Fix-It Friday is a series of posts where I show how a website page can be improved by applying a few web copywriting principles. My primary aim is to make visitors’ lives easier.
Within just an hour, it’s possible to make a page more readable, accessible and search friendly. I also explain what else I’d do if I had more time. Look at the difference a web copywriter can make!
The Energy Institute (EI) is the professional body for the energy industry. It develops and shares knowledge, skills and good practice, while supporting over 14,000 individuals and 300 companies across 100 countries.
The EI website looks great — modern, fresh, professional and easy to navigate. I’m going to look at its ‘About us’ page from a web copywriting perspective.
Web page before
(Click on the image for a larger version.)
Good points
- Individual <title> tags for each page
- Use of H1 tag for page heading
- Contains plenty of well-written information, including who the EI serves and its purpose
- Some links to other pages on the website
- A web-friendly list is used
- The page URL is descriptive
- ‘Skip to content’ link included for accessibility
- Alt tags used correctly on images that contain information, e.g. the EI logo
Could do better
- No sub titles used to break up the text, which is wordy and dense in appearance
- Copy would benefit from better formatting, such as shorter paragraphs and more lists
- Key phrases need highlighting in <strong> tags for both reader and search benefits
- No alt tags for primary-level navigation; it disappears when images are disabled!
- The “description” and “keywords” elements exist but haven’t been used
- Image alt tags used in places that don’t need them, e.g. “Banner” on banner image (no information is contained within)
- The <title> tag could be tweaked to greater effect
Web page after
(Click on the image for a larger version.)
Fixes made in one hour
- Simplified and shortened sentences for easier reading and to be more ‘web friendly’
- Cut out some text duplicated on other pages
- Improved the layout and presentation of the copy
- Added sub titles in appropriate H2 header tags to clearly identify the main sections
- Added further links from key phrases to both internal and external web pages
- Highlighted other key words and phrases in <strong> tags
- Placed suitable information into proper lists
If I had more than an hour, I’d…
- Further review and simplify the language used (e.g. ‘share’ instead of ‘disseminate’) — ‘plain English’ considering the EI’s global audience
- Write “description” and “keywords” tags
- Review image alt tags
- Make sure links are also underlined (not just highlighted in a different colour) for accessibility reasons
- Review the <title> element slightly
- Maybe add anchor links from the top of the page to each H2 header, as the page is quite long
Do you want me to make over a page on your website? If you’d like to suggest a site for me to consider, get in touch!
Posted: September 24th, 2010 | Author: admin | Filed under: Copywriting | Tags: best practice, Copywriting, fix-it friday, online writing, tips, websites | No Comments »
In the second of this (very) occasional series about things I use to help me work, I want to talk about Delicious. It’s been around for a while, and indeed I’ve been using it since I started up as a freelancer. Its staying power can only be a good thing!
It’s ideal for keeping track of all those handy articles I find and read (or intend to read…), as well as sharing them via my websites. However, it was only at the weekend when I had a bit of a fiddle around with it that I discovered some handy features.
From many to one
Previously, I had a Delicious account for each of my blogs (which proliferate faster than I can keep up), with a different log-in for each. In addition, since Yahoo bought Delicious, many of these now have Yahoo log-ins instead.
Fed up with all these different usernames and passwords (plus I don’t use Yahoo for anything else), I decided to bring all my bookmarks (both public and private) under my original account. Delicious offers an easy-peasy import and export tool for doing just that.
Tailored link rolls
However, I don’t want all my bookmarks to show on each website; they’re very different topics. So, I created a tag specific to each one, which I apply as relevant to the saved article. Delicious’ link roll tool then allows me to specific that tag when creating the each feed.
In addition, there’s an option to bundle articles and pages with specific tags (like Gmail’s labelling system), to help you quickly see articles once in your account (rather than searching by a specific tag).
Keeping things private
Of course, some pages are not for the general public, and there’s a simple ‘private’ option (which also appears as a tag) to make sure these are kept hidden. I’m sure there are other tools still to discover too.
And, hey presto, one account with a single username and password, but tailored for each blog. Now I just need to remember to use the correct tag (the one possible source of error!). Follow me on Delicious.
Posted: August 5th, 2010 | Author: admin | Filed under: General, Social networking | Tags: delicious, freelancing, social networks, tips, tools | No Comments »
When I logged onto Facebook this morning, I spotted that two of my friends had joined a new group. The group name caught my attention: ‘Stop the usage of dogs as live bait for sharks!’. Curious (and slightly sceptical), I took a look.
Creating a sense of credibility
The group has a well-written description:
Innocent dogs are being dragged behind boats and used as LIVE bait for sharks!! Defend the rights of animals! We are asking that the French Government ensure that this never happens again. [...] INVITE ALL YOUR FRIENDS. EVERYONE NEEDS TO KNOW HOW SO MANY DOGS ARE KILLED EACH YEAR!
