they read it;
• Complete common tasks efficiently;
• Get the same answer whether they use the web, phone, email, live chat, read a brochure, or visit in-person;
• Provide feedback and ideas and hear what the government will do with them;
• Access critical information if they have a disability or aren’t proficient in English."

I suggest you download the complete white paper, as it also includes several no-nonsense recommendations that I believe are right on the money:

• "Agencies should be required to fund their 'virtual' office space as part of their critical infrastructure, in the same way they fund their 'bricks and mortar' office space."
• "Agencies should be required and funded to conduct regular content reviews, to ensure their online content is accurate, relevant, mission-related, and written in plain language..."

On October 6 and 7, I'll be teaching Writing Well for Online Readers: Essentials of Writing in Plain Language for Web Manager University, which is the training arm of Webcontent.gov. If you work on a government website, I hope you'll consider enrolling in the class. If you don't work on a government website, don't worry. I'll try to share some of the "good stuff," like this white paper, with you here.

-- Leslie O'Flahavan

For Double the Value, Cut Your Web Content In Half

Sometimes the best solution to a problem is the simplest one. Overweight? Eat less.  Low on funds? Sell the flowery china you inherited from your great aunt.

Flabby, non-engaging web content? Cut it in half. Sometimes the best thing you can do to your web content is just make it shorter by half.

My experiment: halve the word count at consulting company's web page
Through a random Google search, I found Blue Jay Consulting's "Approach" page and decided to use it test my edit-with-machete technique. (Full disclosure: I don't know anyone at Blue Jay Consulting or anything about the company; I'm not a hater or a fan.) Here's the original content at 153 words:

Approach
Our goal is to optimize the performance of every organization with which we work. We figure out how to maximize the capability of systems and personnel alike. Our techniques are proven, our consultants are respected and our clients benefit from quantifiable results.

We base all of our efforts on the following general approach:

1. Conduct a thorough assessment of the department. What's not working, what's not making sense? Where are the problems, where are the opportunities?
2. Dive into day-to-day operations to gain insight into your organization's performance.
3. Present a set of recommendations for department-wide improvements.
4. Partner with personnel from all areas of the hospital -- including administration, physicians and front-line staff -- in problem-solving efforts.
5. Remain in place during the implementation of new process and system improvements in order to manage the change and provide support.
6. Maintain ongoing contact with clients to ensure sustainability of achieved successes.

My 50-percent-shorter version (76 words)  
 
Approach
We improve your organization’s performance by maximizing the capabilities of your systems and personnel. Our consultants employ our proven six-step approach to gain you quantifiable results:

1.  Assess the department to discover problems and opportunities.
2.  Analyze day-to-day operations to understand the department’s performance.
3.  Recommend improvements.
4.  Partner with administration, physicians, and front-line staff to solve problems.
5.  Provide support while you implement new processes.
6.  Maintain contact so you can sustain your successes.

What I learned from my cut-content-by-half experiment

• This was hard work, which I couldn't accomplish in one sitting. I had to do this word whittling in several rounds. 
• I may have inadvertently altered the meaning of this content, so if you're cutting your own content by half, be careful.
• Shorter isn't always better. I kind of liked the original sentence "Our techniques are proven, our consultants are respected and our clients benefit from quantifiable results." My version is shorter, but it doesn't have the rhythm of the original: "Our consultants employ our proven six-step approach to gain you quantifiable results..."

Are you game? Try this 50-percent-less experiment on your content and let me know whether the task was difficult and whether you like the shorter version. If you'd like, we'll link to your new, streamlined content here (especially if you'll show us the longer version too).

-- Leslie O'Flahavan

"If Your Web Content Is Good, You Don't Need FAQs"

That's what a participant said during a web writing course I taught recently for the Federal Library and Information Network at the Library of Congress.

