Web writing—Part 2Technical stuff and customer experience

What’s this all about?

• Search engine optimisation (SEO) and metadata

• Usability and accessibility

• Customer experience

Search engine users

Most people:

• search with Google, then jump right in to the content they want

• search on 1 or 2 words

• read only the first page of search results

• read only the first few results.

Search algorithms

Give weight to keywords in the:

• page title

• headings

• links (both your site and referring sites)

• content

• URL

• alt text, etc.

Keywords

• Words your customers use

They search for ‘funding’, not ‘forward-facing fiscal encouragement scheme’

• Be aware of them and use them in your content and headings

Don’t write strange content just to fit them in

SEO is a bonus of good content, not the other way around.

Write keywords

Workbook: Metadata

Page titles

Page titles (cont.)

• Be unique—don’t recycle from other pages

• Include keywords

• Accurately describe the page content

• Left-align (‘front load’) the most specific detail (F-shaped viewing pattern)

• Be 60 characters or less—spaces are counted.

Descriptions

• Affect SEO and are sometimes displayed in search results

• Should be unique

Don’t recycle from other content!

• Should summarise the page

Don’t just paste in the first paragraph!

• Should be 160–320 characters

Your turn

Workbook: Descriptions

Stop! Tangent time!

Usability

• A measure of how easy a page is to use

• Affected by visual presentation, functionality and content

Accessibility

• A measure of how consumable web content is for people with disability

• Assistive technologies

Visible and ‘invisible’ content/code

• Generally, a change to improve usability also improves accessibility

Such as, meaningful headings and links

Numbers

• Approximately 300,000 in Australia

• 285,000,000 worldwide

• That’s just vision impairment

Not just vision impairment

• Visual—Blindness, low vision, colour-blindness

• Hearing—Deafness and hard-of-hearing

• Motor—Inability to use a mouse, slow response time, limited fine motor control

• Cognitive—Learning disabilities, distractibility, inability to remember or focus on large amounts of information

Braille readers

Image sourced from bbc.co.uk

Challenges and solutions

• See hand out

It’s the law, Jim

• Module 6—Non-HTML documents (CUE Standard 3.0)

• Information Standard 26—Internet (Mandatory principle 1—Online presence)

• Disability Discrimination Act 1992 (Cwlth) (Part 2, Division 1, Section 24) Note: this is the ‘requirement’ that rules them all. CUE Module 6 and IS26 are written in accordance with the Act

• Digital Service Standard, Australian Government Digital Transformation Office

• Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.0

Screen readers

• Read text aloud

• Navigate with keyboard controls

• Tab through links or headings, etc.

• Content most important, but also technical considerations

Making content accessible

There are 3 main elements

• Technical

• Design

• Content

We’re going to skip over…

• Technical

Site design to enable assistive technology▪ Code to enable keyboard navigation

Avoiding things that don’t support assistive technology▪ iFrames, Flash, etc.

• Design

Layout to minimise cognitive load▪ White space, etc.

Larger click areas, etc.

Colour contrast levels, font sizes, etc.

Content is where it is at

• Like anyone else, people with disability come to your website for content.

• Content is not just text, but also your images, videos, and audio—and anything else that conveys information.

Did you know? every family makes their own decision about the type of education they want for their child. education in Tasmania is a three-way partnership between parents, the school and the child. the age when children can start and finish school is set by law. children are required to attend school from the age of five years old to at least 17 years old. parents are welcome in all schools. interpreters can be provided if parents and teachers wish to discuss a child’s progress. Where to start? • if English is not your child’s first language, there is help available in Tasmanian government schools. • the English as an additional language (EAL) program, provides English language support for eligible kindergarten to year 12 students. • support is provided on a needs basis with priority given to newly arrived students. Education in Tasmania there are three different levels of education in Tasmania: 1. primary schools –kindergarten to year 6 (for students who are 4-12 years old). 2. secondary (high) school – years 7-10 (for students who are 12-16 years old). some of these schools offer years 11 and 12. 3. senior secondary schools – years 11 and 12 (for students aged from 16 years). 4. combined (district) schools may combine all three levels of education. EAL support students may be: • newly arrived or adopted children with little or no English • children whose parents speak limited English at home • children who are experiencing literacy difficulties due to insufficiently developed first language skills. if English is not your first language and you need help understanding the Tasmanian education system, or how your child is progressing, an interpreter service is available at no cost to you. Costs to parents • the cost of attending Tasmanian government schools is kept at a minimum. concessions may be available if you hold a health concession card. • talk to your school about costs and how we can help you. Uniforms • wearing a school uniform is strongly encouraged in Tasmanian government schools from kindergarten to year 10. • in years 11 and 12 uniforms are not worn. You are responsible for... • getting your child to school regularly in school hours and in school uniform • informing the school of any medical conditions • informing the school if your child will be away from school because of sickness or appointments • providing food and drink for your child every day • taking young children to school and picking them up from school every day • making sure your child does any homework if it is set. future we are their future we are their future we are their future we are their

