Alice E. Fugate

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We’ve all fought with poorly-written Web sites. Some, filled with marketing hype, are strong on promises but weak on facts. Others lovingly focus on the technical tidbits their Webhead designers find fascinating, but fail to provide basic information. Seems like far too many Web sites tell you everything except what you want to know.

You know how you seethe after navigating a particularly frustrating site. How can you present information so your visitors don't end up feeling the same way?

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"Like Ferrets After Two Cups Of Cappuccino"
First, consider how people typically use a Web site.

We may fondly believe we are designing a well-ordered site that readers will peruse with careful attention, progressing down a page in logical sequence and finally clicking on a judiciously selected link. The reality is that most visitors move through a site by zigzagging, backtracking, and clicking in rapid succession on items that grab their interest.

Bill Miller, User Interface Design Specialist at financial firm Edward Jones, compares these navigation patterns to "a bunch of ferrets after drinking two cups of cappuccino." Visitors seem to change direction almost randomly, with caffeine-crazed speed.

It isn’t totally random, of course; certain elements on a Web site are more apt to attract a visitor’s interest than others. One time-honored attention-grabber, for example, is the word "sex." Another is the person's own name. In addition, most visitors have a mental list of terms, whether conscious or unconscious, for which they are searching. They glance at the home page, quickly scan some of the text, then click on the first link that matches an item on their mental list. Fact is, most people never look at a sizable proportion of a page. Even in online newspapers, they seldom read an entire article from start to finish.

If the first link they choose proves irrelevant, users back up and click on the next likely match they see. This process continues until they find what they're looking for, or get frustrated enough to leave for another site.

While on a site, what do people really look at? This depends on the type of site. One study which tracked eye movements found that 78 percent of visitors to news sites focused first on the text, especially headlines, summaries, and captions, while only 22 percent looked at graphics first. However, on e-commerce sites the opposite was true; visitors scrutinized product pictures first, then looked at text later.

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Wanted: Convenience And Practical Information
We are a convenience-oriented society (witness our devotion to fast food and drive-through banking.) Not surprisingly, we value the Internet for its convenience. 90 percent of home computer users access the Internet solely to check e-mail and look for information. They seek practical advice and current data, not entertainment.

Home computer users also value the Web for comparison shopping, though not necessarily for buying. Many visitors to e-commerce sites comb assiduously through product information but bail out when they reach the checkout page, presumably to purchase the item in a brick-and-mortar store. There is still widespread reluctance to buy expensive products online, which explains why so many dot-com retailers have trouble showing a profit.

Clearly, you should make your Web site convenient, straightforward, and easy to use. Also, the more solid and reliable your information, the better. Research shows that if an e-commerce site offers good product information, for example, visitors become less price sensitive. Detailed data is especially critical for customers pondering big-ticket purchases, such as major appliances and expensive services.

Beware of filling your site with "happy talk," marketing hyperbole that praises you and your business without offering specifics. Studies show that visitors intensely dislike happy talk, and they don't trust marketing-oriented Web sites. 

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Getting There Is (Not) Half The Fun
Suppose there are two Web sites, each containing identical information. On the first site, visitors' search goes smoothly and they are able to locate the information with relative ease; on the second, they have a difficult time finding data and it takes them longer to reach their goal. Which Web site do you think rates higher?

Indeed, users' experience in navigating a Web site strongly impacts their overall perception of it. They rate an easy-to-use page as informative and trustworthy, while an annoying site quickly loses all credibility. Even if it contains stellar information, visitors dismiss it as unreliable.

The message is clear: It's vital to offer your Web visitors a positive experience. Great information alone is not enough -- you also need to make the process of finding that information pleasant, which means brief. Your visitors want to reach their destination as easily and quickly as possible; they do not want to be entertained en route. 

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Who’s On The Web?
For years, it's been a marketing truism that online consumers were more affluent and educated than the general U.S. population. New research challenges this assumption: Web user demographics now match those of the overall population. The two fastest-growing groups online are seniors and baby boomers.

As Internet access becomes widespread, you would expect that computer users would become more Web-savvy. Does this mean we can start developing more sophisticated sites?

Not really; there is still a steady influx of new users who are just learning how to navigate the Web. Many of these newcomers are late adopters, people who are relatively slow to adopt new technologies and do so only for pragmatic reasons. They view computers as tools, and they definitely are not interested in the latest cyberbells and whistles. Again, they seek solid information, and they want to find it as efficiently as possible.

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So What Works?
When it comes to actually writing for your Web site, how can you apply the research cited above?

• According to some studies, people read 25 percent slower online than they do in print. As a rule of thumb, plan your online content to be only half as long as you'd make it in a print version.

•  A simple, informal writing style works best. Visitors perceive it as easier to read.

• Make it easy for clients to visually scan your site by creating informative headlines, short paragraphs, and bulleted lists. Limit each section of text to 100 words or less.

• Offer concise summaries of long passages, so visitors can choose whether to read in more detail.

• An inverted pyramid writing style -- think of a factual newspaper article -- works best. Present your conclusions first, then details, then background information.

• If you must ask visitors to enter an item of personal information, briefly explain why you need it. When office supplies retailer Staples.com asked visitors to enter their ZIP code, many promptly exited its Web site. The company reduced its abandonment rate by 75 percent after adding an online explanation of why the ZIP code was necessary.

• Test your site, particularly the labels on links. Make sure they’re self-explanatory and clear.

Always remember the importance of download times. As visitors get closer to their goal on a Web site, they become less willing to tolerate slow downloads.

According to one Nielsen study, following guidelines like these can increase online reading speed by 124 percent. Impressive, yes?

Reprinted with permission from INTERCOM, the magazine of the Society for Technical Communication. Arlington, VA, U.S.A.

I would like to thank Bill Miller, User Interface Design Specialist at Edward Jones, for generously contributing information for this article.