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Writing for the Web

Contrary to earlier perceptions, several recent studies point out that text and headlines, rather than images or animations, are the first things people look at on Web pages.
The sections legibility and cross platform design outline how poor implementation and integration of fonts and their properties as well as neglect of various screen size options affect the creation of written content for the Web. Research shows reading text on a computer screen is much harder - and people read slower - than when viewing printed content. Text passages are only read if the content seems interesting for the reader and adds value to the site.
Emphasised text elements like headlines, keywords, lists and coloured text help the reader to quickly scan the content and filter out those passages of interest to her.
A meaningful and easy to read structure makes the search for information easy for the user, allowing her to get to the required information or content as quickly as possible. Often, headlines are also presented in the form of lists of hyperlinks, whereas the purpose of these is often not made clear due to a missing description near the list. To make up for this, it is important to use a short but very descriptive text for the link, even more as the reader usually weights the importance of the text by the impact of the first few words on her. Another structural element to further ease legibility is the list. Lists can be used to present different items quickly and effectively, while taking up little space on a page.

In recent years users have become more comfortable with browsing long Web pages by scrolling through the document. Nevertheless, important links or information placed at the beginning of a page increases efficiency by providing shortcuts and allows the viewer to jump straight to the information. Short and accurate articles make it easy for the viewer to consume and select relevant content. A short summary before the main article describing its content makes it easy for the user to decide whether it is worth reading. When users are confronted with longer text passages, they usually read the first section or sentence and then decide whether to read on, based on their impression of the relevance on the information contained therein. Links that are too widely spread throughout paragraphs can also influence the user's decision-making on whether to read the whole article. According to the publication "Writing for a Web audience" released by IBM, this makes a user feel insecure as she does not want to get interrupted or distracted by having to load a new page. Embedded links should be easy to spot and differ visually from other emphasised content.

We can summaris the following guidelines for composing content for the Web:

• Content on the Web should be no more than 50% of the same content published in traditional ways (e.g. in printed magazines or newspapers).
• The text structure should allow easy scanning.
• Longer articles should be split in relevant short sections and spread over several pages.