There is a photo of an injured dog, the description offers a link to a ‘…video that shows one poor dog being rescued’, and the administrators also appear to be genuine. All of these factors combine to create a credible-looking cause, which, at the time of writing, is supported by 1,208,122 members.
But digging deeper…
Looking beyond the facts above suggests slightly less than sincere motives. The story itself has been around for at least four years (as this Sun newspaper article from 2005 shows) and, while it has some grounding in fact, has been blown out of proportion.
In addition, the group’s contact information is not an animal rights organisation; it’s a ‘Home Business opportunity’ and the first (and only) piece of news begins with ‘EARN FROM HOME..ARE YOU INTERESTED?’. The only other links on the page are to the organisation’s website.
Typical social networking behaviour?
I think this shows that people on social networks such as Facebook:
- take things at face value
- believe large membership is a sign of credibility
- aren’t always concerned with the organisation behind a group; simply the cause
- use groups as a badge of their beliefs, views or interests.
All the ingredients for a successful Facebook group
So, despite its dubious motives, this group is a good example of how to be successful on Facebook.
- Select a group name that appeals to people’s emotions, beliefs or passions; capture their attention and make them curious, so that they want to find out more.
- Create a well-written description of the group and present its aims clearly.
- Provide supporting materials for your group or cause, such as an image or video.
- Make the administrators easily identifiable and approachable.
Provide relevant links
I doubt many people will have actually clicked through to the amazing ‘home business opportunity’, so this group has probably failed on one important point: providing a relevant link for further information.
If the link had been along the lines of ‘Sign a petition to stop this cruelty NOW!’, I am certain that a large percentage of the group’s supporters would have chosen to follow it. As it is, regular web users are now completely wise to offers of this type and, I would guess, have mostly ignored it.
More information
Here are some more indepth articles from around the web on creating (and maintaining) a successful Facebook group:
Posted: June 16th, 2009 | Author: admin | Filed under: Social networking | Tags: behaviour, credibility, facebook, groups, social networks, tips | No Comments »
Many corporate websites are managed by a person or team for whom the website is not their only responsibility. They rely on expertise from third party suppliers for designing, building and maintaining their website.
Companies with dedicated in-house online teams also sometimes lack a particular skill at a given time. Even with the combination of in-house support and an external agency, calling in an expert can provide many benefits.
But who are these experts, what do they do and how can they help? In the first of an occasional series, we speak to David Hamill of Good Usability. He’s an independent usability expert who’s worked on a number of high-profile websites and intranets, for companies such as RBS and the Share Centre.
Read the interview from the beginning or jump to a question that interests you:
David, thank you for taking the time to speak to Corporate Eye. Many people will be aware of the term, but perhaps you can begin by giving us an overview of the concept of ‘usability’?
Hi Helen, thanks for choosing to interview me. Usability is essentially how well something works for the people it was designed for. So a usable website is one whose target users can do the things they arrived at the site to do, without assistance and with satisfaction.
People often think usability is about simplicity and ease of use. But this isn’t always the case; it’s all about what users want to do. Sometimes they want complex detail. I recently wrote an article on this very subject.
How does usability sit alongside other well-known (but little understood) terms such as ‘user experience’ and ‘accessibility’?
User experience is a bit of a trendy word for usability really. Ironically, usability professionals use a lot of internal language that their clients don’t fully understand. Then in the course of their work they tell clients to stop using internal language on their websites that their customers don’t understand.
Accessibility is a term that webby types use to describe the extent to which your website can be accessed by people of all abilities. It’s often misunderstood to just mean making your website accessible to blind people.
But there are lots of reasons why people have physical and cognitive challenges when using websites and being blind is just one of them. It’s best to think of accessibility as a sub-set of usability. It’s all about websites being fit for purpose.
Following on from that, are there any legal requirements for corporate websites regarding usability?
There isn’t a specific legal requirement but according to the Disability Discrimination Act, service providers must make ‘reasonable adjustments’ to ensure their services can be accessed by people of all abilities.
So, what exactly do you do? How do you carry out your role in an ideal world (that is, with an adequate budget and time scale)?
In an ideal world we’d be doing lots and lots of user-centred design activities. But my ideal initial approach for an existing website is to start very simple.
This is because lots of organisations throw their money away on grand pieces of user research that they aren’t quite ready for. Having carried out a small introductory study, clients are more aware of what it can and can’t tell them.
So I’d start by carrying out usability testing on their current site with a handful of the site’s target users. After we’ve done this they’ll have more than enough improvements to keep them busy and I’ll recommend the next steps.
User centred design is an iterative process, it should never end. So there are always next steps; it’s about the continuous improvement of your website.
I see; explain usability testing to us.
A usability testing study is a series of one-on-one sessions where a facilitator asks target users to carry out real world tasks using the website.
The facilitator doesn’t help them at all; instead they just watch as the participant talks through what they’re doing. It’s remarkable what you can find out about your website and your users, just by watching them using your site.
How would a corporate website benefit from the help of a usability expert? Are there any examples of organisations that have seen tangible benefits?