Did you know? every family makes their own decision about the type of education they want for their child. education in Tasmania is a three-way partnership between parents, the school and the child. the age when children can start and finish school is set by law. children are required to attend school from the age of five years old to at least 17 years old. parents are welcome in all schools. interpreters can be provided if parents and teachers wish to discuss a child’s progress. Where to start? • if English is not your child’s first language, there is help available in Tasmanian government schools. • the English as an additional language (EAL) program, provides English language support for eligible kindergarten to year 12 students. • support is provided on a needs basis with priority given to newly arrived students. Education in Tasmania there are three different levels of education in Tasmania: 1. primary schools –kindergarten to year 6 (for students who are 4-12 years old). 2. secondary (high) school – years 7-10 (for students who are 12-16 years old). some of these schools offer years 11 and 12. 3. senior secondary schools – years 11 and 12 (for students aged from 16 years). 4. combined (district) schools may combine all three levels of education. EAL support students may be: • newly arrived or adopted children with little or no English • children whose parents speak limited English at home • children who are experiencing literacy difficulties due to insufficiently developed first language skills. if English is not your first language and you need help understanding the Tasmanian education system, or how your child is progressing, an interpreter service is available at no cost to you. Costs to parents • the cost of attending Tasmanian government schools is kept at a minimum. concessions may be available if you hold a health concession card. • talk to your school about costs and how we can help you. Uniforms • wearing a school uniform is strongly encouraged in Tasmanian government schools from kindergarten to year 10. • in years 11 and 12 uniforms are not worn. You are responsible for... • getting your child to school regularly in school hours and in school uniform • informing the school of any medical conditions • informing the school if your child will be away from school because of sickness or appointments • providing food and drink for your child every day • taking young children to school and picking them up from school every day • making sure your child does any homework if it is set. future we are their future we are their future we are their future we are their

Accessible content (generally)

• Have meaningful links and headings.

• Don’t use images as the only way of communicating.

• Don’t use tables for layout.

• Format headings properly.

And…

• Plain English

• Grade 9 level

• (WCAG guidelines allow you to remove proper nouns before assessment…)

• I aim for Grade 10 readability or less, including proper nouns.

Flesch–Kincaid

Image specific

• Covered later!

Table specific

• For tabular information only, not layout

No faux column styling

• Best is relatively simple tables

1:1 cell–column relationship

Avoid mid table cell merging

No tables within tables

• Set headers

In hand-out

Bad table

Good tables

PDFs and accessibility

What PDFs are good for

• Some image-based content (e.g. high-resolution maps)

• Content that a customer may want to print or keep (e.g. transaction receipts, checklists to be used away from a computer, tickets with barcodes)—only if ‘print this page’ does not meet customer needs.

• You need to also offer accessible equivalents

What PDFs are not good for

• Unusually shaped brochures—anything that requires special printer set-ups, special folding etc., unless educational ‘project’ materials

• Documents that duplicate existing HTML content without a demonstrated need for that content to be downloadable as a ‘package’

Why are web teams so cranky about PDFs?

• This is a very important question…

Hey, web person, can I put this PDF

on the website?

No? What? I’m very important!

Put the @#$%*&^ PDF on the website!

But, why not?

PDF problems

PDFs:

• are not as well indexed by most search engines

• need to be downloaded in entirety

• can’t be reflowed for mobile devices

• won’t include Google Analytics code.

And still more…

• You need a PDF reader installed to view PDFs.

Adobe Reader is currently 117.4MB.

• If a PDF is opened in a browser…

hot keys change

people can accidentally close the browser when they want to go back.

Documents• Use proper styles—H1, H2, etc.

• Set reading order—Column A, then Column B, then break-out box, etc.

• Include a table of contents for longer documents—with jump links.

• Specify natural language—what language are you writing in?

• Include metadata—information that describes the content of the document.

• Force download—don’t let the document open in the browser.

User experience

Utility

Usability

Emotional identity

Information page

• Utility—What purpose does the information (content) serve? Content must answer customer questions.

Are there other closely related questions this content should answer?

• Usability—How easy is the content to read and comprehend?

By writing in plain English and supplementing with illustrations or photos, we can make it easy to understand.

• Emotional identity—Are the photos used appropriate for the tone of the content?

Both the tone of the content and imagery used can affect the emotional identity of the page.

Online service

• Utility—Does the service provide all the functionality customers need to achieve their goal?

After submitting the form, does the customer feel like the task is finished? Will they have to follow up later?

• Usability—How easy are the forms to use?

Is it easy to tell which label applies to which field? Does the customer have everything they need to complete the form? Is the customer able to recover easily from errors?

• Emotional identity—Is the tone of questions and instructions appropriate? Is the visual treatment of the service appropriate for tasks that are performed with it?

Exercise

Here’s a letter I got recently…

Break!

What’s this all about?

• Images

• Style guide

• Proofreading

Using images—Tech stuff

• Trim to size

• Preserve aspect ratio

• 72 DPI (or PPI) for web (print 300 DPI)

• Quality around 80%

• PNG good for flat colours, logos, etc.