"We Don't Need No Stinkin' FAQs"

I've heard this opinion before. Lots of people object to websites that segregate answers to users' questions in a long sprawling FAQs section. Instead, they believe the content should anticipate and answer users' questions, page by page. I understand this point of view, especially when I come across pages like the Baby's First Circus page at the Ringling Bros. site.

The Baby's First Circus page is a thin 200 words. It describes the Baby's First Circus program, which provides a free circus ticket and a certificate for children up to 12 months old.  But to get any detail about the program, such as links to the sign-up pages, the program rules, and the mailing address to send birth certificates if you want to enroll your triplets (!!!), you have to go to the separate Baby Program FAQs page.

This method of organizing the content suits no one. The Baby's First Circus page is too short and insubstantial, and the FAQs page has its own problems:

• the questions are numbered, which implies a sequence that doesn't exist
• it includes information for two distinct groups: parents who haven't registered yet and those who have already registered. By dumping this information into one FAQs section, Ringling Bros. forces each type of user to wade through the info intended for the other type.

The Enduring Appeal of FAQs

Don't get me wrong. I 'm not against FAQs in general. FAQs are one of the most compelling ways to present information online. Because users see their very own questions, written in their very own words, users really like and rely on FAQs. Think about it: FAQs are so popular that they are the only type of web content we refer to by initials. We don't call the About Us page the AU or the Products and Services page the P &S, do we?

Users turn to a website's FAQs section because they want to know:

• What questions should I have?
• Can I find a short cut or a short version here?
• Can I get a simple yes or no?
• Can I find my info more easily here than in the “real” content pages?
• Can I find my questions phrased in my wording, using terminology I will understand?

So, when FAQs are done right, they are a great asset. But FAQs should not become a dumping ground for content that should be integrated into the site's architecture and supported by navigation.

What do you think? How have you handled the FAQs-vs.-content-pages issue at your site? Do you agree with this statement: "If your web content is good, you don't need FAQs"? Post your thoughts here or let me know.

-- Leslie O'Flahavan

P.S. Want more FAQs resources? Download our FAQs Style Guide.

BlueHost: Great Customer Service Starts on the Home Page

Mention customer service to almost anyone, and you’ll get a litany of complaints that include interminable wait times for phone support as well as incorrect or unsatisfactory responses to phone and e-mail queries. That’s why I’m singing the praises of BlueHost, the company I chose to host a new blog. (More on that to come.)

I considered a number of highly recommended hosting companies. But BlueHost’s website clinched the deal. It was well written, logically organized, and had a clean user-friendly design. What’s more, the website provided a wealth of help options:

• Customer support numbers featured on every page: “QUESTIONS? BlueHost specializes in customer satisfaction. Call us with your questions Toll Free 24/7."
• Live Chat button prominently displayed on the home page.
• Help Center that offered a wealth of support options: A searchable knowledge base, getting started wizard, video tutorials, user forums, and an e-mail option.
• Contact Us page with phone numbers for each department (Sales, Technical Support, Billing) as well as a mailing address.

The day I signed up, I called them five times. My first call was to Sales to clarify rates and the process of signing up. I also wanted to test out their customer support before signing on. (They passed the test.)

Four calls were to Technical Support after I signed up. Those calls dealt with installing blog software—WordPress and the Thesis theme. Each time my call was answered promptly, and knowledgeable technical support people quickly solved my problems. The person I talked with the fifth time was as pleasant and helpful as the person who fielded my first call, though I’m sure by that time I was flagged in their database as pain in the butt. 

A few days later, I tried out BlueHost’s e-mail support. My question about moving an existing blog to BlueHost was answered within a few hours. It was well-written and provided links to “how-to's.”  A follow-up question was answered within an hour. 

I know the dangers of falling in love at first sight.  But based on the first date, BlueHost looks like the model for great customer service. I’m optimistic about a meaningful long-term relationship.  

(Note: I am not a BlueHost affiliate. My only relationship with the company is as a satisfied customer.)