The benefits depend on the organisation. If you’re an e-commerce website, then the main benefit is increased sales.
Most of the people arriving at your site are leaving without buying anything. Some of them are doing so because of difficulties using the site. This could be things they don’t understand, but also just things that cause enough friction for them to become distracted by the rest of life.
The classic example used to illustrate the benefits of usability techniques is a company that increased sales by $300m by removing a button from its website. I’ve not been quite that helpful to any of my clients yet, but it’s a nice target.
For a non-transactional website, improving the user experience can reduce costs and preserve a positive opinion of the brand. A customer interaction over the phone costs an organisation on average 14 times as much as it does on the web. A face-to-face interaction costs 35 times more.
People don’t persist with websites they have trouble using. Instead they go to another site, pick up the phone or go to the organisation’s office or shop. So there’s a clear cost-saving benefit in making life easy for your site’s visitors.
What do you think of the opinion that usability conflicts with other business objectives on the website, such as branding?
Great question Helen. Brands are not just a quirky logo, a set of colours and a typeface. These are important parts of brand consistency, but they are not the brand.
The brand is how your customers feel about your product or organisation. So you see, usability never conflicts with branding because usability is a part of branding.
The experience your customers are having on your website will influence their opinion of the brand. So there are sometimes usability improvements that conflict with brand guidelines. But not the brand.
What are areas of consideration that apply to all websites? For example, content presentation, consistency, navigation issues and so on.
The list is endless. Everything on your website will influence the user experience. If it doesn’t, it’s useless and should be removed.
However I have a special axe to grind that I know you’ll agree with, Helen. And that’s content. Organisations are happy to shell out large amounts of money on a good design and then spend little time looking at the content they are putting on the site.
My advice is not to let anyone write anything for the website until they’ve received web writing training.
What other typical problems do you see across many corporate websites?
There are common problems and considerations you need to make with every design approach. I prefer to think of a website’s usability in terms of what people are trying to do with it.
The most common problem I find is websites without any sense of priority. The majority of your website’s value is delivered by a very small amount of its content. If you take care of the user journeys to this content, you’ll massively improve the usability of your website.
Of course, we’re not just talking about external websites. How about intranets? These have a different audience and a different purpose; do the same problems apply and are there any additional considerations?
If I asked a 100 of your readers what the purpose of their intranet was, over 90 of them would probably use the word ‘communicate’ in their answer. If you see your intranet as just a communication tool, it is not fulfilling its true potential.
Intranets are business efficiency tools. Internal communications is a small but important part of this. If you want people within the company to use it as a communication tool, you need to first make it an effective business efficiency tool.
It needs to help employees to do their jobs. If it does this, you can then use it to communicate, because they will be using it all the time.
Organisations waste a lot of time and money trying to make their intranets popular and benchmarking themselves against other organisations. Benchmark against yourself not other organisations. Find out where you are in terms of usability and then improve. Use efficiency and effectiveness as a measure, not popularity.
You should start by culling rarely-used content and then create a clear set of guidelines on what gets published and what doesn’t. Otherwise it becomes the place where documents go to die.
There has recently been a lot of discussion online regarding websites for mobile platforms. Do you think that companies need to consider separate websites for use with desktop and mobile browsers?
The context of use is a very important consideration in usability, and the answer to your question depends on the context of use.
Do people even want to use your website on a mobile phone? If so, why are they using their mobile? They aren’t at home or at their desk, so what are they doing? Is it easy enough to do these tasks on a mobile phone?
When you know the answer to these questions, the answer is obvious. Just don’t guess the answer. Get evidence. Do user research.
What advice would you give to a website manager who is currently working on a website redesign or looking to hire an agency to do it for them? What questions should they be asking themselves or the agency?
My first advice is to consider not doing the redesign in the first place. How did your website get into the position that you need to redesign it? How are you going to ensure that you don’t get into that position again?
Big organisations like Amazon, Ebay and the BBC don’t do redesigns anymore. Instead they improve the usability and branding of their websites in phased releases. This is because they have been through so many redesigns that they’ve realised they are wasteful exercises.
If you’re choosing a design agency, I have a sure-fire way to whittle down your shortlist of prospective agencies. Take all of the proposals that include speculative design work and throw them in the bin.
These people have already designed your website without knowing enough about your organisation or your users to do so.
Well, that draws our questions to a close. David, thank you very much for your time and for talking to Corporate Eye.
Useful resources for finding out more
If you’d like to learn more about usability and how it could help you, David has recommended the book Don’t Make Me Think (Steve Krug, published by New Riders) as a good starting point for everyone.
You could also try the following websites:
This article also appeared on Corporate Eye, where I write articles on whole-site issues for corporate websites.
Posted: April 2nd, 2009 | Author: admin | Filed under: Interviews, Usability | Tags: corporate eye, expert, hamill, interview, tips, Usability | 1 Comment »
Want to delete a Facebook group that you created but can’t work out how? Here’s what you need to do – it’s straightforward once you know.