Also lets you set a colour as transparent

• JPG for photographs

Images and accessibility

• Don’t use images as the only way of conveying information

• Don’t use images of text

• Include alt text

• For charts, include a long description (in handout)

Alt text example

View from Ann St, in Brisbane, looking across King George square to City Hall at dusk. Traffic leaves light trails (long exposure).

SEO tip: also give your image a keyword-rich name.

Using images

• Emotional identity and suitability

Image must be relevant to content, not just ‘pretty pictures’

At onscreen resolution, is the subject of the image clear?

• Copyright and releases

Is the image royalty free?

Has credit been given if necessary?

Do you have signed consent (release) forms from everyone shown?

When to use images

• When something needs to be identified (e.g. road signs and their meanings)

• To humanise a story—pathos

• To aid navigation—relevant thumbnails

Reader-friendly writing

• Plain English (covered earlier)

• Positive and inclusive language

• Consistent style

• Goldilocks tone

Not stuffy or bureaucratic

Not overly casual

Just right

Capitalisation

• Keep minimal

• Sentence case for headings

• Don’t use capitals for these terms

federal government (Commonwealth Government)

state government (Queensland Government)

job titles (unless Director-General’ or higher)

eTerms

• eLearning, eBusiness etc. (no hyphen)

exception: email

lower case ‘e’ when starting sentence

Other nuances

• DVDs, not DVD’s

• e.g. and i.e. (no commas—use only within brackets or tables)

• no semi colons at the end of list items

• unspaced em dash = ‘general purpose’ dash

• en dash to show a range

3–5 days, Brisbane – Gold Coast bus

• Single quotes in the first instance

Still more nuances

• Numerals everywhere (unless starting a sentence)

• No space between unit of measure and numeral

45kg, not 45 kg

• Time format

6.30pm

• Single spaces

Entering content into CMS

• Don’t copy and paste directly from Word.

• Don’t copy and paste directly from Word.

• Reapply all formatting in CMS.

• Don’t copy and paste directly from Word.

• …or Use HTML cleaner.

Proof content

Check that:

• heading hierarchy is correct

• there is no unintended white space between sections

• all content has been copied (nothing missing or duplicated)

• all content has been copied (nothing missing or duplicated)

bullets are formatted correctly

• all links work as they should

• all images have alt text.

Proofreading

Exercise #4: Space-grown lettuce

• Can you find the errors?

Trust nothing

Check grammar, spelling, formatting, consistency

Working with subject matter experts (SMEs)

While most SMEs will understand and support the way we write, others:

• will feel that content will only be accurate if it is written in a ‘traditional’ style

• might be ok with the style, but want to include agency-centric content.

The recalcitrant SME

• Is a good great writer!

Everybody writes well! Everybody is a good driver, right?

• May have ‘control issues’.

Are you stealing their baby?

• Wants to do the right thing, be a good person, walk the dog more often, etc.

• Once onside, will be another change agent.

Persuasive techniques

• Ethos—appeal based on reputation

e.g. Having certain letters after your name

• Pathos—appeal based on emotion

No child will be left behind!

• Logos—appeal based on logic

Not all people are susceptible to logic…

Ethos

• SME guide explaining what we’re trying to do

• Your qualification (as a writer, I ...)

• Program ethos (wave the style guide at them)

• Be confident, but don’t bludgeon them with your ethos

Be humble, not arrogant

• Use the SME’s ethos—they are the ‘expert’; you need their help to write the content; not everyone knows what they know.

Pathos

• This can be particularly useful.

• Most people want to be benevolent. Give them the opportunity. Appeal to their sense of duty.

Share the ABS study on literacy.

People should not be bound by laws they don’t understand.

Talk about usability and accessibility (writing this way helps people).

Talk about the outcome, not the process (it affects people).

Logos

• Step through the 2 versions, demonstrating that everything is covered.

Doing this once or twice should be enough (also establishes your ethos).

• Show them readability / word count statistics (before and after).

• Refer to the content brief, demonstrating that the customer need is met, and no more needs to be included.

• Show them research supporting your position.

General techniques

• Manage expectations—let the SME know what you expect of them and when. Keep your end of the bargain.

• Speak calmly and authoritatively—don’t get emotional or attack (verbally or physically…)

• Get the SME saying ‘yes’, and keep them saying ‘yes’.

• Help the SME reach the conclusion you want by themself. Syllogisms can help.

More general techniques

• Keep on an ‘adult to adult’ level; not parent to child.

• Be aware of body language, yours and others’.

• Be aware of your ‘triggers’; don’t bite! Take a deep breath and count to 10 before responding.

• Calm an agitated person down.

Paraphrase what they’re saying (make them feel like they’re being heard); get them back on track.

Avoid assigning blame or responsibilities.

Other ideas?

• Mirroring

• Neuro-Linguistic Programming

• Reciprocation

• Congruence

Change is scary

Thank you!

W: eastedit.com.auT: @easteditFB: facebook.com/easteditE: rory@eastedit.com.au