Chapter 7 of Nielsen was kind of common sense. Don't choose text that's hard to read, so that people can read your site and not get frustrated. Check. Though the serif and sans serif types were interesting to read about because I didn't know much regarding specific types, most of the chapter just seemed pretty obvious to me.
I thought Chapter 8 was of much more importance and interest to me, especially since I come from a background in Journalism. Nielsen recommended writing for the web using the inverted pyramid style, a method journalists use to get the Five W's right up front in the lead of a story. It makes sense that writing for the web should be the same way. Many of the examples provided showed flaws that are definitely worth mentioning to ensure we avoid doing the same.
I was shocked to read that 43% of Americans aged 16 and older are only at the literacy level similar to an eight grader (Nielsen, Page 265). Even more sad, on Page 268, Nielsen uses an example of the HealthLink site, but writes "It is written at about a grade 12 reading level, which sadly, is beyond the capabilities of many high school graduates in the U.S." That makes me feel really, really bad for our country, though, puts a damp perspective on writing for the web. If that is the type of audience we have to cater our designs and writing toward, its good knowledge to know.
Journalism is extremely similar to writing for the web. You learn how to write concisely. You learn how to organize information and write so that everyone in your audience will be able to read and understand the material, all qualities that Nielsen suggests are key for web writing. Hopefully my studies in Journalism will aid me as I progress in the world of online content production.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
4 comments:
As a journalism student in my undergrad days and a reporter, I agree that the journalistic style of writing fits nicely with web content production. Following the fule of the five W's is a great way to achieve clear and concise writing on the web. I also think the talent of writing headlines is also easily transferable to the web as it fullfills the need to be catchy yet informative at the same time.
According to Nielsen, "43% of Americans aged 16 and older are only at the literacy level similar to an eight grader". That's sad, but unfortunately, true. For some, the statistics are even worse. My father taught English at an inner-city high school for many years, and most of his students could not read beyond the fourth-grade level. I also work at a university which receives many applications from international students. It's telling when foreign-born speakers of English score twice as high on the SATs than their American counterparts who are native speakers. Perhaps someday we'll raise our standards of education to where they once were, but for now we'll just have to take literacy levels into account when designing our websites.
Corey...I totally agree on the Headline comment...it definitely transcends over to the web. It's good to be catchy, esp when writing for sites or blogs, etc
According to Nielsen, "43% of Americans aged 16 and older are only at the literacy level similar to an eight grader" that is crazy. What happens to people who come to this country and do not speak any english?
Post a Comment