--Marilynne Rudick

Announcing System Outages: There's Got to Be a Better Way?

On behalf of my colleague and friend Marie DiRuzza (Assistant Director of Desktop Services at Worcester Polytechnic Institute and V.P. of Programs for HDI New England) I am reaching out to all of you to ask for your input: what's the best way to write a system outage announcement?

Marie's group at WPI is responsible for letting everyone on campus know when a system or network will be unavailable. They use a format for these outage announcements that's dictated by, in Marie's words, "an ancient (and free) posting system," which you can take a look at in the thumbnail, at left. She's less than happy with the outage announcement format and is looking for other options. If you've developed a method for writing system outage announcements or if you receive helpful, easy-to-read announcements from the service desk at your company, please let me know or post a comment. Of course, if you want to share a terrible system outage announcement, you can do that too.

I don't know how to tell Marie this, but I think her outage announcements are, in fact, quite good. They give the bare facts of the outage, the reasons behind the outage, and the details of the outage. The two-column format works because the left column presents headings for those who like to scan:

• When?    
• How long?    
• Why?    
• Groups Affected    
• Impact    
• Questions    
• Details

And the right column presents explanations for those who want to read. When appropriate, the announcements include a Frequently Asked Questions section, so those super-interested readers will get all the detail they need. Take a look at a recent announcement: "myWPI Planned Downtime – System Upgrade (3/12/10)" or, if you feel the need, scroll through eight years of archived announcements (!).

-- Leslie O'Flahavan

Epic Fail: Art-House MovieTheater's "How to Buy Tickets" page

We're lucky to live near the American Film Institute's Silver Theater in Silver Spring, Maryland, a beautifully restored 1930s theater that offers satisfying alternatives to multiplex films. But AFI's website is a nightmare if you want to complete the simple transaction that will keep the theater in the black: buy tickets online.

AFI's home page sports a prominent Buy Tickets link. But, inexplicably, you can't buy tickets on the How to Buy Tickets page, a page that truly fails task-oriented users:

• There's no link to the Buy Tickets page, though it would be safe to assume that a user who's reading instructions on how to buy tickets wants to buy tickets.
• The paragraph under the heading Online includes this sentence: "There are many links on this site that you may choose to get to the purchase point, such as: Now Playing, Films by Title, Film Series and Calendar..." but doesn't actually link to any of those links. This kind of meta-writing is always a bad sign: copy that refers to links without linking, pages that begin  "On this page, you will find ..."

To be fair to AFI, I decided to compare its online ticket purchase process that of similar theaters. Who knew that art-house movie theater web sites comprise the Make-It-Difficult-To-Buy-Tickets genre?

• The Brattle Theater in Cambridge, Massachusetts presents a small Tickets link under its description of each film, but site-wide it has placed the Buy Tickets links under the Buy Stuff label in the main navigation. You have to scroll way down to the bottom of the Buy Stuff page—past the travel mugs, gift cards, posters, and t-shirts—to reach the Buy Tickets link.
• The Enzian Theater in Maitland, Florida is better. The site lacks a Buy Tickets link in its main navigation, but the home page text does explain "Click Show Times to Purchase Tickets" and this sentence appears above the showtimes on each film-specific page.
• The Film Forum in Manhattan gets it right with a prominent Buy Tickets link in the main navigation. Even better, the drop-down from the Buy Tickets link lists the films currently showing, the calendar, and a couple of explanations of when you can or can't buy tickets online (albeit with some weird double asterisks).

Helping users complete tasks is a website's highest calling. If you want your site to be task-oriented, take a look at these excellent offerings from Webcontent.gov:

• Step-by-Step Guide: Roadmap to a Task-Focused Website (PDF)
  
• Strategies for Determining Top Tasks
  
• Task-Focused Templates and Resources
• Free webinar for government employees: Three Essential Tips for Creating a Task–Based Website – Jan. 13, 2010

  -- Leslie O'Flahavan