Reach smartphone users by understanding these stats
More than half of your audience members now visit your websites, engage with your social channels and pick up your emails via mobile devices.… Read the full article
Web writing
What’s the right web page length?
Clicking vs. scrolling for the mobile web
My favorite piece of advice for determining the length of a web page came from friend and fellow writing coach Jeff Herrington: “Think index cards, not toilet paper.”
In other words: Write more shorter pages.… Read the full article
Sentences: Streamline them online
And activate passive voice online
Simple sentences — subject, verb, object — are easiest to read, online or off.
That’s why Jan H. Spyridakis, professor of Human Centered Design & Engineering at the University of Washington, suggests that you:
1.
… Read the full articleFocus your web copy
Make it relevant
Usability guru Jakob Nielsen recommends condensing copy by 50% online.
That’s certainly a useful guideline. But no single, overarching rule makes sense all the time.… Read the full article
Cut webpages in half
Shorter webpages nearly 60% more usable
When usability guru Jakob Nielsen wanted to measure the effects of short web copy, he studied a webpage about Nebraska.… Read the full article
Why scannable web copy?
Because ‘readers’ don’t read
Here’s the title of one of usability expert Jakob Nielsen’s earliest web-writing articles:1
How Users Read on the Web
The first paragraph:
They don’t.
… Read the full articleImprove your fact-to-fluff ratio
Aim for a 1:1 proportion
Readers are busy. Fluff takes space. Space takes time. So let’s cut the fluff and get on with it.
To cut the fluff, aim for a fact-to-fluff ratio of at least 1:1.… Read the full article
Weed out the top
Don’t bury your message under sharing buttons, bylines and chrome
People spend 84% more time above the fold than below it, according to Nielsen Norman Group’s analysis of 57,453 eyetracking fixations;
Google 2014 analysis of display advertising.… Read the full article
Does the fold still matter?
Visitors spend 84% of their time above the fold
Does the fold still matter?
Yes it does, say the researchers at the Nielsen Norman Group: The 100 pixels just above the fold were viewed 102% more than the 100 pixels just below the fold, according to an analysis of 57,453 eyetracking fixations that the usability research firm has tracked over the years.… Read the full article
Mobile makeover for depression post
Communicator transforms piece for the small screen
Make mine to go.
More than half of your audience members now receive your emails, visit your webpages and engage with your social media channels via their mobile devices, not their laptops.… Read the full article